Playing Around With Morality: Introducing the Special Issue on “Morality Play”

This special issue of Games and Culture focuses on the intersection between video games and ethics. This introduction briefly sets out the key research questions in the research field and identifies trends in the articles included in this special issu

Mechanisms of decadal variability in the Labrador Sea and the wider North Atlantic in a high-resolution climate model

A necessary step before assessing the performance of decadal predictions is the evaluation of the processes that bring memory to the climate system, both in climate models and observations. These mechanisms are particularly relevant in the North Atlantic, where the ocean circulation, related to both the Subpolar Gyre and the Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), is thought to be important for driving significant heat content anomalies. Recently, a rapid decline in observed densities in the deep Labrador Sea has pointed to an ongoing slowdown of the AMOC strength taking place since the mid 90s, a decline also hinted by in-situ observations from the RAPID array. This study explores the use of Labrador Sea densities as a precursor of the ocean circulation changes, by analysing a 300-year long simulation with the state-of-the-art coupled model HadGEM3-GC2. The major drivers of Labrador Sea density variability are investigated, and are characterised by three major contributions. First, the integrated effect of local surface heat fluxes, mainly driven by year-to-year changes in the North Atlantic Oscillation, which accounts for 62% of the total variance. Additionally, two multidecadal-to-centennial contributions from the Greenland-Scotland Ridge outflows are quantified; the first associated with freshwater exports via the East Greenland Current, and the second with density changes in the Denmark Strait Overflow. Finally, evidence is shown that decadal trends in Labrador Sea densities are followed by important atmospheric impacts. In particular, a negative winter NAO response appears to follow the positive Labrador Sea density trends, and provides a phase reversal mechanism

A Man chooses, a slave obeys

This article explores the concept of interactivity through a close reading of the 2007 video game Bioshock (2K Boston & 2K Australia 2007). By analyzing the interconnections between the game's storyline and ludic mechanisms I argue that Bioshock's narrative twist can be read as a powerful deconstruction of the notion of player agency (cf. Ruch, this issue). I therefore offer an analysis of this game as a problematization of traditional understandings of choice. By highlighting the role of pedagogy in Bioshock I reveal the importance of processes of training in the medium of video gaming. I conclude by drawing upon a post-structuralist framework to suggest that the subjectivity of the video game player is constructed through the play experience.12 page(s

The Construction of play : rules, restrictions, and the repressive hypothesis

Rules are often cited as one of the defining features of games; however, few precise definitions of rules exist and those that do are often self-contradictory and/or reductive. This article seeks to reconceptualize rules for both traditional and digital games, not as a series of restrictions to which the player must submit but rather as a relationship of power that functions through the player and through processes of construction. I argue that the restrictive model of rules is embedded within the liberal humanist paradigm, where power is understood as an external force operating on the subject. Building upon poststructuralist theorizations of power, I demonstrate that rather than operating through restriction, rules construct the possibility of the game, producing the game world and norms of play practice. Through this, I show that rules should not be understood in opposition to player agency, but rather as a contributor to, and product of it.16 page(s

Reconceptualising gamification: Play and pedagogy

Gamification is a complex and controversial concept. It has been both embraced as a marketing and education revolution, and dismissed as practice of exploitation. Contested within the debate around gamification has been the very concept of what a game is, what the core mechanics of games are, and whether gamification truly mobilises these core mechanics. This paper will challenge the foundation of this debate through reconceptualising gamification not as a simple set of techniques and mechanics, but as a pedagogic heritage, an alternative framework for training and shaping participant behaviour that has at its core the concepts of entertainment and engagement. In doing so it will recontextualise current practices of gamification into a longer and deeper history, and suggest potential pathways for more sophisticated gamification in the future.17 page(s

Ludic dystopias : power, politics and play

This paper is a close reading of the first-person shooter video game Bioshock. I analyse Bioshock within a heritage of dystopian media forms. I explore the commonalities between this particular dystopic vision and those that have preceded it in book and film. Following the rich tradition of reading dystopias as reflecting the cultural zeitgeist and fears of the era they were created, I look at the political and social concerns Bioshock embodies such as the dehumanising effects of technology and the danger of corporate domination. I argue that it is in its ludic mechanisms that Bioshock reveals the most about our current anxieties. I demonstrate that this game deconstructs its own mediation to offer a broad political critique of contemporary society.4 page(s