Which game narratives do adolescents of different gameplay and sociodemographic backgrounds prefer? a mixed-methods analysis

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate which narrative elements of digital game narratives are preferred by the general adolescent population, and to examine associations with gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and gameplay frequency. Further, the study aims to discuss how results can be translated to serious digital games. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Adolescents were recruited through school to complete a survey on narrative preferences in digital games. The survey included questions on sociodemographic information, frequency of gameplay, and an open-ended question on what could be an appealing narrative for them. Data were analyzed in a mixed-methods approach, using thematic analysis and chi-square analyses to determine narrative preferences and the associations between game narrative elements and player characteristics (gender, SES, and frequency of gameplay). RESULTS: The sample consisted of 446 adolescents (12-15 years old) who described 30 narrative subthemes. Preferences included human characters as protagonists; nonhuman characters only as antagonists; realistic settings, such as public places or cities; and a strong conflict surrounding crime, catastrophe, or war. Girls more often than boys defined characters by their age, included avatars, located the narrative in private places, developed profession-related skills, and included a positive atmosphere. Adolescents of nonacademic education more often than adolescents of academic education defined characters by criminal actions. Infrequent players more often included human characters defined by their age than frequent players. After performing a Bonferroni correction, narrative preferences for several gender differences remained. CONCLUSION: Different narrative elements related to subgroups of adolescents by gender, SES, and frequency of gameplay. Customization of narratives in serious digital health games should be warranted for boys and girls; yet, further research is needed to specify how to address girls in particular

Using gaming paratexts in the literacy classroom

This paper illustrates how digital game paratexts may effectively be used in the high school English to meet a variety of traditional and multimodal literacy outcomes. Paratexts are texts that refer to digital gaming and game cultures, and using them in the classroom enables practitioners to focus on and valorise the considerable literacies and skills that young people develop and deploy in their engagement with digital gaming and game cultures. The effectiveness of valorizing paratexts in this manner is demonstrated through two examples of assessment by students in classes where teachers had designed curriculum and assessment activities using paratexts

"A step into the abyss" Transmedia in the UK Games and Television Industries

This article uses a media industries studies perspective to investigate the current state of transmedia production in the UK. Analysing the discursive statements of a range of industry participants from both UK television and games industries, the article reveals a series of contradictions and misunderstandings that may be limiting the effectiveness of multi-platform projects. By comparing overlapping discursive patterns around attitudes to risk, measures of success, authorship between the two industries, and repeated concerns over the balance of creative and commercial imperatives, the article argues that existing hierarchies of power between media industries threaten to derail future convergence

Event-sequences, plots and narration in computer games

Starting with the debate between ludologists and narratologists this essay tries to show that there is a narrative aspect in computer games which has nothing to do with background stories and cut scenes. A closer analysis of two sequences, taken from the MMORPG Everquest II and the adventure game Black Mirror, is the basis for a distinction between three aspects of this kind of narrative in computer games: the sequence of activities of the player, the sequence of events as it is determined by the mechanics of the game and this sequence of events understood as a plot, that is as a sequence of chronologically ordered and causally linked events. This kind of narrative is quite distant to the prototypical narrative which is the basis of most of the narratology. But actually all media, not only computer games, need their own narratology

An analysis of persistent non-player characters in the first-person gaming genre 1998-2007: a case for the fusion of mechanics and diegetics

This paper describes the results of an analysis of persistent non-player characters (PNPCs) in the first-person gaming genre 1998-2007. Assessing the role, function, gameplay significance and representational characteristics of these critical important gameplay objects from over 34 major releases provides an important set of baseline data within which to situate further research. This kind of extensive, genre-wide analysis is under-represented in game studies, yet it represents a hugely important process in forming clear and robust illustrations of the medium to support understanding. Thus, I offer a fragment of this illustration, demonstrating that many of the cultural and diegetic qualities of PNPCs are a product of a self-assembling set of archetypes formed from gameplay requirements

Time is wasting: con/sequence and s/pace in the Saw series

Horror film sequels have not received as much serious critical attention as they deserve this is especially true of the Saw franchise, which has suffered a general dismissal under the derogatory banner Torture Porn. In this article I use detailed textual analysis of the Saw series to expound how film sequels employ and complicate expected temporal and spatial relations in particular, I investigate how the Saw sequels tie space and time into their narrative, methodological and moral sensibilities. Far from being a gimmick or a means of ensuring loyalty to the franchise (one has to be familiar with the events of previous episodes to ascertain what is happening), it is my contention that the Saw cycle directly requests that we examine the nature of space and time, in terms of both cinematic technique and our lived, off-screen temporal/spatial orientations

Interventions for reducing sedentary behaviour in community-dwelling older adults

This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (Intervention). The objectives are as follows: To identify the effects and assess the effectiveness of interventions to reduce sedentary behaviour (total sedentary time and the pattern of accumulation of sedentary time) in older adults. To summarise the effects of interventions to reduce sedentary behaviour on quality of life, depression, and health status in older adults. To summarise any evidence on the cost-effectiveness of interventions that reduce sedentary behaviour in older adults

Hokey Religions: Star Wars and Star Trek in the Age of Reboots

Disney’s recent “decanonization” of the decades-old Star Wars “Expanded Universe” in preparation for the release of The Force Awakens once again raises the question of the triangular relationship between the corporate ownership of intellectual property, the mainstream audience to whom the blockbuster films are addressed, and the much smaller hardcore fanbase whose loyalty sustains a franchise during its lean years. Considering fandom investment in the processes of world-building and continuity construction across the landscape of SF media forms, this article will focus specifically on two key franchises in mainstream SF, each in its own way paradigmatic of the “merely” science fictional, and each of which has recently undertaken a radical revision of its “expanded universe”: Star Wars and Star Trek. A concluding discussion extends these observations to other two franchises: Superman comics and the long-running British television series Doctor Who

Playing with the future: social irrealism and the politics of aesthetics

In this paper we wish to explore the political possibilities of video games. Numerous scholars now take seriously the place of popular culture in the remaking of our geographies, but video games still lag behind. For us, this tendency reflects a general response to them as imaginary spaces that are separate from everyday life and 'real' politics. It is this disconnect between abstraction and lived experience that we complicate by defining play as an event of what Brian Massumi calls lived abstraction. We wish to short-circuit the barriers that prevent the aesthetic resonating with the political and argue that through their enactment, video games can animate fantastical futures that require the player to make, and reflect upon, profound ethical decisions that can be antagonistic to prevailing political imaginations. We refer to this as social irrealism to demonstrate that reality can be understood through the impossible and the imagined

How Lego Constructs a Cross-promotional Franchise with Video Games

The purpose of this project is to examine how the cross-promotional Lego video game series functions as the site of a complex relationship between a major toy manufacturer and several media conglomerates simultaneously to create this series of licensed texts. The Lego video game series is financially successful outselling traditionally produced licensed video games. The Lego series also receives critical acclaim from both gaming magazine reviews and user reviews. By conducting both an industrial and audience address study, this project displays how texts that begin as promotional products for Hollywood movies and a toy line can grow into their own franchise of releases that stills bolster the original work. This study also examines why Lego was chosen to co-brand with Disney, Warner Bros., and Lucas Films to create these cross-promotional games. The target audiences and industrial strategy behind these games directly affects the difference between these texts and other licensed adaptation video games on the market. This thesis also analyzes the discourses surrounding the Lego video games to discover what these texts offer above and beyond other licensed games that makes them a unique as cross-promotional products. By using media studies concepts such as transmedia storytelling and paratexts, this study seeks to determine how audiences construct meaning from the Lego adaptations. Jonathan Gray\u27s notion of paratexts provides the groundwork for this meaning construction. The Lego video games edit the original franchise content to make family-friendly changes, offer the opportunity to create and manipulate the gaming environment, and offer humor through parody, which positions the target audience, young consumers who have not been exposed to the films, to understand the content in a way the Hollywood movie may not offer. In the same manner, parents/adults who have seen the films will have a different experience from interacting with the Lego games. Lego games rejuvenate the older franchises through the parents/adults reexperiencing the material, recruit younger consumers into the franchises with the Lego brand, and entice older non-gaming adults into gaming through the familiar licensed material. This thesis determines that the importance of these video games lies in their accessibility to a mass audience, their ability to function as an independent franchise of releases, and as recruitment tools for not only the licensing franchises and Lego, but for non-gamers to start playing