Category: Game studies (Page 3 of 10)

Imola Bülgözdi

ABSTRACT:
This article explores the communicative possibilities in the third-person walker Journey by Sony Computer Entertainment, which eschews verbal communication between player and game, and does not offer a channel for metagame interactions between players, despite the creators’ claim to provide entertainment that inspires human connection worldwide. The game has been praised for its innovative use of the online multiplayer option that only allows for chance meetings and a very limited repertoire of oral communication, leaving room for experimentation in a world lacking human language but rich in ambient sound beds. Although minimalist regarding player-initiated communication, Journey provides an exceptional atmospheric experience due to its Grammy-nominated and BAFTA Games Awards winning musical score, which foregrounds the affective potential of digital games. The soundscape encourages players from all over the world to travel together and share an adventure not only modelled on Campbell’s ‘the hero’s journey’ but also on Everyman’s. The decade-long continued interest in the game allows the article to focus on the circulation of affects involving the creators, the non-diegetic interpersonal communication between players, and the formation of a uniquely positive and supportive online fandom, which remains, in turn, an inspiration for the creators.

KEY WORDS:
affect theory, digital games, game studies, immersion, Journey, third-person walker, Zen games.

DOI:
10.34135/actaludologica.2024-7-SI.68-83

Mohammadreza Golshani

ABSTRACT:
The paper presents a close reading analysis of the digital game The Cat and the Coup, a documentary digital game that explores the historical narrative surrounding the 1953 coup in Iran. The game uses a unique perspective by placing the players in control of Mohammad Mosaddegh’s cat to explore a pivotal moment in Iranian history: the nationalization of the oil industry and subsequent foreign intervention. This independent game utilizes a distinctive visual style inspired by Persian miniature drawings and creates a transcultural experience, integrating traditional and contemporary symbolism of both East and West embedded in the medium-specific features of digital games. The research combines the insights of regional game studies and post-colonial studies to conduct an in-depth close reading analysis of the game’s narrative structure, visuals, and artistic choices. It argues that the game serves as a counter-narrative to dominant Western portrayals of Iran by focusing on the cultural and historical significance of the events depicted. Furthermore, the paper suggests analysing game design as a form of digital vernacular and scrutinizes the potential of independent games to challenge hegemonic narratives.

KEY WORDS:
counter-history, coup, documentary digital game, Iran, miniature, Mohammad Mosaddegh, Persia, postcolonial studies, regional game studies, tapestry, The Cat and the Coup.

DOI:
10.34135/actaludologica.2024-7-SI.50-66

Aylin Pekanık

ABSTRACT:
Metafiction is a self-reflective narrative form that examines and critiques its own themes and structure, serving as a mirror that reflects both its creator and its audience. Within this context, metafiction in digital games breaks through the artifice of narrative to address the players directly as the facilitators of the story and collaborators whose play patterns, personal experiences, expectations, and habits shape game narratives. With the application of both game theory and literary analysis, this paper will examine a selection of metagames: Lovecraftian horror game Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem displaying meta-mechanics as a form of disempowerment, satirical walking simulators The Stanley Parable and The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe deconstructing the established game tropes, self-aware characters of games Pony Island and Inscryption presenting the developer as a metaphorical adversary, and fictional nonfiction The Beginner’s Guide dissecting the parasocial relationship between developers and players, and the mentally taxing nature of game development. This paper will showcase the meta mechanics and disruptions in such games as wholly unique forms of metatextuality. Ultimately, this paper aims to establish a metagame canon, suggest a typology, and acknowledge metafiction’s place as an essential and inseparable mirror for the storytelling medium of digital games.

KEY WORDS:
deconstruction, digital games, fourth wall, metafiction, metagame, self-reflection.

DOI:
10.34135/actaludologica.2024-7-SI.34-49

Tamás Csönge

ABSTRACT:
The aim of this paper is to identify the reasons for the contradictory conclusions of the fictionalist and the realist theoretical positions on the ontological status of digital game objects. First, the applicability of the Waltonian notion of fiction regarding digital game objects and events is challenged. The paper clarifies that the debate contains a categorical misunderstanding, and that it is not really about the discursive quality of fictionality (or factuality), but about an ontological opposition between represented and real objects. It is then demonstrated that digital game objects belong to a special category of non-physical informational entities that realists rightly consider real because they exhibit systemic behaviour, but fictionalists are also correct regarding their function as signifiers of non-real, represented objects. Following Aarseth, a distinction is made between represented, simulated and real objects. It is argued that simulated digital game objects are real objects, but not necessarily the same kind of objects as those they represent: a virtual library is a library, but a virtual kitten is not a kitten. Finally, it is suggested that the main reason for the confusion about the existential status of game elements is an issue of descriptive language: a confusion between signifier and signified and the uniform designation of heterogeneous phenomena.

KEY WORDS:
descriptive language, digital games, fictionalism, realism, representationalism, simulation, virtuality.

DOI:
10.34135/actaludologica.2024-7-SI.16-33 

Imre Olivér Horváth

ABSTRACT:
The study investigates aspects of ludopoetic interplay in Baba is You, a digital puzzle game that radically reimagines the relationship between language, gameplay, and meaning-making. Through a close reading of selected game levels, we identify several features that render the game poetic: its use of emotive linguistic markers, its emphasis on verbal creation, and the player’s engagement with and enjoyment of linguistic play. By analysing the game’s unique mechanics of rule manipulation, we examine how players interact with language as both a procedural system and a poetic medium. The study identifies five modes of interaction between referential (metaphorical) and intraprocedural (metonymical) transfers of meaning, including exclusion, diversion, and mutual support. We argue that the game achieves its poetic quality especially by prioritising metonymy over metaphor, foregrounding the materiality of language and the performative power of words. By enabling players to dynamically reconstruct game rules through linguistic manipulation, Baba is You transforms gameplay into an act of linguistic creativity.

KEY WORDS:
Baba is You, ludopoetic interplay, lyric address, lyric poetry, procedural figurativity.

DOI:
10.34135/actaludologica.2024-7-SI.4-15