Video Game Art Reader

This special edition of the VGA Reader, guest-edited by Christopher W. Totten and Enrica Lovaglio Costello, focuses on the connections between video games and architectural design. Each of the essays in this volume engages in critical investigations that reveal how game spaces evoke meaning, enhance game narratives, and explore unconventional themes

Game Production Studies

Video games have entered the cultural mainstream and in terms of economic profits they now rival established entertainment industries such as film or television. As careers in video game development become more common, so do the stories about precarious working conditions and structural inequalities within the industry. Yet, scholars have largely overlooked video game production cultures in favor of studying games themselves and player audiences. In Game Production Studies, an international group of established and emerging researchers takes a closer look at the everyday realities of video game production, ranging from commercial industries to independent creators and cultural intermediaries. Across sixteen chapters, the authors deal with issues related to labour, game development, monetization and publishing, as well as local specificities. As the first edited collection dedicated solely to video game production, this volume provides a timely resource for anyone interested in how games are made and at what costs

Nordic Childhoods in the Digital Age

"This book adds to the international research literature on contemporary Nordic childhoods in the context of fast-evolving technologies. It draws on the workshop program of the Nordic Research Network on Digital Childhoods funded by the Joint Committee for Nordic research councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS-HS) during the years 2019–2021. Bringing together researchers from Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland, the book addresses pressing issues around children’s communication, learning and education in the digital age. The volume sheds light on cultural values, educational policies and conceptions of children and childhood, and child–media relationships inherent in Nordic societies. The book argues for the importance of understanding local cultures, values and communication practices that make up contemporary digital childhoods and extends current discourses on children’s screen time to bring in new insights about the nature of children’s digital engagement. This book will appeal to researchers, graduate students, educators and policy makers in the fields of childhood education, educational technology and communication.

Game design for a serious game to help learn programming

Tese de mestrado. Multimédia. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 201

Star Wars and the History of Transmedia Storytelling

The collection places Star Wars at the center of those studies’ projects by examining video games, novels and novelizations, comics, advertising practices, television shows, franchising models, aesthetic and economic decisions, fandom and cultural responses, and other aspects of Star Wars and its world-building in their multiple contexts of production, distribution, and reception. In emphasizing that Star Wars is both a media franchise and a transmedia storyworld, Star Wars and the History of Transmedia Storytelling demonstrates the ways in which transmedia storytelling and the industrial logic of media franchising have developed in concert over the past four decades, as multinational corporations have become the central means for subsidizing, profiting from, and selling modes of immersive storyworlds to global audiences. By taking this dual approach, the book focuses on the interconnected nature of corporate production, fan consumption, and transmedia world-building. As such, this collection grapples with the historical, cultural, aesthetic, and political-economic implications of the relationship between media franchising and transmedia storytelling as they are seen at work in the world’s most profitable transmedia franchise

Deus Ex Machinima: A Rhetorical Analysis of User-Generated Machinima

Beginning with corporate demonstrations and continuously evolving into today, machinima has become a major expressive art form for the gamer generation. Machinima is the user-centered production of video presentations using pre-rendered animated content, as generated from video games. The term \u27machinima\u27 is a combination of \u27machine\u27 (from which the video content is derived) and \u27cinema\u27 (the ultimate end product). According to Paul Marino and other members of the machinima community, Hugh Hancock, the creator of Machinima.com, first coined the term in 2000. Video productions of this kind have been used in various capacities for the past several years, including instruction or marketing, as well as rapid prototyping of large-scale cinema projects (Marino). In this thesis, I will briefly outline the current research on machinima. I will then build a methodology for my own rhetorical analysis of machinima as they formulate the promotion of their arguments. This methodology will include examples from major rhetorical theorists, including Lloyd Bitzer, Kenneth Burke, and Gunther Kress and Theo VanLeeuwan, among others. I will then apply my analytical tools to modern user-generated machinima from a variety of sources as a series of case studies. These cases include non-profit and for-profit examples, as well as educational and entertainment examples. Finally, I will explain how this framework may be used as a guideline for rhetorically sound and effective machinima

Exploring Language Learning with Mobile Technology: A Qualitative Content Analysis of Vocabulary Learning Apps for ESL Learners in Canada

Learning apps are becoming ubiquitous in and out of the classroom. While the number of ESL learnings apps has been increasing dramatically, not much information is available for teachers and learners to evaluate the quality of these apps. The purpose of this study was to explore the apps that are most commonly recommended for language learning, investigate features of commonly recommended ESL learning apps, and develop an app evaluation tool that might inform selection of ESL learning apps for use in teaching or recommendations to parents and learners. This study used qualitative content analysis to study selected vocabulary learning apps. Findings show that there is a lack of ESL reading and writing apps, and the selected apps do not have all the exemplar app features in curriculum, pedagogy, and design. The author developed an app evaluation checklist based on the existing literature, Ontario ESL curriculum, and on the emergent app features in the findings. The findings of this study have potential to guide administrators, policy makers, educators, teachers, and individual learners when selecting quality, productive, and well-designed apps