The Story of Bonehead Merkle: Appraising the Fictional Component of Sports

Many games feature fictional worlds that inspire acts of make-believe or encourage us to willingly suspend our disbelief. Sports however, such as baseball or rugby, have no explicit fictional world whatsoever and yet there may still be things we can learn from them via analysis of their narratives. This paper takes on a provocative discussion of the fictional component of sports and how this might be understood. This essay takes on the case study of ‘Merkle’s Boner’, an infamous baseball play that catalysed a change in the game’s ruleset, to stimulate a discussion on how seemingly non-fictional games still have much to say on how game fictions are understood or supplemented by game audiences. How stories, such as Merkle’s Boner, are reflected by journalistic reports of the event, folksong and through the rules of the game itself give us insight into how fiction is generally understood within games of all types. By defining the structure of fiction in games generally, the paper then examines how the stories that sports generate can be understood using Lisbeth Klastrup’s term ‘player stories’. The precedent of famous sporting moments or stories is significant and a given sport appears to be more than just abstract scorekeeping and professionally sponsored play. Indeed, it is argued that these games are ripe for narrative analysis given the role that fiction plays in the sporting mindset

How do Frog Fractions and Nier use intertextual knowledge to subvert the player's expectations?

At first glance Frog Fractions (Twinbeard Studios, 2012) and Nier (Cavia, 2010) appear to be a fractions-based educational game and a Japanese role-playing game respectively. One thing these two drastically different games have in common is that they both set themselves up as standard entries in their respective genre and then utilise the player's intertextual knowledge of other games to establish an expectation which they then subvert using techniques that this essay seeks to define

Approaches to Game Fiction Derived from Musicals and Pornography

This paper discusses the construction of consistent fictions in games using relevant theory drawn from discussions of musicals and pornography in opposition to media that are traditionally associated with fiction and used to discuss games (film, theatre, literature etc.). Game developer John Carmack’s famous quip that stories in games are like stories in pornography—optional—is the impetus for a discussion of the role and function of fiction in games. This paper aims to kick-start an informed approach to constructing and understanding consistent fictions in games. Case studies from games, musicals, and pornography are cross-examined to identify what is common to each practice with regards to their fictions (or lack thereof) and how they might inform the analysis of games going forward. To this end the terms ‘integrated’, ‘separated’, and ‘dissolved’ are borrowed from Dyer’s work on musicals, which was later employed by Linda Williams to discusses pornographic fictions. A framework is laid out by which games (and other media) can be understood as a mix of different types of information and how the arrangement of this information in a given work might classify it under Dyer’s terms and help us understand the ways in which a game fiction is considered consistent or not

Ludic Dysnarrativa : How Can Fictional Inconsistency in Games be Reduced?

The experience of fictional inconsistencies in games is surprisingly common. The goal was to determine if solutions exist for this problem and if there are inherent limitations to games as a medium that make storytelling uncommonly difficult. Termed ‘ludic dysnarrativa’, this phenomenon can cause a loss of immersion in the fictional world of a game and lead to greater difficulty in intuitively understanding a game’s rules. Through close textual analysis of The Stanley Parableand and other games, common trends are identified that lead a player to experience dysnarrativa. Contemporary cognitive theory is examined alongside how other media deal with fictional inconsistency to develop a model of how information (fictional and otherwise) is structured in media generally. After determining that gaps in information are largely the cause of a player feeling dysnarrativa, it is proposed that a game must encourage imaginative acts from the player to prevent these gaps being perceived. Thus a property of games, termed ‘imaginability’, was determined desirable for fictionally consistent game worlds. Many specific case studies are cited to refine a list of principles that serve as guidelines for achieving imaginability. To further refine these models and principles, multiplayer games such as Dungeons and Dragons were analysed specifically for how multiple players navigate fictional inconsistencies within them. While they operate very differently to most single-player games in terms of their fiction, multiplayer games still provide useful clarifications and principles for reducing fictional inconsistencies in all games. Negotiation between agents (designers, players, game rules) in a game is of huge value to maintaining coherent fictional worlds and social information in some multiplayer games takes on a role close to that of fictional information in single player games. Dysnarrativa can also be used to positive effect in certain cases such as comedy games, horror games or for satirical purposes

It Takes Two to Tandem: Tandem Analysis as a Novel Method for the Critical Analysis of Games

Many players engage in ‘tandem play’ with others, usually close friends, who talk about what they play as they play it - particularly in cases of single player videogames where one player plays and the other observes. Begy et al. (2017, p.149) have studied ‘tandem play’ extensively, however, this practice of tandem play has not up until now been suggested as a formal method for analysis, directly carried out by the analysts themselves. Proposed here is a novel form of critical analysis, tandem analysis, that makes use of a pair of analysts who engage in tandem play of a videogame together, recording live discussion of the play session and then conducting a thematic analysis of the recording for qualitatively different insights to those provided by other analytical methods. Observations may be more accurately expressed in-situ so that the analysis is more direct in its expression. While three or more researchers could theoretically conduct a tandem analysis, the focus for now is establishing a functioning method with a dyad

The development of sports: A comparative analysis of the early institutionalization of traditional sports and e-sports

This article takes the definition of a sport as “an institutionalized game” under which both “traditional sports” and “E-sports” fall. It takes a comparative analytical approach that examines the historical documentation and cultural output of these two major categories of sports and their early institutionalization. Given the increasing interest in, engagement with and spectator numbers of E-sports, it is worth considering the key similarities and differences between various institutions. This article examines traditional sports institutions from the mid-19th to late 19th century alongside E-sports institutions that emerged from the mid-1990s to the present day. Firstly, the processes of institutionalization are analyzed with these examples in mind and, secondly, are compared to draw out the significant differences and similarities between the factors affecting early institutionalization

Approaching the Analysis of the Spectatorship of AI in Saltybet.com.

The proposed submission is a paper-in-progress that seeks to examine the appeal of watching AI compete against one another. This paper takes, as its primary case study, Saltybet.com , a streaming site which uses the M.U.G.E.N. fighting game engine and various player-made AI characters, and has them fight in exhibition and tournament matches. Spectators of these matches can bet fake money or ‘salty bucks’ on the outcome of a match and a small community has grown around Saltybet’s unusual entertainment prospec

Virtual gardening: Identifying problems and potential directions for 'ecological awareness' through soil management and plant recognition gaming

Games are increasingly proven to be effective learning tools through a multitude of methodologies and approaches and this is no different for issues relating to the environment and the place of humans within it. We collaborated with the Eden Project to create a mobile game addressing some concerns on the ecological awareness of visitors that they raised with us: a mobile garden management game with a plant recognition technology. Such a project proved a valuable opportunity to understand how a game for smart devices might promote short-term ecological awareness for a general audience. Using a research creation methodology, we analyse, document and run a limited empirical study through user experience testing on players to investigate if the game had an effect on their ecological awareness

Playful Tarot: Adaptations of Tarot In, Through, and Across Games.

The magical practice of divination through tarot emanates from the sacred, ritualistic power of play. Long before tarot accretes esoteric symbolism as a divinatory tool, Italians played it as the parlour game tarrochi. Extending this history, many games implement tarot as a mechanical framework and a source of visual imagery. Yet, not all implementations of tarot are equally successful artistically and spiritually. Ludic tarot is often mechanistic (just another way to think about buffs and stats) or superficially thematic (visual imagery without underlying semiotic content). In this paper, we will unravel the intertwined history of games and tarot, exploring its relationship to other cartomantic practices, including the dark Gnostic “Game of Saturn” decoded by Peter Mark Adams in the Sola-Busca deck, the pragmatically cryptic Lenormand deck, and the divinatory use of standard 52-card playing decks in folk witchcraft. Building upon this historical insight, we will then analyse three related tabletop games as case studies: Chalice (in which tarot generates narratives of a failed Grail quest), Alas Vegas (which resolves conflict and generates narrative through tarot-driven blackjack), and Invisible Sun (which reinvents tarot through the circular Sooth deck driving its magic system). All three of these games weave resonant connections between the imagery and mechanics of cards and fictional gameworlds, thereby investing tarot with an eerie sense of meaningful coincidence or synchronicity. Understanding the techniques that create a more resonant experience of tarot can open the way for a deeper implementation of tarot in game development, as well as enable playful reflection and insight within the magical practice. Specifically, insights into non-digital ludic implementations of tarot can pave the way for richer and more resonant digital tarot applications, building upon and deepening the recent use of tarot in videogames (such as Tanya X. Short’s Cartomancy anthology and Adam Malone’s VR tarot)

Foundations for Esports Curricula in Higher Education

Esports has generated an industry of increasing economic and cultural importance. In recent years, universities and other higher education institutions have responded to its growth by establishing programmes of study which aim to satisfy the needs of innovators operating in the area. However, there is not yet consensus on what an esports curriculum should include. Despite being a technology-driven sector with ethical and professional dimensions that intersect computing, current ACM and IEEE curricula do not mention esports. Furthermore, existing courses tend to provide teaching and training on a wide variety of topics aside from those traditionally in computer science. These include: live events management; psychological research; sports science; marketing; public relations; video (livestream) production; and community management; in addition to coaching and communication. This working group examined the requirements for developing esports studies at universities with a focus on understanding career prospects in esports and on the challenges presented by its interdisciplinary complexity. Thereby, paving the way for a framework to support the design of esports curricula in higher education