The PO-VE Framework : Understanding the Relationships Between Player Objects and Virtual Environments in Digital Games

Based on a qualitative analysis of 99 different digital games, this study develops a framework for understanding the functionality and relationships between player objects and virtual environments, explored in what has been named the PO-VE framework. The PO-VE framework encompasses a general theory, a dedicated terminology, and an analysis model. A virtual environment is a navigable geometry and a computational, relational model that represents the relative positions and functions of objects within it. Based on a relational and functional approach, objects are conceived of as integrated in the virtual environment by being spatially and functionally related to other objects within it, thus emphasising the virtual environment’s relational system-structure. Within the virtual environment, player objects constitute the player’s point of control. As integrated and movable objects, they consist of attributes (properties such as health, speed, and size) and affordances (possible actions such as running, shooting, and jumping). In most cases, player objects are dynamic (i.e., their attributes and affordances are altered over time); they can not only move along a single axis, but also be used for navigating the virtual environment along multiple axes; and they have some sort of visual presentation, which varies according to the specific visual framing of the player object and the virtual environment. The PO-VE framework results from an analysis and iterative coding process of 99 digital games. The games were chosen using a purposive sampling method guided by a pre-conceptualisation of what constitutes an avatar-based game (the initial focus of the study), popular game examples from game studies literature, and certain diversity labels: year of publication, platform, and country of origin. The PO-VE framework thus results from observational data iteratively translated into codes from games published between 1978 and 2018, across 32 different platforms, developed in 17 different countries. The iterative data collection and coding process, which resembled to some extent that of grounded theory, was finally conceptualised into the PO-VE framework, consisting of a general theory of virtual environments as relational systems, a terminology of player objects in virtual environments, and an analysis model that consists of seven categories related to different aspects of PO-VE relations. To illustrate the applicability of the PO-VE model, two levels of application were employed. The first was a broad analysis of the 78 of the 99 games in the sample that meet the player object definition, which reveals general trends and patterns according to types, genres, and production year of games. The second were close readings of ten chosen games from the sample: Space Attack, Altered Beast, Passage, Hotline Miami, Subway Surfers, ZombiU, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, Papers, Please, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and Reigns: Her Majesty, that each illustrate the depth of the PO-VE framework, while also clarifying some of the limitations of the framework, including how and why some games, such as Papers, Please and Reigns: Her Majesty, cannot be analysed using the PO-VE framework. The relational foundation of the PO-VE model offers a unique and descriptive approach to analytical game studies that utilises a functional understanding of the digital object. This enables a focus on the environment as a relational system and on integration within it, rather than, for example, on rules, goals, or player experiences. Utilising an OOA/D inspired terminology in the analytical framework is a step towards bridging the gap between humanities-based, theoretical game studies, more technical game studies, and game development. This study is thus a contribution to the most fundamental level of any research endeavour: attempting to map out (parts of) the research object and develop a language that facilitates closer inspection and ultimately a better understanding of digital games and virtual environments.Doktorgradsavhandlin

Ser todo, ser nada: La subjetividad en el videojuego más allá del avatar

The identification between player and avatar is at the center of numerous academic reflections, especially the function of the latter as an embodiment of the former (Klevjer, 2006). Among others, Alfonso Cuadrado (2008) has analysed the subjects of The Sims series (Maxis, The Sims Studio, 2000-2018) as virtual toys, Daniel Vella ( 2015) has theorised about the difference between "ludic subject" and "playful self" and Fernández-Vara (2008) studies the game as a performance based on the restoration of behaviors. This article problematises this relationship following these analytical approaches, adding the theory of avatarness (Navarro-Remesal, 2016) and of the existence of an implied player in the design of every game (Aarseth, 2007). Through this, it focuses on borderline cases that blur the traditional conception of avatar. A first approach to commercial productions shows that borderlines avatars are not exceptional. We can find games in which the player controls ghosts without bodies, such as Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (Capcom, 2010), others in which each life is associated with an individual within a collective, such as Aliens: Infestation (WayForward, 2011), Reigns: Her Majesty (Nerial, 2017) or ZombiU (Ubisoft Montpellier, 2012), or in which the avatar loses its identity, such as Inside (Playdead, 2016). Recently, two examples have taken this expanded avatarness to its extreme: in Everything (David O'Reilly, 2017), the player can take control of all the components of the world and access their thoughts, and in Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo EPD, 2017), Mario can use a new ability of his protagonist to possess different subjects. The breach of the equation of player and character, either through subtraction or addition, creates alternative models of incarnation that make us question the limits of the avatar. In them, we can find an avatarness that encompasses more elements of the world and the system. There are strategies of one in many (one player controls multiple characters), one in nothing (the player controls disembodied beings or plain absences) and one in everything (the player takes control of elements of the world beyond a specific avatar), and even even more complex conceptual turns like many in one or the nothing in everything of zero-player games. Avatarness is diffused and distributed throughout the gameworld, making the player identify themselves (as operator, spectator, actor, and accomplice) with elements that are beyond the avatar, and hence realise that it is not a single object but a series of connected processes. This articles lists a total of 20 types of expanded avatarness strategies. It does not pretend to be a closed typology of abstract and normative categories, but a review of actual uses in specific examples, taking into account their contribution to the implicit meaning-making process of the design of the game.La identificación entre el jugador y el avatar está en el centro de numerosas reflexiones académicas, especialmente la función de este último como encarnación del primero (Klevjer, 2006). Entre otros, Alfonso Cuadrado (2008) analiza los sujetos de la serie Los Sims (Maxis, The Sims studio, 2000-2018) como juguetes virtuales, Daniel Vella (2015) ha teorizado sobre la diferencia entre «sujeto lúdico» y «yo lúdico» y Fernández-Vara (2008) estudia el juego como una performance basada en la restauración de comportamiento. Este artículo problematiza esta relación a partir de estas aproximaciones analíticas, añadiendo la teoría de la avataridad (Navarro-Remesal, 2016) y de la existencia de un jugador implícito en el diseño de todo juego (Aarseth, 2007), y se centra en casos límite que difuminan la concepción tradicional de avatar. Una primera aproximación a producciones comerciales muestra que las avataridades límite no son excepcionales. Podemos encontrar juegos en los que el jugador controla a fantasmas sin cuerpo, como Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (Capcom, 2010), otros en los que cada vida se asocia a un individuo dentro de un colectivo, como Aliens: Infestation (WayForward, 2011), Reigns: Her Majesty (Nerial, 2017) o ZombiU (Ubisoft Montpellier, 2012) o en los que el avatar pierde su identidad, como Inside (Playdead, 2016). Recientemente, dos ejemplos han llevado esta avataridad expandida a versiones extremas: mientras que en Everything (David O’Reilly, 2017), el jugador puede tomar el control de todos los componentes del mundo y acceder a sus pensamientos, en Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo EPD, 2017) el jugador puede usar una habilidad nueva de su protagonista para poseer a diferentes sujetos. La ruptura de la equiparación entre jugador y personaje, ya sea mediante sustracción o adición, crea modelos de encarnación alternativa que nos hacen cuestionar los límites del avatar y contemplar una avataridad que abarca más elementos del mundo y el sistema. Hablamos así de estrategias de uno en muchos (un jugador controla a múltiples personajes), uno en nada (el jugador controla a seres incorpóreos o directamente a ausencias) y uno en todo (el jugador asume el control de elementos del mundo más allá de un avatar concreto), e incluso de giros conceptuales todavía más complejos como el muchos en uno o el nada en todo de los zero-player games. Así, la avataridad se difumina y reparte en todo el mundo videolúdico, haciendo que el jugador se identifique (como operador, espectador, actor y cómplice) con elementos que están más allá del avatar, y que éste no se limite a un único objeto y se revele como una serie de procesos conectados. En total se presentan en este artículo 20 tipos de estrategias de avataridad expandida, aunque no pretende ser una tipología cerrada de categorías abstractas y normativas sino un repaso a usos prácticos en ejemplos concretos, atendiendo a su aportación a la construcción de significado implícita en el diseño del juego

Competing with Superstars: Does Exclusive Third-Party Content Discourage Complementary Innovation?

We study how the introduction of exclusive third-party applications affects competing complementors’ innovation strategies in platform ecosystems. In this study, we exploit the exclusive entry of Super Mario Run into the complementary app market of Apple’s iOS App Store in Autumn 2016 as a quasi-experiment. We collect monthly time-series data throughout the observation period. We find that complementors show heterogeneous innovation behavior after the entry. First, we demonstrate that affected complementors with a similar market position as the entrant follow a competition strategy for update releases in the affected niche market. Complementors who do not hold a similar market position reduce the number of updates for existing products in the affected niche market following a differentiation strategy. Finally, independent of the complementor’s market position, affected complementors follow a differentiation strategy for new app releases, increasing the number of new app releases in other categories

Prospectus, June 27, 2012

NEW FITNESS CENTER TO AID IN RECRUITING, Rural Newcomers: Young, Educated, There by Choice, A Healthy Food Stamp, or Just a Heavy Hand?, Construction of the Student Services Center Continues, Up-and-Coming Social Media Websites, Title IX Anniversary Brings Out the Statistics, Nostalgia and Knives, The Story the Media Got Right, Essay Mills - a Coarse Lesson on Cheating, Two Former Cobras Taken in MLB Draft, Products, Games Unveiled at E3 Expohttps://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_2012/1015/thumbnail.jp

SightSurfers VR: navegação e interação em vídeo imersivo com óculos de VR e AR

Tese de mestrado, Engenharia Informática (Interação e Conhecimento) Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, 2016Com o avanço tecnológico, cada vez mais o utilizador procura obter experiências ricas e inovadoras através das tecnologias. Este procura acima de tudo experiências imersivas, por forma a aumentar a sua sensação de presença. Cada vez mais se encontram vídeos esféricos gravados em 360º disponibilizados na internet, mas deparamo-nos com navegadores pouco imersivos para visualizar tais conteúdos. Este projeto teve por objetivo a exploração e o desenvolvimento de ferramentas para proporcionar uma experiência rica e imersiva ao utilizador na visualização de conteúdos multimédia de qualquer tipo, usando óculos de Realidade Virtual, com especial foco no tipo de vídeo gravado em 360º esférico. Um dos objetivos passava por tentar que o utilizador pudesse sentir que faz parte do ambiente gravado. Tentou-se aumentar a imersividade melhorando a forma e fluidez de navegação e a interação com os conteúdos. Um dos grandes problemas passava também pela incompatibilidade de ligação de grande parte de dispositivos de input externo a alguns equipamentos móveis. Pensou-se então que seria útil a criação de um Sistema de Navegação Facilitada que permitisse qualquer tipo de input e facilitasse o acesso a operações mais complexas de forma simples. Foi também um dos focos o desenvolvimento de funcionalidades que permitissem a exploração de Realidade Aumentada com o experienciar destes conteúdos. Foi realizada uma avaliação com utilizadores para validar as opções tomadas, em termos de usabilidade e aceitação. Estes consideraram as ferramentas desenvolvidas no Sight Surfers VR e no SSVR Helper bastante utéis, satisfatórias e fáceis de usar e de compreender, tendo contribuído ainda para identificar direções para desenvolvimentos futuros.Due to technological advancements, users more and more desire to achieve new, rich, and innovative immersive experiences. Users are looking to experience immersive experiences in order to increase theirs sense of presence. The amount of spherical 360º recorded media available on the internet is largely increasing, but the experience that the browser gives to the user is not immersive enough to the current user expectation. This project main goal was to grant users the tools in order to achieve a good immersive experience when visualizing any type of media while using Virtual Reality Googles. There was a special focus on spherical 360º movies. This project aims to grant users the feeling that they take part of the environment. New interaction and navigation techniques were developed in order to try to increase immersion. One of the biggest issues refers to the fact that mobile devices are not very compatible with external input devices. An Easy Navigation System was designed with the goal to try to surpass these needs. This system also had the goal to allow users to access complex operations in a fast and easy way. It was also the goal to develop functionalities aimed to explore Augmented Reality while experiencing these contents. A user evaluation took place in order to evaluate the choices made, in terms of usability and acceptance. They considered the tools developed in Sight Surfers VR and SSVR Helper quite useful, satisfactory and easy to use and understand, having also contributed to identify directions for future developments

Noise into play. Disonancias e indeterminación de lo sonoro en lo lúdico

[EN] This article aims at presenting a correlation study between the concept of sound noise and the indeterminist aspects of the ludic experimental interaction, focusing on the Survival Horror Games. Based on the ability of sound to cross the display interface and connect to the real space in which the player is found. It create a connection with the concept of ethics developed by Miguel Sicart. The proposal serves both experimental aspects of sound production that are in the game design and its relationship to the field of sound art, and the possibilities of opening up the field of politics and common action through the players experience, from a semantic movement in the concept of horror that can transform the experience of him self in real space.[ES] Este artículo pretende plantear un estudio relacional entre el concepto de ruido sonoro y aspectos indeterministas de la lúdica interactiva experimental, centrándose en los Survival Horror Games. Partiendo de la capacidad del sonido para desbordar la interface pantalla y conectar con el espacio real en el que se encuentra el jugador, se establece una conexión con el concepto de ética en los videojuegos desarrollado por Miguel Sicart. La propuesta atiende tanto a los aspectos experimentales de la producción sonora que se encuentran en el diseño del juego, y su relación con el campo del arte sonoro, como a las posibilidades de abrir el campo de lo político y la acción común desde de la experiencia de los jugadores, a partir de un movimiento semántico en el concepto de terror que puede transformar la experiencia del mismo en el espacio real.Mañas-Carbonell, M.; Pastor Aguilar, M. (2015). Noise into play. Disonancias e indeterminación de lo sonoro en lo lúdico. AUSART Aldizkaria. 3(2):22-30. doi:10.1387/ausart.15928S22303

Publicidad sexista en videojuegos hardcore. Análisis del cuerpo femenino como reclamo publicitario

Treball Final de Grau en Publicitat i Relacions Públiques. Codi: PU0932. Curs acadèmic: 2016/2017El principal objetivo de la investigación que aquí se presenta es analizar cómo se construye el discurso publicitario sobre videojuegos hardcore, atendiendo a la cosificación de la mujer como personaje del videojuego. A partir del análisis del discurso, se entenderá cómo evoluciona el discurso publicitario en este tipo de videojuegos. La motivación a la hora de realizar esta investigación se justifica por la influencia de valores sexistas en videojuegos y su consecuente reflejo en el discurso publicitario. La metodología se basará en el análisis de gráficas publicitarias que ilustran cómo la publicidad de videojuegos se basa en la cosificación de la mujer para promocionar sus productos. La tendencia detectada tras el análisis es que, a pesar del caso analizado, el discurso publicitario utiliza cada vez menos el cuerpo de la mujer como reclamo publicitario. Esto se debe en parte a la ética deontológica de la publicidad y sus organismos reguladores, así como a la presión social y a diferentes colectivos, a pesar de que la situación en la industria de los videojuegos todavía sigue avanzando lentamente en el proceso de deconstrucción de la hegemonía de género

November 29, 2012

The Breeze is the student newspaper of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia

ŠIUOLAIKINĖ PSICHOFIZINIO REDUKTYVIZMO IR ANTIREDUKTYVIZMO POLEMIKA IR JOS METODOLOGINĖS IŠDAVOS

The object of this paper is the controversy about the materialist accounts of sensory qualia in analytic philosophy of recent decades. The first section deals with the identity thesis and reductionist strategy connected to it that has established and shaped the development of materialist problematics as central to philosphy of mind. The second section discusses two most influential antireductionist arguments – the knowledge argument and the argument from the conceivability of zombies. The the paper focuses on the epistemological and semantic aspects of the controversy that can be translated into the different interpretations of two-dimensional modal matrix, which allows to specify the disagreement between reductionism and antireductionism. Finally the conclusion arrived at in the last section is that the premises of antireductionist arguments are not compatible with the stable connection between mental and physiological domains, and thus contemporary philosophy of mind brings out the dilemma: either we hypostatize the introspectively available qualitative content on the basis of epistemic asymmetry of the mental and physical concepts, thereby deriving a dualist ontology, and embrace all the sceptical consequences, or we prefer the extensional explanation of concepts, without internalist ambitions, conceivability of zombies, and antireductionist conclusions.Šio straipsnio objektas – pastarojo laikmečio kontroversija dėl materialistinės patyrimo kokybių koncepcijos. Pirmame skirsnyje aptariama analitinės sąmonės filosofijos raidą lėmusi psichinių ir neurofiziologinių būvių tapatumo tezė bei su ja siejama reduktyvistinė strategija. Antrame skirsnyje aptariami du reikšmingiausi antireduktyvistiniai argumentai – žinojimo argumentas ir zombių pamanomumo argumentas. Trečiame skirsnyje išryškinami epistemologiniai ir semantiniai psichofizinio reduktyvizmo kontroversijos aspektai, leidžiantys tiksliau nusakyti polemizuojančių platformų metodologinius skirtumus bei ketvirtame skirsnyje padaryti išvadą, jog antireduktyvistiniai argumentai nėra suderinami su stabilių psichofizinių ryšių pripažinimu. Šiuolaikinėje analitinėje sąmonės filosofijoje išryškėja tokia dilema: arba atsižvelgdami į episteminę psichinių ir fizinių sąvokų asimetriją hipostazuojame introspekciškai prieinamą turinį, taip tikėdamiesi išsaugoti aukštus racionalumo standartus, kuriais grindžiama ir dualistinė metafizika, ir priimame visas skeptines tokio pasirinkimo išdavas; arba sąvokų turinio aiškinimą pradedame teikdami pirmenybę ekstensionaliai interpretacijai, atsisakydami internalistinių ambicijų, zombių pamanomumo prielaidų ir antireduktyvistinių išvadų

Independent - Oct. 16, 2012

https://neiudc.neiu.edu/independent/1453/thumbnail.jp