A Palavra Jogo: ontologia de um objecto indefinível

Este artigo debruça-se sobre a questão da definição formal dos jogos. Segundo Wittgenstein, não é adequado definir os jogos como uma categoria formal. Foram avaliadas diversas propostas de definição, que se demonstraram inadequadas. Propomos alternativamente um modelo descritivo da supercategoria definível a que pertencem os jogos, cibermédia, pragmática e aberta, e capaz de atender às solicitações do intenso e variado campo multidisciplinar dos estudos acerca dos jogos para uma conceptualização dos seus principais fenómenos. O Modelo Cibermédia, na nossa abordagem, consistindo em Jogador, Signo, Sistema Mecânico e Meio Material, proporciona uma forma de comparar diferentes abordagens de investigação sobre jogos que é independente dos suportes, flexível e analítica, e para determinar que aspecto desse fenómeno está a ser referido quando se utiliza a palavra ‘jogo’.In this paper we address the problem of defining games formally, following Wittgenstein’s dictum that games cannot be defined adequately as a formal category. Several influential attempts at definitions will be evaluated and shown to be inadequate. As an alternative, we propose a descriptive model of the definable supercategory that games belong to cybermedia, that is pragmatic, open, and capable of meeting the needs of the diverse, intensely interdisciplinary field of game studies for a uniting conceptualization of its main phenomenon. Our approach, the Cybermedia model, consisting of Player, Sign, Mechanical System, and Material Medium, offers a medium-independent, flexible and analytically useful way to contrast different approaches in games research and to determine which aspect of the phenomenon one is talking about when the word ‘game’ is used.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Characters Without Signifiers

This essay explores the question whether characters can exist without being signified in any way. If characters can exist trans-medially, independently of a particular form of signification or sign-vehicle, why not exist without any signification at all? What kind of existence would such a character have? And, paradoxically, what would examples look like? While the question at face value might appear logically invalid, I argue that at (or just beyond) the minimalist end of the character-representational spectrum, we find what might be called implied characters, that is, characters that are not in any way given, represented, named, or performed, but can only exist in the minds of their players during play, as a formal slot without physical, structural, communicational, or mental properties.peerReviewe

"Twenty minutes into the future"

"Twenty minutes into the future

Le jeu et son nom : qu’est-ce qu’un auteur de jeu vidéo ?

On s’interroge ici sur la possibilité d’élaborer une notion « d’auteur » adéquate au champ du jeu vidéo. L’enquête commence par une réflexion sur quelques grands noms du domaine reconnus par une instance légitime du secteur. Il s’avère que ces créateurs sont peut-être moins des auteurs que des créateurs géniaux d’outils numériques, des architectes ou des raconteurs d’histoires – sans atteindre au statut d’auteur complet. Pour cela, il leur faudrait non seulement avoir réalisé plusieurs jeux marquants auxquels leurs noms seraient associés, mais avoir en outre ambitionné la transmission d’un certain message (politique). L’auteur complet serait alors celui qui réussirait à imposer sa vision singulière à une industrie surpuissante affamée de productions calibrées. Leur heure est peut-être encore à venir. Vingt ans plus tard, un regard rétrospectif permet de confirmer l’intuition. Le secteur a mûri, s’est énormément développé et a donc libéré de la place pour des créations en marge : jeux d’auteur, retrogaming, art game et jeux indépendants