The expressive power of the Possible Worlds Theory in video games: when narratives become interactive and fictional spaces

The philosophical concept of possible worlds (Lenzen, 2004; Lewis, 1986) has been used in literary studies and narratology (Dolezel, 1998; Eco, 1979) to define the way in which we conceive different narrative possibilities inside the fictional world. In Game Studies, some authors have used this concept to explore the relationship between game design and game experience (Kücklich, 2003; Maietti, 2004; Ryan, 2006), while Jesper Juul (2005) has studied the fictional world evoked by the connection between rules and fiction. In this paper we propose a new approach to video games as ludofictional worlds - a set of possible worlds which generates a game space based on the relationship between fiction and game rules. In accordance with the concepts of minimal departure (Ryan, 1991) and indexical term (Lewis, 1986), the position of the player character determines his/her actual world and the next possible or necessary world. Lastly, we use this model to analyse the video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and show that the possible worlds perspective provides a useful, flexible and modular framework for describing the internal connections between ludofictional worlds and the interactive nature of playable game spaces

The Form of Game Formalism

This article explores how the concept of formalism and the resulting method of formal analysis have been used and applied in the study of digital games. Three types of formalism in game studies are identified based on a review of their uses in the literature, particularly the discussion of essentialism and form that resulted from the narratology-ludology debate: 1) formalism focused on the aesthetic form of the game artifact, 2) formalism as game essentialism, and 3) formalism as a level of abstraction, related to formal language and ontology-like reasoning. These three are discussed in relation to the distinctions between form and matter, in the Aristotelian tradition, to highlight how the method of formal analysis of games appears to be dealing with matter rather than form, on a specific fundamental level of abstraction, and in turn how formal analysis becomes a misleading concept that leads to unnecessary confusion. Finally, the relationship between game essentialism and the more computer science-centric approach to ontology is studied, to account for the contemporary trend of identifying the unique properties of games and opposing them with properties of, e.g., traditional storytelling media like literature and film, explored through their aesthetic form

Narrative patterns in FarCry3

Thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Arts (Digital Arts) to the Faculty of Humanities, School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2016.This paper aims to go down into the rabbit-hole, by analysing the narrative experience derived from games and investigate how it functions in conjunction with the gameplay. This analysis will focus in detail on a case study of Ubisoft's 2012 title Far Cry 3 (FC3). FC3 is a sequel to Far Cry (2004), the original title was developed by Crytek, and produced by Ubisoft. The sequels have been Ubisoft Montreal creations. I have selected FarCry3 as it is commercially successful, as of February 2013 it sold over 4, 5 million copies (Phillips, T. "Far Cry sales hit 4.5 million" 2013). It also received various nominations, including an award for its story, during the 9th British Video Game Awards (Reynolds “Bafta Game Awards 2013” 2012). FC3 can, therefore, be viewed as being indicative of what the populist gaming community desires in a game, an indicator of present trends in narrative development in games. For this paper, I intend to use Hendry Jenkins’ narrative model to analyse how FC3 structured. As a result, illuminating how FC3, manages to engage with a cogent narrative, while operating in conjunction with an engaging game mechanic. I intend to present the structures as they exist within the case study's fictional world. In this research report I will argue that FC3 incorporates multiple narrative structures which promote gameplay. I will play the FC3 critically to gain an overall perspective and through the use of in play videos to select key scenes for analysis within my case study. With the knowledge invested, I intend to apply Jenkins’ narrative architecture in my analysis. [No abstract provided. Information taken from introduction].MT201

Play to win: How competitive modes of play have influenced cultural practice in digital games

The aim of this thesis is to explore the function of emergence and spectatorship as cultural practices within the competitive arena of Blizzard's World of Warcraft (WoW). The game and its peripheral web spaces and paratexts will be subject to both qualitative and quantitative research approaches, including content analysis and autoethnography. Grounded theory content analysis was used to explore emergence in the context of player gameplay tactics (emergent play). It is argued that players who succeed in the game's competitive arena do so on the privilege of effective tactics and a thorough understanding of the game mechanics. Additional insight into the phenomenon of emergence was gained from a study of paratexts and the ways in which emergence conflicts with authorial intent. The ecology of competitive gaming is comprised not only of players but also spectators. Grounded theory content analysis and quantitative analysis were used to examine the cultural practice of spectatorship. Broadcasting platforms (Twitch.tv and YouTube) facilitate indirect player interaction with games. It is my contention that viewers utilise these broadcasts of high-end play as a form of paratext to guide their individual playstyle. Analyses suggest that the spectatorship of live and recorded emergent gameplay is directly linked to the formulation of gameplay tactics. Data also indicated tension between authorial intent and emergent practices. In some instances players worked with developers as co-authors to highlight malfunctioning gameplay mechanics (exposed via emergent play patterns). Other scenarios involved the conveyance of absolute authorial power by Blizzard. As a result of these differing relationships with players, Blizzard appear to have struggled with the implementation of a linear, single-authored experience. Although my own gameplay experiences guided the exploration of emergence and spectatorship, my expertise with the game facilitated a sophisticated mechanical analysis and allowed me to provide novel cultural insights into competitive play.

Mediating the Immediate – Endogenous meanings and simulated narratives in ludic spaces

The thesis discusses games and the gaming experience. It is divided into two main sections; the first examines games in general, while the second concentrates exclusively on electronic games. The text approaches games from two distinct directions by looking at both their spatiality and their narrativity at the same time. These two points of view are combined right from the beginning of the text as they are used in conceptualising the nature of the gaming experience. The purpose of the thesis is to investigate two closely related issues concerning both the field of game studies and the nature of games. In regard to studying games, the focus is placed on the juxtaposition of ludology and narratology, which acts as a framework for looking at gaming. In addition to aiming to find out whether or not it is possible to undermine the said state of affairs through the spatiality of games, the text looks at the interrelationships of games and their spaces as well as the role of narratives in those spaces. The thesis is characterised by discussing alternative points of view and its hypothetical nature. During the text, it becomes apparent that the relationship between games and narratives is strongly twofold: on one hand, the player continuously narrativizes the states the game is in while playing, while the narratives residing within the game space form their own partially separate narrative spaces, on the other. These spaces affect the conception the player has of the game states and the events taking place in the game space itself.Tutkielma käsittelee pelejä ja pelikokemusta. Se on jaettu kahteen pääosioon, joista ensimmäisessä tutkitaan kaikenlaisia pelejä ja toisessa ainoastaan elektronisia pelejä. Teksti lähestyy kaikkia pelejä yhtä aikaa sekä tilallisuuden että kerronnallisuuden suunnista. Näkökulmat yhdistetään heti tutkielman alussa niiden toimiessa apuna pelikokemusta käsitteellistettäessä. Tutkielman tarkoitus on käsitellä kahta toisiinsa läheisesti liittyvää kysymystä, joista toinen kytkeytyy pelitutkimukseen ja toinen itse peleihin. Pelitutkimuksellisesti tutkimuksen keskiössä on ludologian ja narratologian välisen vastakkaisasettelun mielekkyys, joka toimii viitekehyksenä pelien luonteeseen pureutuvassa ongelmassa. Sen lisäksi, että tavoitteena on ottaa selville, onko edellä mainittua asetelmaa mahdollista purkaa pelien tilallisuuden kautta, tekstissä keskitytään myös pelien ja niiden luomien tilojen suhteisiin sekä narratiivien rooleihin kyseisissä tiloissa. Tutkimukselle ominaista on uusien näkökantojen kehitteleminen ja tietty hypoteettinen luonne. Tutkimuksen myötä käy selväksi, että pelien ja narratiivien suhde on vahvasti kaksitahoinen: toisaalta pelaaja kerronnallistaa pelitilanteita jatkuvasti pelikokemuksen aikana, kun taas toisaalta pelien sisältämät narratiivit luovat pelitilaan omia osittain pelitilasta irrallisia kerronnallisia tilojaan. Nämä tilat vaikuttavat osaltaan pelaajan käsitykseen pelitilanteista ja pelitilan sisältämistä tapahtumista.Siirretty Doriast

Tarinankerronta kauhupeleissä. Sisäistetyn juonen merkitys

Tutkielmassa tarkastellaan sisäistetyn juonen merkitystä kauhupelien tarinankerronnalle ja immersiolle. Sisäistetty juoni on osa pelin tarinaa, joka on piilotettu osaksi pelimaailmaa.Sisäistetty juoni vaikuttaa pelaajan mielikuvitukselliseen immersioon, joka käsittää pelin maailman ja tarinan aikaan saaman kiinnostuksen pelaajassa. Analyysissä jaetaan immersion havainnolliseen, mielikuvitukselliseen ja haasteelliseen osaan ja havainnot yleisiin huomioihin analysoiduista peleistä, niissä esiintyviin sivuhahmoihin ja objekteihin. Analyysin lisäksi haastatellaan ryhmää testipelaajia, jotka ennen haastattelua pelaavat rajoitetusti yhtä analysoiduista peleistä. Analyysin mukaan eniten sisäistettyä juonta esiintyi peliympäristöjen symboliikan hyödyntämisenä pelin tarinankerronnassa: Sokkeloiset käytävät viestivät epätietoisuutta tulevasta, hylätyt ja rapistuneet ympäristöt menneisyyden kauhuista. Analyysissä toiseksi yleisin mutta haastattelun kannalta merkittävin sisäistetyn juonen ilmenemismuoto olivat pelimaailmaan sijoitetut tekstiobjektit. Ne ohjasivat pelaajan etenemistä, selvittivät pelin taustatarinaa tai vahvistivat pelin tunnelmaan. Sivuhahmojen käyttö sisäistetyssä juonessa oli rajoittunutta, sillä suurin osa kanssakäymisestä oli näyteltyä juonta. Eniten sisäistettyyn juoneen kuuluvaa kanssakäymistä esiintyi erilaisten viestintälaitteiden käytössä, jolloin pelaaja saattoi valita, käyttääkö hän laitetta. Analyysin ja haastattelun eroavat havainnot ympäristön symboliikan ja tekstiobjektien merkityksestä johtuu haastatteluun liittyvän testipelaamisen rajoittumisesta yhteen pelissä esiintyvään ympäristöön. Täten ympäristöjen eroja ja niistä johtuvia merkityksiä ei noussut esille haastatteluissa.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

Videogames, interfaces, and the body: the importance of embodied phenomenon to the experience of videogame play

This thesis is concerned with setting out the importance of embodied phenomena to the experience of videogame play, and exploring the implications of those phenomena for how we understand the experience of videogame play. In particular, it argues that if we are to understand the experience of playing videogames as it is experienced by the player, we need to reorientate our approach to foreground the experience of the player. By taking this path it diverges from much, if not most, extant research on the experience of videogame play, which, it is argued, focuses more on theorising the likely effects or outcomes of particular formal qualities or design decisions, rather than how the experience of videogame play in itself emerges from the interaction between the embodied player and the videogame during the course of play. This approach opens up the phenomena of videogame play to more detailed and grounded accounts of the player’s relation to the interface used to play, the nature of the experience of engagement in the course of play, and the deep involvement of the body in the experience of play. The approach and theoretical framework employed in this thesis is influenced by Dourish’s notion of embodied interaction, which is adapted to the context of videogame play through further consideration and employment of phenomenological concepts, such as Merleau-Ponty’s work on the importance of our embodied being and of habituated bodily experience, and Heidegger’s differentiation between the ready-to-hand and the present-at-hand, to the articulation of the experience of videogame play. This leads to the key recurring thematic concern of this thesis, namely the role played by the interface in the experience of videogame play. Over the course of several chapters a more expansive conceptual model of the interface than the more technically based definitions usually employed is developed. This expanded conceptualisation of the interface is applied to the nature of the interface itself, the role played by its physical aspects, and how it affords the player access to, and a sense of presence within, the game-world. By understanding the embodied relation between the player and the interface used to play the importance of the phenomena of bodily experience is made visible, and opens up the phenomena of videogame play to more detailed and grounded accounts of the player’s relation to the interface used to play, the nature of the experience of engagement in the course of play, and the deep involvement of the body in the experience of play. What emerges from such an approach is not only an increased understanding of the nature of the experience of videogame play, but also of the centrality of embodiment to that experience. This centrality of embodiment to the experience of videogame play is demonstrated in the final chapter, which employs the work done over the course of the thesis to examine and articulate the phenomenological experience of movement within game-worlds

What is the Avatar? Fiction and Embodiment in Avatar-Based Singleplayer Computer Games: Revised and Commented Edition

What are the characteristic features of avatar-based singleplayer videogames, from Super Mario Bros. to Grand Theft Auto? The author examines this question with a particular focus on issues of fictionality and realism, and their relation to cinema and Virtual Reality. Through close-up analysis and philosophical discussion, the author argues that avatar-based gaming is a distinctive and dominant form of virtual self-embodiment in digital culture. This book is a revised edition of Rune Klevjer's pioneering work from 2007, featuring a new introduction by the author and afterword by Stephan Günzel, Jörg Sternagel, and Dieter Mersch

What is the Avatar?

What are the characteristic features of avatar-based singleplayer videogames, from Super Mario Bros. to Grand Theft Auto? Rune Klevjer examines this question with a particular focus on issues of fictionality and realism, and their relation to cinema and Virtual Reality. Through close-up analysis and philosophical discussion, Klevjer argues that avatar-based gaming is a distinctive and dominant form of virtual self-embodiment in digital culture. This book is a revised edition of Rune Klevjer's pioneering work from 2007, featuring a new introduction by the author and afterword by Stephan Günzel, Jörg Sternagel, and Dieter Mersch

Des typologies mécaniques à l'expérience esthétique : fonctions et mutations du genre dans le jeu vidéo

Cette thèse examine en profondeur la nature et l’application du concept de genre en jeu vidéo. Elle se divise en trois parties. La première fait l’inventaire des théories des genres en littérature et en études cinématographiques. Les propriétés essentielles du genre comme concept sont identifiées : il s’agit d’une catégorisation intuitive et irraisonnée, de nature discursive, qui découle d’un consensus culturel commun plutôt que de systèmes théoriques, et qui repose sur les notions de tradition, d’innovation et d’hybridité. Dans la deuxième partie, ces constats sont appliqués au cas du genre vidéoludique. Quelques typologies sont décortiquées pour montrer l’impossibilité d’une classification autoritaire. Un modèle du développement des genres est avancé, lequel s’appuie sur trois modalités : l’imitation, la réitération et l’innovation. Par l’examen de l’histoire du genre du first-person shooter, la conception traditionnelle du genre vidéoludique basée sur des mécanismes formels est remplacée par une nouvelle définition centrée sur l’expérience du joueur. La troisième partie développe l’expérience comme concept théorique et la place au centre d’une nouvelle conception du genre, la pragmatique des effets génériques. Dans cette optique, tout objet est une suite d’amorces génériques, d’effets en puissance qui peuvent se réaliser pourvu que le joueur dispose des compétences génériques nécessaires pour les reconnaître. Cette nouvelle approche est démontrée à travers une étude approfondie d’un genre vidéoludique : le survival horror. Cette étude de cas témoigne de l’applicabilité plus large de la pragmatique des effets génériques, et de la récursivité des questions de genre entre le jeu vidéo, la littérature et le cinéma.This thesis provides an in-depth examination of the nature and application of the concept of genre for the video game. It is divided in three parts. Part one features an overview of genre theory in literature and film studies. The essential properties of genre as a concept are identified: it is an intuitive and “thumbnail” classification method, discursive rather than systemic in nature, and that owes its existence to a common cultural consensus rather than theoretical divisions. More importantly, the notions of tradition, innovation and hybridity are found to be central to genre. In part two, these findings are applied to the case of video game genre. A few typologies are examined to show that authoritative classifications are impossible. A model of the development of genres is laid out, based on three modalities: imitation, reiteration and innovation. By studying the history of the first-person shooter, the traditional conception of genre being based on formal mechanics is replaced by a new definition centered on player experience. Part three details experience as a theoretical concept and places it at the center of a new conception of genre, the pragmatics of generic effects. In this view, any object is a matrix of generic anchors bound to become generic effects, provided the player possesses the generic competences required to recognize them. This new approach is demonstrated through an examination of the survival-horror videogame genre. This case study showcases the potential of the pragmatics of generic effects for other fields, and provides a testimony for the recursion of the questions of genre between the video game, literature, and film