Language-GAME-Players: Articulating the pleasures of ‘violent’ game texts

Young peoples’ voices have been considered irrelevant or unreliable when it comes to discussing the influence and impact of their engagement with screen-mediated depictions of violence. Historically, such viewpoints have been derived from the controlled experimentation of modernist psychology, which constitutes the most sustained and prominent enquiries into the consequences of individual participation in, and viewing of, simulated violence. In espousing an impersonal approach, psychological research has opted not to demonstrate any understanding of the properties of the particular games or the medium its findings have been used to denigrate. Neither does its research possess broader awareness of the social dimensions of play or the productivity inherent in the practices of its surrounding cultures. This paper introduces findings taken from a two-year project that attempted to draw together what have essentially remained separate lines of inquiry – the critical and analytical scrutiny of Game Studies applied to understanding the pleasures of engagement with game violence. The aim of this research was to achieve a more contextual understanding of texts that utilise violence from the perspective of young people that opt to experience them as an entertainment form. In doing so, a range of qualitative methods were employed to encourage game players to present their viewpoints and offer a voice that is all too often absent from the ‘one-way debate’ attached to the representation of violence within games

A Visual-Inertial Hybrid Controller Approach to Improving Immersion in 3D Video Games

Advances in various areas such as graphics, sound, physics and artificial intelligence have improved the level of player immersion into the gaming environment significantly over the years. However, current game controller systems do not fully facilitate natural bodily motions in an accurate and responsive manner, which may affect player immersion within a gaming environment. This paper presents a novel visual-inertial approach that can potentially improve immersion in 3D video games. The proposed game controller system utilizes visual sensors (i.e., cameras) and inertial sensors (i.e., accelerometers and gyro-sensors) in a synergistic fashion to provide better 3D spatial positioning information than either of the individual technologies can provide. As a result, the proposed game controller system provides highly accurate, responsive, and natural control over 3D environments. This makes it well suited for potentially improving player immersion in future 3D video games. Furthermore, several applications of the proposed game controller system are presented to illustrate its potential for improving immersion in 3D video games

An Art World for Artgames

Bringing together the insights of assemblage theory, pragmatist aesthetics, and the sociology of art, this paper examines the cultural legitimation of ‘artgames’ as a category of indie games with particularly high cultural status. Passage (PC, Mac, Linux, iOS, 2007) serves as a case study, demonstrating how a diverse range of factors and processes, including a conducive ‘opportunity space,’ changes in production, distribution, and reception, and the emergence of a critical discourse, collectively constitute an assemblage or ‘art world’ that establishes artgames as legitimate art (Baumann, 2007a; 2007b)

Industry – Academia: How Can We Collaborate?

With the growing popularity of degree programs in computer game development as well as the continued expansion of games-related research in a multiplicity of academic disciplines, it is critical that academia establishes more extensive collaborations with industry developers. Additionally, the increasing worker shortage and the growing complexity of game technology act as powerful motivators for industry to seek out academic affiliations. Over the past few years this issue has garnered significant attention and has been a recurring theme at various games-related conferences. This paper discusses some of the obstacles faced by potential collaborators, as well as some strategies and approaches the author has used in establishing working relationships with several game companies

The Tyranny of Realism: Historical accuracy and politics of representation in Assassin’s Creed III

Like other games in its series, Assassin’s Creed III (AC3) is heavily invested in a wellresearched, nuanced representation of historical conflicts. Yet as with any historical text, designers must be selective in their storytelling. Through their choices, we can better understand who might be the expected audience for this “speculative fiction.” This article addresses AC3’s tensions around realism. In it, the author addresses the politics of representation in how players are asked to identify with particular characters (constructed identification), how the game was produced (constructed authenticity), and the version of history portrayed in the game (constructed history). The author argues that the game’s ludic and narrative possibilities limit its ability to critique colonial powers during the American Revolution. The article concludes by looking at what counterhistorical approach to AC3’s story might entail. Throughout, the author discusses how the game’s expected audience, that is Ubisoft’s construction of the intended player, is reflected in each of these decisions and limits the emancipatory possibilities of AC3

The practical and theoretical implications of flow theory and intrinsic motivation in designing and implementing exergaming in the school environment

Helping children develop a positive attitude toward being active for life is a primary objective for physical educators. The cultivation of an internal desire to participate in physical activity occurs over a prolonged period of time through a variety of positive experiences in school, at home, and in the community. Like any well thought out physical education unit, a meaningful exergaming (also known as active gaming) program must balance the needs of the students with the prescribed learning expectations. This paper is intended to bridge the theoretical aspects of intrinsic motivation and flow theory with the pragmatics of teaching active gaming programs in a school setting. The authors have established the Canadian Exergaming Research Centre (http://www.ucalgary.ca/exergaming/) in order to explore the impact of exergames in a school environment

Dracula Defanged: Empowering the Player in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

The Castlevania games are not designed to scare the player, but they resort to elements from horror literature and film, including references to Bram Stoker’s novel and using characters from monster movies as level bosses. Horror conventions are used as cues to build the gameworld and to understand the game design, and how the player appropriates some of those conventions to empower herself in the process. The article focuses on the figure of the vampire in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, and how the conventions set in previous media are integrated in the design of the game. Dracula has been divested of his vampiric powers; rather, he acquires typical videogame boss powers, launching fireballs and teleporting himself within the screen. The powers lost by Dracula as a videogame boss are picked up and amplified by the player character, the half-vampire Alucard. This shift is the result of a process started in other media. The powers of the vampire have now been appropriated by the player as a means to empower their interaction in the gameworld, making the vampire a desirable character to the player. *** Bien que les jeux Castlevania ne soient pas conçus pour effrayer le joueur, ils ont recours à des éléments de la littérature et du cinéma d’horreur, par exemple en faisant référence au roman de Bram Stoker et en utilisant des personnages de films de monstres comme boss de niveaux. Les conventions de l’horreur sont utilisées comme indicateurs pour construire le monde du jeu et pour comprendre son design, ainsi que la manière dont le joueur s’approprie certaines de ces conventions pour accroître sa puissance. Cet article s’intéresse à la figure du vampire dans Castlevania: Symphony of the Night et sur les modes d’intégration des conventions établies dans les médias précédents à l’intérieur du design du jeu. Dracula est dépossédé de ses pouvoirs vampiriques et acquiert plutôt des pouvoirs typiques de boss de jeux vidéo, lançant des boules de feu et se téléportant ailleurs dans l’écran. Les pouvoirs que perd Dracula sont récupérés et amplifiés par le personnage-joueur, le demi-vampire Alucard. Ce renversement résulte d’un processus initié dans d’autres médias. Les pouvoirs du vampire ont été réappropriés par le joueur pour augmenter son pouvoir d’interaction dans l’univers du jeu, faisant du vampire un personnage désirable pour le joueur. This issue was generously supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and published in partnership with Ludiciné

Continuity and Discontinuity: An Experiment in Comparing Narratives Across Media

What is the metaphor of the digital game? How might we see the world differently in the age of the Playstation than we did when RCA was a cutting edge company? There is, of course, not one answer to that question, and more than one way to investigate it. This paper is one attempt to think about the social and cultural change introduced by this new medium. Using Edmund Carpenter’s (1960) brief analysis of multiple renditions of the Caine Mutiny as a model, I want to share some impressions of the transformation that mythically-styled narrative undergoes when it moves from one medium to another—with a specific focus on the digital game medium

GPU-Based One-Dimensional Convolution for Real-Time Spatial Sound Generation

Incorporating spatialized (3D) sound cues in dynamic and interactive videogames and immersive virtual environment applications is beneficial for a number of reasons, ultimately leading to an increase in presence and immersion. Despite the benefits of spatial sound cues, they are often overlooked in videogames and virtual environments where typically, emphasis is placed on the visual cues. Fundamental to the generation of spatial sound is the one-dimensional convolution operation which is computationally expensive, not lending itself to such real-time, dynamic applications. Driven by the gaming industry and the great emphasis placed on the visual sense, consumer computer graphics hardware, and the graphics processing unit (GPU) in particular, has greatly advanced in recent years, even outperforming the computational capacity of CPUs. This has allowed for real-time, interactive realistic graphics-based applications on typical consumer- level PCs. Given the widespread use and availability of computer graphics hardware and the similarities that exist between the fields of spatial audio and image synthesis, here we describe the development of a GPU-based, one-dimensional convolution algorithm whose efficiency is superior to the conventional CPU-based convolution method. The primary purpose of the developed GPU-based convolution method is the computationally efficient generation of real- time spatial audio for dynamic and interactive videogames and virtual environments

Instructional Methods and Curricula for “Values Conscious Design”

Values at Play (VAP) is a project that aims to investigate the role of social, moral, and political values in digital games. A primary goal of the project has been to develop a systematic approach to considering values in the design process. Another goal, complementary to this one, has been to create and disseminate curricula and instructional materials for introducing students to our approach, and, more broadly, to “values conscious” design. This paper provides an overview of curricula and instructional materials created to date, as used in a number of graduate and undergraduate game design courses