319 research outputs found

    CREATING A COHERENT SCORE: THE MUSIC OF SINGLE-PLAYER FANTASY COMPUTER ROLE-PLAYING GAMES

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    This thesis provides a comprehensive exploration into the music of the ludic genre (Hourigan, 2005) known as a Computer Role-Playing Game (CRPG) and its two main sub-divisions: Japanese and Western Role-Playing Games (JRPGs & WRPGs). It focuses on the narrative category known as genre fiction, concentrating on fantasy fiction (Turco, 1999) and seeks to address one overall question: How do fantasy CRPG composers incorporate the variety of musical material needed to create a coherent score across the JRPG and WRPG divide? Seven main chapters form the thesis text. Chapter One provides an introduction to the thesis, detailing the research contributions in addition to outlining a variety of key terms that must be understood to continue with the rest of the text. A database accompanying this thesis showcases the vast range of CRPGs available; a literature review tackles relevant existing materials. Chapters Two and Three seek to provide the first canonical history of soundtracks used in CRPGs by dissecting typical narrative structures for games so as to provide context to their musical scores. Through analysis of existing game composer interviews, cultural influences are revealed. Chapters Four and Five mirror one another with detailed discussion respectively regarding JRPG and WRPG music including the influence that anime and Hollywood cinema have had upon them. In Chapter Six, the use of CRPG music outside of video games is explored, particularly the popularity of JRPG soundtracks in the concert hall. Chapter Seven concludes the thesis, summarising research contributions achieved and areas for future work. Throughout these chapters, the core task is to explain how the two primary sub-genres of CRPGs parted ways and why the music used to accompany these games differs so drastically

    Turn-Based War Chess Model and Its Search Algorithm per Turn

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    War chess gaming has so far received insufficient attention but is a significant component of turn-based strategy games (TBS) and is studied in this paper. First, a common game model is proposed through various existing war chess types. Based on the model, we propose a theory frame involving combinational optimization on the one hand and game tree search on the other hand. We also discuss a key problem, namely, that the number of the branching factors of each turn in the game tree is huge. Then, we propose two algorithms for searching in one turn to solve the problem: (1) enumeration by order; (2) enumeration by recursion. The main difference between these two is the permutation method used: the former uses the dictionary sequence method, while the latter uses the recursive permutation method. Finally, we prove that both of these algorithms are optimal, and we analyze the difference between their efficiencies. An important factor is the total time taken for the unit to expand until it achieves its reachable position. The factor, which is the total number of expansions that each unit makes in its reachable position, is set. The conclusion proposed is in terms of this factor: Enumeration by recursion is better than enumeration by order in all situations

    Perceptual fail: Female power, mobile technologies and images of self

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    Like a biological species, images of self have descended and modified throughout their journey down the ages, interweaving and recharging their viability with the necessary interjections from culture, tools and technology. Part of this journey has seen images of self also become an intrinsic function within the narratives about female power; consider Helen of Troy “a face that launched a thousand ships” (Marlowe, 1604) or Kim Kardashian (KUWTK) who heralded in the mass mediated ‘selfie’ as a social practice. The interweaving process itself sees the image oscillate between naturalized ‘icon’ and idealized ‘symbol’ of what the person looked like and/or aspired to become. These public images can confirm or constitute beauty ideals as well as influence (via imitation) behaviour and mannerisms, and as such the viewers belief in the veracity of the representative image also becomes intrinsically political manipulating the associated narratives and fostering prejudice (Dobson 2015, Korsmeyer 2004, Pollock 2003). The selfie is arguably ‘a sui generis,’ whilst it is a mediated photographic image of self, it contains its own codes of communication and decorum that fostered the formation of numerous new digital communities and influenced new media aesthetics . For example the selfie is both of nature (it is still a time based piece of documentation) and known to be perceptually untrue (filtered, modified and full of artifice). The paper will seek to demonstrate how selfie culture is infused both by considerable levels of perceptual failings that are now central to contemporary celebrity culture and its’ notion of glamour which in turn is intrinsically linked (but not solely defined) by the province of feminine desire for reinvention, transformation or “self-sexualisation” (Hall, West and McIntyre, 2012). The subject, like the Kardashians or selfies, is divisive. In conclusion this paper will explore the paradox of the perceptual failings at play within selfie culture more broadly, like ‘Reality TV’ selfies are infamously fake yet seem to provide Debord’s (1967) illusory cultural opiate whilst fulfilling a cultural longing. Questions then emerge when considering the narrative impact of these trends on engendered power structures and the traditional status of illusion and narrative fiction

    Play and Procedural Rhetoric in Composition Coursework: A Rhetorical Analysis of Trivial Pursuit Instructions

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    The rhetorical strategies used in the design of Trivial Pursuit instruction sheets were studied. The textual, visual, and procedural elements of Trivial Pursuit instruction sheets published between 1984 and 2009 revealed a series of revisions that accounted for sociocultural and historical contexts. Results indicated the potential for designing instruction sheets that are both persuasive and practical. Implications for the design of academic assignment prompts and coursework are discussed

    A structure for architectural innovation: Mindshaping

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    In the process of research, it is noticed that practice works are morphing from one design emphasis to another. It is speculated that we are inadvertently mindshaped by our activities and by our environment, and by our actions we reshape the environment and create a culture. Through concentrated practice, we convert these experiences into metaphors and through heightened combinatory cognitive skills we reassemble these metaphors to arrive at innovation. The process of innovation is developed from ordinary thinking. The PhD seeks to clarify the forces that shape our minds and ways to harness these forces through the avenue of practice in the following manner: - Wittgensteinian Background. It uses Wittgenstein’s later remarks to provide legitimacy to the thinking adopted for this submission. - The Topography of Innovation. This summarises the chain of selected contemporary scholarship and provide definitions to terminologies. - Changing the Mental Geography. It uses contemporary ideas to explain the structure of mental geography in the act of innovation, taking away the myths. - Creating Mental Contexts. This summarises the theoretical basis for mindshaping in individual practitioners, using Boden’s work to represent collective thinking behind the theories. - Changing the Mental Contexts. It summarises the role that experience plays in mindshaping. - Innovation in the Context of Practice. It summarises the theoretical position for innovation in practice. - Mindshaping in Practice. This section uses the examples of personal experiences to fortify the theoretical points made in the research: that if any innovation were to happen, it happens out of ordinary thinking and they are externally influenced and changes are incremental. - Mindshaping: Wittgenstein’s Perspective. A loop-back to the Wittgenstein’s perspective to further the discussion of mindshaping in practice. - Shaping the External Context. This discusses the necessity of shaping the external context and the ways it is done. - Conclusion. A picture of the findings in relation to present culture, a summary of what takes place in mindshaping, and calling upon of metaphors to reach beyond the mental limits

    IMAGINING, GUIDING, PLAYING INTIMACY: - A Theory of Character Intimacy Games -

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    Within the landscape of Japanese media production, and video game production in particular, there is a niche comprising video games centered around establishing, developing, and fulfilling imagined intimate relationships with anime-manga characters. Such niche, although very significant in production volume and lifespan, is left unexplored or underexplored. When it is not, it is subsumed within the scope of wider anime-manga media. This obscures the nature of such video games, alternatively identified with descriptors including but not limited to ‘visual novel’, ‘dating simulator’ and ‘adult computer game’. As games centered around developing intimacy with characters, they present specific ensembles of narrative content, aesthetics and software mechanics. These ensembles are aimed at eliciting in users what are, by all intents and purposes, parasocial phenomena towards the game’s characters. In other words, these software products encourage players to develop affective and bodily responses towards characters. They are set in a way that is coherent with shared, circulating scripts for sexual and intimate interaction to guide player imaginative action. This study defines games such as the above as ‘character intimacy games’, video game software where traversal is contingent on players knowingly establishing, developing, and fulfilling intimate bonds with fictional characters. To do so, however, player must recognize themselves as playing that type of game, and to be looking to develop that kind of response towards the game’s characters. Character Intimacy Games are contingent upon player developing affective and bodily responses, and thus presume that players are, at the very least, non-hostile towards their development. This study approaches Japanese character intimacy games as its corpus, and operates at the intersection of studies of communication, AMO studies and games studies. The study articulates a research approach based on the double need of approaching single works of significance amidst a general scarcity of scholarly background on the subject. It juxtaposes data-driven approaches derived from fan-curated databases – The Visual Novel Database and Erogescape -Erogē Hyƍron KĆ«kan – with a purpose-created ludo-hermeneutic process. By deploying an observation of character intimacy games through fan-curated data and building ludo-hermeneutics on the resulting ontology, this study argues that character intimacy games are video games where traversal is contingent on players knowingly establishing, developing, and fulfilling intimate bonds with fictional characters and recognizing themselves as doing so. To produce such conditions, the assemblage of software mechanics and narrative content in such games facilitates intimacy between player and characters. This is, ultimately, conductive to the emergence of parasocial phenomena. Parasocial phenomena, in turn, are deployed as an integral assumption regarding player activity within the game’s wider assemblage of narrative content and software mechanics
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