Death in digital games : a thanatological approach

Analysing our time is an important part of our understanding and modi operandi. At the same time, of equal importance is the analysis of the end of time, that is, the time of death. The analysis of death contains a paradox, since there is no way of knowing death before death, and writing about death after the grave contradicts death itself. Nevertheless, death is a diachronic consistency which defines our presence, existence and, of course, every era, both culturally and temporarily. It reigns over our consciousness and its manifestations: language, philosophy, religion, literature and the arts. Nowadays, we live in the era of digital revolution and are re-familiarising ourselves with many established perceptions of the world we live in and the manner we experience and communicate within it. Death, together with our acknowledgement of it, is no different. Much can be said about how death is perceived through social media and digital applications, but my core focus will be death in digital games. Digital games, as a relatively new medium, and an ergodic one at that, have many interesting aspects that remain unexplored and are worth looking closer into as they provide an exciting field of study. Being one of—if not the most popular leisure activity of our age—one cannot be more in our time than when engaging with digital games. They pose a different approach to interactivity, and for that reason function in a novel manner and are accompanied by new challenges and a need for methodological tools. In this case however, digital games themselves will provide the tool for analysing such a timeless and simultaneously time-perceived idea as death itself. A great example of how the contemporary can not only facilitate the intertemporal, but also re-introduce it in innovative ways.peer-reviewe

How Damsels Love: The Transgressive Pleasure of Romance

In this article, I look at contemporary romances as a source of transgressive pleasure that may inspire its audience to reject patriarchy. I focus solely on romances between a man and a woman with emphasis on the psychological dimension of the female character upon her trajectory from an object of desire to the man’s ideal partner. I argue that the pleasure of romance is, indeed, a means towards the dismissal of patriarchy. Drawing on feminist theory, I contend that romance constitutes a nucleus of a feminine ideal that women may use as a comparative reference point for their real-life relationships, revealing any problematic and inadequate behavior of real-life partners. Even though romance pertains to the prescripts of patriarchy, I argue that it can be seen as an intertext: a product of the interlanguage used to translate the male discourse to the female bodily experience. In producing and consuming the romance, women can contrast this experience of the feminine ideal with the lack of pleasure patriarchy entails for them. In this respect, the romance possesses a transgressive power that may facilitate women’s realization of their dissatisfaction and the refusal of their role as emotional labor

Valletta : Streets of History : documenting the process of developing a location-based game in the area of Maltese history and culture

Playing Maltese History is a project funded by Malta Arts Council involving the research for and development of a mobile AR game about the cultural history of Malta titled Valletta: Streets of History (Bewitched Mitches 2023), officially released in March of this year. As a concept, it was conceived in an effort to bridge the gap between historical research and detective games; or rather to make the profound connections between the two practices explicit. The design of the game attempts to simulate the process of conducting archival research by situating the player in the role of a detective-historian who unearths details from Maltese history and culture, which are not generally foregrounded in the textbooks. The game invites the player to trace these events in actual locations by means of geolocation mechanics and AR elements. It additionally employs more traditional methods of ludic engagement, like puzzles and scoring games, which are thematically adapted to reflect the historical content of the game. In this paper, the development team first analyses the research supporting the project by highlighting the affinities between historical research and detective games. In the second part, we document the process of development from conceptualisation and funding application to research and implementation up to dissemination. In this, we aim to contribute to the theoretical discussion around game design methods and approaches, especially within the context of historical games, as well as providing a practical example of game development and distribution for other interested game designers and academics.peer-reviewe

Merits of Gamification: Transmediality and Spatiality of Walden, a Game

This paper examines gamification as the remediation of an already published text into a game. It expands on the original understanding of the term by positioning it within the discourse of transmedia storytelling. Using Walden, a Game as a case-study, it is argued that it is better approached as a gamified rendering of the titular text in a virtual environment rather than a self-contained game. This argument is supported through formal analysis of the game’s spatial design and comparative analysis with other game adaptations of published books as well as Walden, the book as the source text of the game. It is shown that Walden, a Game constitutes a superficial and limited remediation of its original text if it is considered as a game. Instead, it is proposed that it provides a gamified access to its source material and it is in this facilitation wherein its contribution lies. In this, gamification is extrapolated as an alternative entry point to an established work with its own affordances and merits

Manifesting Desire via Playful Mechanics in Tarot Readings

In this paper, I analyse tarot readings and discern the game mechanics of the process. I specifically look at YouTube readings and document their ludic qualities by means of critical analysis and ethnography. I show the connection between gameness and tarot readings as a form of generating personal meaning from a system of predefined structures. Particularly, I argue that it is the ludic attributes of tarot what facilitates its therapeutic appeal as an act of self-care. I exemplify this argument by focusing on the choice-making mechanics of YouTube tarot readings. As I argue, these mechanics provide participants with the ability to manifest their desire. I draw further connections between these game mechanics, tarot, and self-care within the context of romantic love. Based on this, I finally support the ability of games to offer and sustain experiences of love due to their mechanics

Fortnite as Bildungsspiel? Battle Royale Games and Sacrificial Rites

This article examines the online multi-player game Fortnite: Battle Royale as a modernday representation of sacrificial rites. It is argued that Fortnite: Battle Royale constitutes a simulation of a sacrificial rite due to its gameplay mechanics. In the game, the players need to kill each other off and come out victorious. As such, the players need to recognise themselves in opposition to others, exterminate those others, and sacrifice their innocence in the process. As conceptualised by R. Girard, this experience of a sacrificial rite constitutes a form of social education and conditioning. Such experiences are predominantly represented in the genre of Bildungsroman: coming-of-age stories that concern a literal or metaphorical rite of passage from childhood to adulthood. In Fortnite: Battle Royale, the psychological effect of this conditioning is amplified due to the medium-specific affordance of having the player as both the spectator and the spectacle of the sacrifice; namely, the player watches themselves being offered as a sacrifice while trying to overcome the trial. In this regard, Fortnite: Battle Royale follows and expands on the tradition of the Bildungsroman establishing a new take on the genre that is thereby termed Bildungsspiel–a coming-of-age game