Category: Game studies (Page 4 of 6)

ABSTRACT: Difficulty is the personal experience of a subject facing resistance that prevents them from reaching a goal or desired state. It is an experiential part of everyone’s existence. In digital games, difficulty is strongly linked with designed challenges and obstacles that must be overcome by physical effort, manual skills, coordination, and dexterity. But this widespread perspective is a reductionist categorization of the expressive possibilities of difficulty. Because as experiential, difficulty is aesthetic expression and therefore it is much more than the mere skill challenge. The difficulty experience that emerges from an opposing force between object and subject, between game and player, can be interpretive, poetic, narrative, ethical or atmospheric among other expressive forms. Understanding difficulty from these broad parameters, we pose it as an aesthetic expression, which forges multiple experiences at the intersection between mechanics, fiction, and the player’s performance. This study analyses, drawing from philosophy, postphenomenology, and game studies, some aspects of two contemporary games, The Last of Us Part II and Death Stranding from the view of difficulty as aesthetic experience perspective, considering the significant and discursive tensions beyond purely ludic and mechanical elements

KEY WORDS: aesthetics, difficulty, digital games, emotions, experience, challenge.

ABSTRACT: The design of objects requiring human interaction often revolves around methods such as Human Centred Design (HCD). Whilst this is beneficial in many cases, contemporary developments of technology such as the Internet of Things (IoT), which produce assemblages of interactions, lead to the view that human centred approaches can prove problematic leading to the proposal of adopting more-than-human perspectives. This study discusses the creation of a novel board game designed to explore a more-than-human design view for IoT products and services by addressing problematic issues in relation to user data privacy and security within the IoT which arguably arise from the application of traditional HCD approaches. By embracing Object-Oriented Philosophy, The Internet of Things Board Game creates an ontographic mapping of IoT assemblages and illuminates the tiny ontologies of unique interactions occurring within these digital and physical networked spaces. Here the gameplay acts as metaphorism illustrating independent and interdependent relationships between the various ‘things’ in the network. The study illustrates how critical game design can help develop potential new design approaches as well as enabling users to better understand the complex digital/physical assemblages they create when utilising IoT products and services in their everyday lives.

KEY WORDS: board game, design research, game design, internet of things, metaphorism, more-than human.

ABSTRACT: Although the most established model of digital game development is through funding from publishers, there has been a major boost to independent game development, especially after the 2000s. This production context has specific challenges, particularly for lone developers. Some indie developers share their experiences and tips with the community using videos, and these videos illustrate the challenges and mindset around indie development of their time. This article presents a survey of good practices for lone (solo) indie developers compiled from twenty-nine YouTube videos. There are thirteen content creators who shared various tips about tools to use; ways to improve the game design of a product; ways to improve production process management and how to avoid pipeline failures during the development; recommendations on how to handle and how to manage marketing, focusing on fanbase management; advice on how to stay healthy during the process and mindset changes that are required for the development of games. The tips are compiled and a discussion is made on how they outline a dimension of the indie context and mentality of their time, and how they illustrate what are considered good practices among community members.

KEY WORDS: game development, good practices, indie community, indie game, solo developers.

ABSTRACT: We present a report from our preliminary research, which focused on the possibilities of implementing game elements into e-learning at university. We were interested in the attitudes and preferences of the students on the introductory course for the study of culture, where a questionnaire survey was conducted. We asked students what potential they see in the application of digital technologies in e-learning, what motivates them to study online and what advantages and limits of the educational principles of games they see in e-learning. Here we offer a description of the preliminary results that led to our next research steps. The questionnaire was distributed among students of two runs of the Introduction to the Study of Culture course at the Faculty of Social Studies of Masaryk University, who completed it after the final test. A total of 188 students submitted a completed form. These were bachelor students, usually in the first year of study, mostly women. We chose a freely available online tool for the analysis, our approach to data processing was non-mathematical at this stage. Nevertheless, we believe that it has enabled us to gain a direct and unmediated insight into the subject of our research. Mixed methods pragmatic rationalization of the research process traditionally refers to the complementarity of datasets and greater validity. Based on the findings, we recommend to educators and developers of the online learning environment how they could improve the design of e-learning in accordance with the needs and different learning styles of students.

KEY WORDS: digital games, e-learning, flow, game-based educational principles, gamification, learning objectives, motivation and self-determination theory, online learning systems, teaching model.

ABSTRACT: So-called dark patterns are widely discussed in game design. This phenomenon raises
concerns for gaming education because numerous dark patterns trick players into real money transactions or gambling. A major obstacle to the practical assessment of the severity of a ‘dark’ pattern is the very definition of ‘game patterns’, basing solely on action-oriented structures. In order to take into account not only abstract expressions of the game system, but also the experience of the player, as well as the diverse contexts in which games are played, this article proposes to use the semiotic model of the ‘ludeme’. A ludeme is a minimal element in game design consisting of a grapheme, an acousteme, and a motifeme. We begin by explaining and situating the conceptual framework of the ludeme theory, with a specific interest in its application to repetitions of the same game element over time and through different digital games. Then, the theoretical framework is applied to SimCity BuildIt and particularly to the ‘dark patterns’ in it. In the last part, paths for further developments of the model of ludemic analysis are discussed, with regard to its
relevance for media education and digital game literacy.

KEY WORDS: dark patterns, digital game literacy, game analysis, ludeme, ludoliteracy, SimCity.

ABSTRACT: Even at the apex of its hype cycle in the 2010s, game studies scholars and designers derided gamification. This article first explores why gamification inspired such vitriol. It finds the incursion of non-game corporations and entities into the field was a threat to those who fought so ardently to legitimize the profession and promote a more playful or ludic 21^st century. The article then delves deeper into the literature of play to redefine what occurs when a player engages with a gamified app, such as the social media application Foursquare. It rescripts their activity as ‘punctuated play’, or when the competition, conflict, glory, and other aspects of traditional play pierce a moment but do not necessarily define it.

KEY WORDS: Foursquare, game design, game studies, gamification, ludology.

ABSTRACT: In the context of games for learning, rich multimodal conversations online can contribute to extending the educational potential of digital games. In this study, we analyzed the multimodal features of user interactions in an online affinity space dedicated to the Rocksmith digital game. This game allows users to connect a traditional electric guitar to a Sony PlayStation 4 console and interact with the game while improving their guitar playing skills. Findings show that users include several multimodal elements in their online conversations in order to support guitar learning beyond the digital walls of the game. Emoticons, emoji, pictures, YouTube videos, and user-generated videos are all part of a constellation of audiovisual modes that support social learning practices in an interest-driven online space. By understanding how users incorporate these modes in their interactions, game designers, game developers, and educators can make informed decisions on how to design and improve these features within the games themselves and in online communities of learning dedicated to such games. The findings of this study can also help these stakeholders and decision-makers create more engaging and more effective connections between games and online platforms

KEY WORDS: affinity spaces, games and learning, multimodality, online learning, Rocksmith.

ABSTRACT: The paper presents, discusses and analyses the role of building brand image in digital games. The purpose of this paper is to analyse and discuss in-game marketing in cultural spheres from the aspect of brand image. The aim is to explore, identify and present the relationship between brand image, consumer self-image and digital games as a brand. The contribution of this study is manifested in an interdisciplinary approach to work through marketing, psychology, sociology, and media theory. Consumers project their desires through digital games, and the brand’s entry into the digital game itself enhances the gaming experience and reality of the digital game. It was concluded that consumers want a realistic experience while playing digital games and they want to see famous brands within the game as this enhances their experience and projects the reality of the digital world. The core of brand image is consumers’ perception. In recent years, the digital game industry dominates this segment of the global entertainment economy. The paper analyses in-game marketing from the aspect of branding and sociology of culture. It is based on J. N. Kapferer’s theory of brand building and Huzinga’s theory of game. The article explores the meaning of the phenomenon of brand image and identity in virtual reality. The emphasis in this paper is put on the influence of brand image and digital game as a model of popular culture. This article adopts an integrated knowledge inquiry approach through thematic analysis to explain the concept of brand image. From the consumer’s point of view, the brand represents a symbol built on impressions, associations, metaphors and archetypes in the digital gaming industry. Brand loyalty is a key factor in building brand equity. The problem of brand loyalty appears as a reflection of brand symbol and its image. However, the oxymoron of in-game marketing starts from the hypothesis that consumers want to see brands in virtual realit

KEY WORDS: brand, culture, digital game, image, in-game marketing.

ABSTRACT: A study from the OECD published that Cancer is one of the main causes of mortality in developed societies, with remarkably high prevalence, incidence and mortality rates for both sexes. This study closely examines nine digital games to elucidate how they conceptualize a disease like cancer around a narrative concerning the sickness, patients, treatments and outcomes. Discourse and content analysis techniques were applied to the message contained in the games looking to illuminate the connection between the narrative core, the audio-visual representation and the interactive aspects of the game, within the parameters of values-conscious design applied to digital games. This provides some evidence about the cultural and visual aspects of how game designers conceptualize the disease as a part of society. This research uncovers culturally embedded themes and reveals the prevalence of metaphor use in cancer discourse which relied on science, social support and spiritual convictions for social empowerment, building empathy and identification.

KEY WORDS: cancer, cultural industries, digital games, serious games.

ABSTRACT: The paper discusses the criteria about how one can establish if a group is a new genre. It distinguishes between two main lines of thinking about genre in general – content and discourse. Both lines have two things to discuss. For content it is similarities and differences in mechanics, and for discourse it is commercial and social purpose of the use of new categories. The case studies then show how this can be applied to the rising auto battler class. There are 7 core mechanics in games that are similar, but every game differs in small details from others. The discourse in the social and commercial sphere has appeared over a short time period, and the adoption of the new genre by the gaming community was therefore fast. The bottom line of the text is that using rigid categories for discussions about digital games cannot focus only on rigid criteria, but also on context.

KEY WORDS: auto battler, core mechanics, digital games, game typologies, genres studies, modding.