The sense of No Ending: The Post/Modern Apocalypse in Shojo Manga of the 1990s.

Master'sMASTER OF ART

Video game subcultures: playing at the periphery of mainstream culture [special issue of GAME Journal]

This issue of GAME Journal offers an overview and a series of case studies on video games from the point of view of subcultural theory. There has been little work in game studies from this perspective, which offers a theoretical frame for the ever growing complexity of the audiences involved with the medium of the video game. The study of subcultures on the other hand has a long standing and complex tradition which culminates in what has been recently defined as the “post-subcultural” theoretical scenario

Introduction: Games and subcultural theory

This issue of GAME Journal offers an overview and a series of case studies on video games from the point of view of subcultural theory. There has been little work in game studies from this perspective, which offers a theoretical frame for the ever growing complexity of the audiences involved with the medium of the video game. The study of subcultures on the other hand has a long standing and complex tradition which culminates in what has been recently defined as the “post-subcultural” theoretical scenari

Imageability and Intelligibility in 3D Game Environments Examining Experiential and Cultural Influence on the Design Process

The games industry has developed online multiplayer three-dimensional game worlds that allow players from different geographical locations to engage in competitive and cooperative gameplay together. This has enabled players from different cultures to inhabit the same virtual game world, bypassing any geographical or cultural boundaries found in the real world. These 3D game worlds ask the player to use the basic principles of spatial awareness and movement from the real world, and are often virtual representations of real world environments. These spaces are designed for players from all nationalities to inhabit concurrently. There is now a need to determine design considerations for these multicultural multiplayer game worlds but any investigation must consider the historical evidence from the games industry of cultural differences in gameplay preferences. This thesis discusses the effect of cultural knowledge on the spatial design and interpretation of three-dimensional game environments that are based on real world affordances. A new methodology for the comparative analysis of the design of three-dimensional game environments is established using Space Syntax metrics. This facilitates the discussion of cultural models applied to design thinking for the implementation and interpretation of game environments. Through spatial metrics the analysis of the intelligibility underlying three-dimensional game environments is correlated to the imageability of the projected two-dimensional screen image. The application of this methodology to internationally popular, and culturally specific, game environments establishes new knowledge on tacit cultural influences within game design processes. The analysed intelligibility of the environments indicates cognitive differences between Eastern and Western cultures, already recognised in the interpretation of two-dimensional imagery, also exist within the design and interpretation of three-dimensional game spaces. This study establishes a new methodology through the analysis of intelligibility for design research into game environments. The resulting evaluation of tacit cultural influences within the design of the environments establishes new cultural differences and commonalities. These design characteristics can inform future game design methodologies within industry for the design and implementation of multicultural game environments

Soulful bodies and superflat temporalities: a nomadology of the otaku database of world history at the ends of history

This thesis is a philosophical engagement with the popular, low, and vernacular theories of History performed and expressed within contemporary Japanese manga (‘comics’) and anime (‘limited animation’), and most importantly, in the global production and consumption of otaku (‘manga and anime fan’) cultural and media ecologies. My project is rooted in a reading of the post-structural theoretical inquiries of Gilles Deleuze in parallel with what media theorist McKenzie Wark calls ‘otaku philosophy’ to examine how both high and low theories articulate anxieties and fascinations with the global theoretical discourses on ‘the ends of History’ and the imminent demise of industrial modernity. The first portion of the thesis is dedicated to a reading of the Japanese counter-cultural manga movement called gekiga (‘dramatic pictures’). In traversing gekiga’s post-war lineages to its revival in the medievalism of otaku artists Miura Kentarō and Yukimura Makoto, the first part postulates on what an anti-modern, anti-historical approach – or what Deleuze and Guattari call a nomadology – might look and feel like as it is mediated in the manga form. The second portion of the thesis examines the way in which Japanese anime mobilises the philosophies of nomadology in its filmic form and transmedial properties. In a critical assessment of the anime works of the otaku-founded media corporation Type-Moon, this section explores the Fate series alongside Deleuzian film and media philosophies to explore the infinite potentialities and recursive limitations of otaku nomadologies as they materialise beyond the screen. By reassessing the rise of otaku culture as a vernacular, global, and cosmopolitan rise in the critique of modernity and History, this thesis hopes to explore how transcultural and transmedial fan philosophies of historicity, memory, and temporality can be recontextualised within current academic debates about the efficacy of post-national historiographic pedagogies explored in the fields of postcolonial studies, comparative studies, global studies, and media studies

Virtual Worlds Apart : A Comparative Study on Digital Games in Japan and the West

Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on laadullista ja vertailevaa tutkimusta käyttämällä löytää eroja japanilaisten ja länsimaisten digitaalisten pelien ja pelikulttuurien välillä, ja tarjota tärkeää tietoa sekä tutkijoille että pelifirmoille. Työn tieteenaloja ovat pelitutkimus ja kulttuuriantropologia. Tutkimuksessa analysoidaan kahdeksaatoista japanilaista ja länsimaista peliä, jotka on julkaistu vuosien 1996 ja 2014 välillä, mutta näiden tapaustutkimusten lisäksi analyysissä on käytetty myös muita digitaalisia pelejä tutkimustuloksien vahvistamiseksi. Materiaali koostuu myös useista kirjoista, akateemisista tutkimuksista, artikkeleista, myyntiluvuista, haastatteluista ja aiheisiin liittyvistä nettisivuista, joiden avulla syvennetään kuvaa pelisuunnittelusta, japanilaisesta ja länsimaisesta kulttuureista ja arvoista, hahmosuunnittelusta sekä muista aiheeseen liittyvistä tekijöistä. Työssä käyttyjen myyntilukujen mukaan japanilaiset ja länsimaiset pelaajat suosivat toisistaan poikkeavia pelialustoja ja peligenrejä. Sen lisäksi tapausanalyysit ja muut työssä tutkitut pelit sekä lähdeaineisto osoittavat, että japanilaisten ja länsimaisten pelien pelimekaniikkojen ja muiden pelin sisäisten elementtien välillä on valtavia eroja. Ensiksikin japanilaiset pelit käyttävät kolmannen persoonan kuvakulmaa siinä missä ensimmäisen persoonan ja kolmannen persoonan kuvakulman käytön osuus on jakautunut suhteellisen tasaisesti länsimaisten pelien välillä. Toisekseen suurin osa tutkituista länsimaisista peleistä tarjoaa pelaajalleen valtavat määrät vapautta pelihahmon suunnittelun ja kehittämisen, dialogivalintojen ja tarinaan vaikuttavien päätöksien muodossa, mutta tutkitut japanilaiset pelit sen sijaan käyttävät valmiiksi luotuja hahmoja, eivätkä anna mahdollisuutta vaikuttaa keskustelujen tai juonen sisältöön. Myös valmiiksi luotujen hahmojen välillä on suuria eroja tutkittujen länsimaisten ja japanilaisten pelien välillä, ja näitä eroja esitellään melko yksityiskohtaisesti työssä. Tämän lisäksi analysoidut länsimaiset pelit käyttävät suhteellisen fotorealistista 3D-grafiikkaa ja realistisia tai ”fantasiarealistisia” olentoja ja puitteita siinä missä analysoitujen japanilaisten pelien grafiikat ottavat useimmiten vaikutteita japanilaisista sarjakuvista ja puitteet ja olennot ovat mielikuvituksellisia. Myös taistelutilanteet ovat erilaisia näiden pelien välillä. Tutkitut japanilaiset pelit sisältävät usein vuoropohjaisia taisteluja erillisessä taistelumoodissa, mutta länsimaiset pelaajat vaikuttavat suosivan reaaliaikaisten komentojen syöttöä ja sitä, että näkevät viholliset jo kartalla. Lisäksi tallennusmekaniikat poikkeavat toisistaan, sillä lähes kaikki tutkitut länsimaiset pelit antavat pelaajan tallentaa pelin vapaasti milloin tahansa, mutta japanilaiset pelit käyttävät sekä tallennuspisteitä että vapaata tallennusta yhtälailla. Siinä missä tutkitut länsimaiset pelit vaikuttavat korostavan yksilön kyvykkyyttä, hahmot japanilaisissa peleissä panostavat yhteistyöhön ja muiden auttamiseen. Japanilaisissa peleissä vältetään myös graafista väkivaltaa, seksuaalisia teemoja ja rikollisuutta, mutta länsimaisissa peleissä näitä esiintyy. Suurin osa työssä esiintyneistä japanilaisista peleistä sisältää mekaniikkoja, jotka liittyvät esineiden tai olentojen keräilyyn, sekä hahmoja, jotka sopivat tuotteistamiseen useiden massamediakanavien avulla, mikä tekee hahmosuunnittelusta erityisen tärkeää japanissa myytävissä peleissä.This thesis is a comparative and qualitative study of Japanese and Western digital games and gaming cultures with the focus on the Japanese video games market. The objective is to find differences between Japanese and Western games and gaming cultures, and the thesis falls into the academic fields of game studies and cultural anthropology. This study attempts to give essential information for a Western game studio attempting to create commercial success in Japan, and to researchers of digital games or Japanese culture. The mechanics and in-game elements of 18 critically acclaimed and commercially successful Western and Japanese video games published between 1996 and 2014 are analyzed, and various other game titles of various genres are used to support or to counter the findings. To gain an understanding of game design, Japanese and Western cultural values, character design and other factors, several books, academic researches, articles, sales data, and different web pages related to the issue are studied alongside these games. Several games industry experts are also interviewed. According to sales data studied in this thesis, Japanese and Western gamers seem to prefer different gaming platforms and game genres. In addition, according to the case studies and other games studied, there are several differences between Japanese and Western digital games regarding game-mechanics, gameplay and other in-game elements. Firstly, Japanese games use a third-person camera whereas the ratio between first-person and third-person perspective is somewhat equally divided among Western games. In most of the Western games studied the player is offered significant freedom in the form of dialogue options, avatar customization and development, and choices which changed the course of the storyline and game-world. Instead in the Japanese games researched the protagonist is pre-determined, the game offers no dialogue options, and the player is not able to affect the storyline. There are also significant differences between the pre-determined player characters of Western and Japanese games. Furthermore, Western games seem to offer relatively photorealistic graphics and realistic or fantasy-realistic creatures and settings while the graphics in Japanese games are commonly cartoon-like and the games are recurrently situated in fantasy settings with imaginative creatures. Combat situations are also handled differently. Japanese games frequently use turn-based combat situated in a separate combat mode whereas Western gamers seem to prefer seeing the enemies on a map and issue commands in real-time. Saving mechanics also differ in that Western games commonly allow the player to save the game at any point whereas there is an equal division between saving points and being able to save freely among Japanese games. In addition, the characters in Japanese games are likely to co-operate and help other characters within the game while Western games seem to emphasize individual prowess. Moreover, there is a clear aversion to crime, graphic violence and sexual themes in Japanese games whereas some Western games include this kind of content. Finally, a lot of Japanese games seem to promote mechanics related to collecting creatures or objects, and characters suitable for cross-media commodification, making character design in these games extremely important.