Author: admin (Page 1 of 7)

Transformations in the Visual Presentation of Czech Games: The Evolution of Game Box Art from 1989 to 2010

June 20, 2025 / admin

Kristína Pupáková

ABSTRACT:
This study investigates the evolution of game box art graphic design in the Czech context between 1989 and 2010. It examines how visual communication mediated by box art transformed in response to technological, market, and cultural influences. Game box art is defined as a multimodal medium with protective, aesthetic, communicative, and marketing functions, pivotal in shaping player expectations and decision-making. The research charts a historical progression, identifying three main stages: an amateur period (1989-1995) characterized by variability and often handmade designs; commercial standardization (1996-2000) featuring more sophisticated illustrations and emerging marketing strategies; and a period of professionalization and visual sophistication (2001-2010) reflecting international standards and advanced digital techniques. This study situates these Czech developments within global trends and the transformative shift towards digital distribution, particularly after 2010, aiming to delineate the chronological adaptation of visual approaches.

KEY WORDS:
Czech gaming industry, digital distribution, digital games, game box art, game marketing, graphic design, history, paratexts, visual communication, visual semiotics.

DOI:
10.34135/actaludologica.2025-8-1.118-136

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Every-body at Play: Fostering Understanding of the Somatic to Enrich Play Experiences

June 20, 2025 / admin

Christopher Noël

ABSTRACT:
This article aims to describe a new framework to think about the feelings of having a body in the context of digital games. By understanding how abstract thoughts stem from embodied experiences through phenomenology, the importance of the aesthetic experience of the body is highlighted as a source of meaning-making. From there, a delve into somaesthetics regarding the experience of being a specific body (or hexis) is used as a focal point both for thinking about existing games and to picture new types of interactions, in an effort to express more diverse and detailed somatic experiences. Subsequently, a brief analysis of two existing games: the virtual reality title Broken Edge, as well as Hand Simulator. Finally, we conclude with an explanation of our own design process, by demonstrating how the somaesthetics framework was used first analytically and how its insight informed practical applications in the context of our research-creation process.

KEY WORDS:
body, digital games, embodiment, estheme, somaesthemes, somaesthetics.

DOI:
10.34135/actaludologica.2025-8-1.98-116

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From Play to Belonging: Board Game Cafes as Mediators for Social Wellness and Community Building in Japan

June 20, 2025 / admin

Allan Novaes, Lizbeth Kanyat

ABSTRACT:
This study examines board game cafes as spaces of sociability and community building in urban Japan, analysing how the concepts of third place and ibasho manifest within these establishments. The research employed a three-stage ethnographic methodology in nine Tokyo board game cafes, comprising participant observation, online surveys, and interviews. The investigation focused on space design, user profiles, business models, sociability, game selection, and alignment with third place and ibasho frameworks. Findings reveal two primary strategies employed by board game cafes to cultivate an ibasho environment: the play-centred experience, encompassing ludic culture and gaming practices that promote social interaction through collaborative and party games, and the socialization-centred experience, including customer retention initiatives such as food and beverage offerings and social media engagement. Results indicate that board game cafes function beyond traditional third places, emerging as ibasho spaces that address contemporary Japanese social challenges such as isolation, loneliness, and technological dependence. This study provides comprehensive insights into how board game cafes foster community building, social inclusion, and personal growth through their operational frameworks and social initiatives, contributing to the understanding of modern urban social spaces in Japan.

KEY WORDS:
board game cafes, consumption studies, ibasho, loneliness, social isolation, third place.

DOI:
10.34135/actaludologica.2025-8-1.78-97

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A Paper Ball: Play, Agency and Space in Dispute

June 20, 2025 / admin

Juan Sebastián Goyburu

ABSTRACT:
This philosophical exploratory paper considers the ontology of play and toys, specifically balls, showing that play is an autotelic phenomenon that reorganizes time, space and material relations. Its objective will be to start developing a philosophical definition of ‘play’ that includes imaginative play but does not rest on the idea of imagination but instead on the materiality of playing, in order to make it coherent with more physical games. We start from the analysis of play in classical phenomenology, finding that its perspective fails on two counts: That it rests on the idea of ‘imagination’ in order to define play and on something akin to the Waltonian ‘prop’ as the archetype of toy and, relatedly, that choice does not seem to be able to account for more physical types of play. We will then try to explore games by placing the materiality of playing and the ball as a technical object at the centre of the analysis. This path will open the network of interactions that, following Latour, we can see actualized in the ludic, revealing its inherent political nature. We will conclude by recovering the Heideggerian and Finkean notions on autotelicity and the space-time articulating character of the game, but now on material grounds that allow a more comprehensive and nuanced characterization of games, toys, playing and player.

KEY WORDS:
ball games, balls, Bruno Latour, phenomenology, play, play space, postphenomenology, toys.

DOI:
10.34135/actaludologica.2025-8-1.64-77

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Environmental Engagement and the Ecodystopian Narrative: The Last of Us and Its Anthropocenic Echoes

June 20, 2025 / admin

Pascal Verheul

ABSTRACT:
This paper explores the representation of Nature in the digital game The Last of Us as subversive of established ecodystopian tropes, providing a strong critique of anthropocentrism through its depiction of a world in which humanity is no longer on top. The paper focuses on the first digital game in the duology, with intertextual analysis of the second instalment and the HBO adaptation to support the framing of key concepts. While ecodystopian fiction commonly depicts environmental decline and scarcity to show the consequences of unbridled anthropocentrism, The Last of Us instead presents a world with abundant Nature that has turned hostile to humanity. Through an analysis of Nature’s characteristics within the digital game, through the scope of ecocriticism and Marxist literary theory, this paper argues that the narrative at hand makes complex environmental concerns tangible through an immersive, post-apocalyptic landscape wherein Nature has become both monstrous and sovereign. The paper furthermore posits that the mycomonstrous antagonist, the Infected, is Nature personified, reflecting ecological negligence, capitalist overreach and anthropocentric hubris. Through its interactive format, The Last of Us functions as a narrative-driven medium that critically provides echoes of anthropocentric capitalist actions and their consequences, refuting the end of Nature through humanity.

KEY WORDS:
anthropocene, capitalism, digital games, ecodystopian, environmentalism, post-apocalyptic, posthuman, The Last of Us.

DOI:
10.34135/actaludologica.2025-8-1.50-63

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Game on, Think Deep, Level up: Engaging Higher Education Students in a Digital Game Analysis and Critique Curricular Unit

June 20, 2025 / admin

André Carita

ABSTRACT:
This paper explores the importance and challenges of teaching a digital game analysis and critique curricular unit to students on a digital game course. The central research question guiding this study is: How can educators effectively teach students to critically analyse digital games as cultural artifacts and forms of media expression? Digital games, as a medium of cultural significance, require an in-depth approach to teaching their analysis. The paper begins with an introduction to the importance of digital game analysis in contemporary education, discussing the role of digital games as a medium for expression and the need for critical perspectives in their study. It also highlights the existing approaches and research gaps that still need to be addressed. The methodology section outlines strategies for teaching while the results and findings sections discuss the outcomes of implementing these strategies in educational settings and considers the practical exercises used as case studies throughout the semester in the past five years (from 2019/2020 to 2023/2024). Finally, the paper concludes with insights on the effectiveness of discussing digital games in the classroom and recommendations for future research and practice.

KEY WORDS:
active learning, creative writing, critical thinking, critique, digital games, hands-on activities, peer learning, student engagement.

DOI:
10.34135/actaludologica.2025-8-1.32-49

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How Chinese Esports Rose: The Structure of Chinese Esports Before 2011 and Sicong Wang’s Esports Integration Practice

June 20, 2025 / admin

Pengze Zheng

ABSTRACT:
This paper seeks to interpret the big picture of Chinese eSports before 2011 and how it turned into the current model, contributing to its expansive development. Since the mid-2010s, China has become one of the most important players in the global eSports industry. However, before 2011, the Chinese eSports industry was chaotic. It began in 1998 and suffered from the industry’s late start and unregulated environments, including the unstable foundation of the eSports industry, the market separatism of domestic game companies, the government’s paradoxical control, and the stigmatization of eSports players. Game companies, investors, and eSports players struggled to think about the future, but little research ever went deep into these issues. This paper aims to fill the blank in the academic analysis of the Chinese eSports industry between 1998 and 2011. Beginning with the origins of Chinese eSports, it will consider the components that support Chinese eSports, the obstacles that hinder Chinese eSports’ development, Sicong Wang’s strategy of integrating Chinese eSports, and the significance of understanding Chinese eSports’ rise.

KEY WORDS:
eSports, game companies, government, China, internet cafe, Sicong Wang, society, stigmatization.

DOI:
10.34135/actaludologica.2025-8-1.16-30

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Among Pixels and Pavement: Exploring the Feedback Loop Between Digital Games and Public Spaces

June 20, 2025 / admin

Caio Tulio Olimpio Pereira da Costa

ABSTRACT:
The paper explores the complex interactions between public spaces and digital games, highlighting how these environments both influence and are influenced by each other on real and virtual worlds. Drawing on Johan Huizinga’s concept of Homo ludens, the study underscores the importance of play as a fundamental aspect of human culture and its extension into contemporary digital interfaces. In addition, the paper argues that the feedback loop between game and reality reshapes our understanding of public spaces and games, exploring mini-cases as potential examples for the discussion. The analysis also considers Dewey’s notion of experience and Janet Murray’s concept of immersion, positioning the player as a critical mediator who navigates the thin line between virtual and real worlds. As a methodological approach, this study employs qualitative and bibliographic research to offer a theoretical perspective on how digital games and architectural dynamics intertwine, as well as using SimCity as a primary case study of public spaces in digital games. As result, the paper states that public spaces and their intertwining with digital games behave in the modern era as a projection of the user’s experience, with their cultural, social, and aesthetic values represented by instances that transit between the real and virtual, even narrowing the ties between these two fields.

KEY WORDS:
digital games, public spaces, urban and architectural dynamics, virtual environments.

DOI:
10.34135/actaludologica.2025-8-1.4-15

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Playful Learning Approach in an English Class in a Rural Normal School

December 27, 2024 / admin

Ana Arán Sánchez

ABSTRACT:
Using playful learning methodologies in foreign language learning among adults has gained more attention in recent years, due to the advantages and benefits that students receive from it. The results of an action research intervention with a mixed-method approach are presented, which was conducted in a Rural Normal School, a public federal higher education institution located in the state of Chihuahua, north of Mexico. This research was implemented in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) course, involving 90 second-year students pursuing bachelor’s degrees in elementary education and preschool education, during the 2022-2023 school year. The purpose of the study was to design and implement a program using a playful learning approach to develop the cognitive, affective, and sociocultural aspects of the students. The instruments used included participant observation, a teacher’s diary, and a structured questionnaire to identify students’ experiences in the English class. The results show strong development in the cognitive and affective aspects, and a lesser degree of development in the sociocultural element.

KEY WORDS:
English teaching, higher education, learning process, normal rural schools, playful approach.

DOI:
10.34135/actaludologica.2024-7-SI.114-126

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The Transmedial Connection of Tabletop Role-Playing Games and Cosplay in The Wayward Wanderers Campaign

December 27, 2024 / admin

Orsolya Nagy

ABSTRACT:
The present paper focuses on the transmedial relationship between cosplay and tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) in a specific case study: the analysis of The Wayward Wanderers campaign played online by an international tabletop role-playing team. The purpose of the research is to point out the diversity of cosplay storytelling in social media as well as to study its transmedial characteristics. To achieve this, it is first necessary to clarify the concept and definition of cosplay, tabletop role-playing and transmedia storytelling, and then to introduce the role-playing team as the subject of the analysis, which was founded by cosplayers. The central question of the research is how the narrative of The Wayward Wanderers campaign is retold or modified through the character portrayal and cosplay storytelling content created and published by the players on their TikTok accounts. For this research we use content and profile analysing methods: we examine in detail how much cosplay content the cosplayers created with the characters they played in the role-playing campaign, over what period the content was published, what different methods were used to create content (individual or group videos, etc.) and how they relate to the canon role-playing narrative.

KEY WORDS:
cosplay, cultural studies, fan studies, game studies, social media, tabletop role-playing games, transmediality.

DOI:
10.34135/actaludologica.2024-7-SI.98-112

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