’Feel It, Don’t Think: the Significance of Affect in the Study of Digital Games

As a discourse, digital game studies is still in the process of formation, charting its terrain, defining its terms, and formalizing its methodologies. Even at this early stage, however, the field has already accrued a number of important grounding assumptions and embedded paradigms. Key among these is linear or Albertian perspective, which functions as a structural model for gamespace, and, to a large extent, as an epistemological model for the discourse that studies it. Digital gamespace is a derivative of Renaissance pictorial space. It is designed by and for subjects that belong to a culture of visuality, and know how to ‘read’ an image and to order its space rationally. To date, this visually biased, structural/semiotic angle has tended to dominate the methodological side of game studies. Structure – rhetorical, narrative, taxonomical – is a key concern in much current research, with games scholars calling for the construction of unified vocabularies, taxonomies, rhetorical strategies, and definitions in the field of games and game design. Structural and semiotic approaches have also been used to theorize the experience of gameplay itself, with linguistic and rhetorical models brought to bear on the issue of enjoyment in gaming, and psychoanalytic frameworks used to investigate the relationship between player, character, and gamespace. Approaches to gaming and interactivity remain incomplete, however, "if they operate only on the semantic or semiotic level, however that level is defined (linguistically, logically, narratologically, ideologically, or all of these in combination, as a Symbolic)." (Massumi 27) As any player knows, the rush you get from a good game is not confined to the space of the screen; it is a subrational, bodily thing as well, involving phenomenological or affective dimensions which cannot be programmed into a game, but which are nonetheless vital to good gameplay. Affect is key to the perception of images, and to the notion of meaningful interaction with them. While this is true of any image, it is impossible to ignore in digital games, where the user engages dynamically with moving images. What is lost in structural or semiotic approaches is precisely this sense of image perception as an embodied ’event’. Most games researchers are players as well, and the field of game studies is underpinned by a shared – if not yet widely acknowledged – recognition of digital games as rule-based systems that players interact with on an affective plane, in real space and time. Nonetheless, the notion of affect has yet to be theoretically unpacked to any significant degree digital games researchers, and there is little concensus in the field regarding the definition of the term, which is widely used as a synonym for emotion. As it will be understood here, however, affect is not the same thing as emotion. Affect is a way of describing the ’feel’ or intensity of a game, and as such it differs from the sociocultural capture or qualification of this intensity – the manifest content (narrative, symbolic, emotional, or otherwise) of a game. Affect refers to the unquantifiable features of a game – those phenomenological aspects of interactivity that are difficult to describe and to model theoretically, but which nonetheless make a game come alive. While narrative and structural approaches have much to reveal about the content of a game, they are far less articulate when it comes to discussing gameplay in affective terms. As console-based action and FPS games, pervasive games, and other more ’active’ genres become more popular amongst games researchers, however, they bring with them new methodological requirements. The following discussion addresses some of these requirements. Drawing on the theoretical approaches of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Brian Massumi, and examining a variety of digital games and platforms ranging from the cerebral (online chess) to the physically involving (Eye Toy), it looks at interactivity along affective lines, in terms of the embodied nature of image perception and the player’s material relationship to digital technologies. Works Cited: Massumi, Brian. Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation. Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2002

Exploring interactive narrative and ideology in war games

Abstract: Given the popularity of information and communication technologies, it is a time of radical change. People are spending more of their time in virtual worlds and a large part of this time is spent playing games. Hence within this paper, the authors explore the concept of ‘identification’ and ‘representation’ within game narrative with specific reference to ‘interactivity’ and ‘character immersion’. Within the interactive realm of video games, players play an active role in determining the flow and outcome of the story. Critics have argued that games can transmit different ideologies to players. By actively identifying with the characters on screen (and determining their ultimate path) one may argue that playing a game set against a historical backdrop may have an active influence on their ideological perception of the historical events and in turn influence their own identity and how they navigate contemporary society. By using two war game case studies, Middle‐Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Anglo‐Boer War, the authors propose that the interactive nature of video game storytelling infers that narrative can be selfconstructed, especially with the right design choices. But can games arguably be used as a tool for psychological warfare? The authors interrogate the ‘interactive meaning making process’ in the two games; and clarifies it by interviewing a developer of one of the games

Creative Management: Disciplining the Neoliberal Worker

This integrated article dissertation examines some of the new managerial practices that have emerged to handle cognitive capitalism’s ongoing need for creative, flexible labour power. The three articles included in this dissertation offer a glimpse into the widespread processes employed by management to regulate and discipline a workforce that must also be granted a degree of relative flexibility, creativity, and autonomy in order to be effective under post-Fordist conditions of production. The first chapter looks at the emergence of corporate improvisational training at the turn of the twenty-first century as an attempt to cultivate flexible and innovative workers, a move that ultimately succumbs to what Andre Spicer (2013) calls “organizational bullshit”—the deployment of cynical and self-serving discourse that functions to build confidence and legitimacy within workplaces where a clear sense of occupational purpose is lacking. Chapter two explores the recent trend of workplace mindfulness as a specific element of the now-prevalent \u27wellness\u27 discourses, which inevitably work to align workers\u27 personal values with those of their employer. The final chapter involves an analysis of the working conditions of voice-over and motion capture actors in the video game industry and the processes of rationalization and neo-taylorization to which they are subjected

Playing at a Distance

An essential exploration of video game aesthetic that decenters the human player and challenges what it means to play. Do we play video games or do video games play us? Is nonhuman play a mere paradox or the future of gaming? And what do video games have to do with quantum theory? In Playing at a Distance, Sonia Fizek engages with these and many more daunting questions, forging new ways to think and talk about games and play that decenter the human player and explore a variety of play formats and practices that require surprisingly little human action. Idling in clicker games, wandering in walking simulators, automating gameplay with bots, or simply watching games rather than playing them—Fizek shows how these seemingly marginal cases are central to understanding how we play in the digital age. Introducing the concept of distance, Fizek reorients our view of computer-mediated play. To “play at a distance,” she says, is to delegate the immediate action to the machine and to become participants in an algorithmic spectacle. Distance as a media aesthetic framework enables the reader to come to terms with the ambiguity and aesthetic diversity of play. Drawing on concepts from philosophy, media theory, and posthumanism, as well as cultural and film studies, Playing at a Distance invites a wider understanding of what digital games and gaming are in all their diverse experiences and forms. In challenging the common perception of video games as inherently interactive, the book contributes to our understanding of the computer's influence on practices of play—and prods us to think more broadly about what it means to play

Interactive Narratives: The Future of Storytelling

[Abstract] The way we tell stories is in a constant flux of change and evolution, which results in the innovation of narrative and the roles of reader and author. Lately, this innovation has led towards the ascendance of interactive narratives. Thus, this end-of-degree project aims to examine interactive narratives and their relevance in our present and future. Furthermore, my goal is to provide new information and academic research on the topic, to facilitate discussion and bring attention to a narrative form often overlooked for its recentness. Through the analysis of different media with a core interactive element, such as videogames, virtual reality, fanfiction or boardgames, I will illustrate the journey from the first examples of interactive storytelling to the latest. This study will show how authors and readers have adapted to the appeal of interactive stories, and how these stories interconnected the roles of the two. Interactivity, agency, and immersion theories will help illustrate this new reality.Traballo fin de grao (UDC.FIL). Inglés: estudios lingüísticos y literarios. Curso 2019/202

Shifting from Individualism to Genericism: Personalization as a Conspiracy Theory

With severe mistrust around classical approaches to consciousness, this paper claims that arguments around the notion of “personalization” of media or messages are grounded on a misinterpretation. Based on the two presuppositions of respective differentiation of human beings and the power to make choices based on reasoning, these approaches have been the reference for many well-known scientific studies, mainly in the fields of media studies, economics, political sciences, and psychology. Despite refuting their results via meta-analyses, such theories have so far sought to maintain their position by resorting to conspiracy theories, the promotion of which, ironically, leads to the syndrome of skepticism, which supports its origins in a vicious circle. While these approaches have been ubiquitous in so-called cognitive priming, projection of mass movements and political abuses of the concepts such as misinformation or disinformation, the mainstream workouts in the fields including but not limited to Perception Management, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning have significantly relied on both de-individualistic and irrational processes. This article aims to prove that the ontological claims about the centrality of individualism in the latest fields of all media and communication technological procedures are grounded in a conspiracy theory. Relying on the method of epistemological reasoning, this article attempts to prove that individualism and personalization in the field of the media industry are the principal tools of social control through the spread of skepticism, which takes advantage of the fictitious nature of the new media sphere for commercial and political purposes

The Lawless Frontier of Deep Space: Code as Law in EVE Online

This article explores the concepts of player agency with respect to governance and regulation of online games. It considers the unique example of the Council of Stellar Management in EVE Online, and explores the multifaceted role performed by players involved in that Council. In particular, it considers the interaction between code, rules, contracts, and play with respect to EVE Online. This is used as a means to better understand the relations of power generated in game spaces

Dijital Oyunlarda Savaş Anlatısı ve Muhalif Bir Öznellik Biçimi Olarak ‘Kurbanı Oynamak’: This War of Mine

War theme has been narrated in audio-visual, oral, written or interactive forms of media, it became a prevalent resource for narrative level in digital games which also became prevalent after digital revolution and described as interactive dramas. Mainstream game industry placed gamer-subjects frequently as soldiers in war games and represented war with warrior experience limited to obeying military orders given by the game. A digital game titled This War of Mine (Drozdowski, 2016) represents war from war victims’ perspective and draws attention with its endeavour to orient the gamer for making possible ethical choices. In the scope of this research, gamer subjectivity in game text and critical gaming practice are analysed and discussed in the context of the game, This War of Mine, from an ideological perspective.    Bir tema olarak savaş tarih boyunca görsel, işitsel, sözlü, yazılı veya etkileşimli farklı medya biçimleri içinde defalarca anlatısallaştırılmış, dijital devrim sonrasında yaygınlaşan ve etkileşimli drama olarak da nitelendirilen dijital oyunlar içinde öyküsel katmanı oluşturacak yaygın bir kaynak olmuştur. Anaakım oyun endüstrisi savaşı oyunlaştırırken, oyuncu-özneyi sıklıkla asker olarak konumlandırmış, böylece savaşı oyunun verdiği askeri komutlara itaat etmekle sınırlı savaşçı deneyimiyle temsil etmiştir. This War of Mine (Drozdowski, 2016) adlı dijital oyun ise savaşı kurbanların perspektifinden temsil eder ve oyuncuya etik seçimler yapma olanağı sunma çabası ile dikkat çeker. Bu araştırma kapsamında oyuncunun oyun metni içindeki öznelliği ve eleştirel oynama pratiği This War of Mine oyununun etkileşim analizinden yola çıkarak ideolojik perspektiften incelenmiş ve tartışmaya açılmıştır