Tag: Vol.1 No.1 (2018)

ABSTRACT: Pathological gambling is one of the addictions that is widespread in our society, but despite its seriousness, it does not receive sufficient attention. The economic consequences of pathological gambling are comparable to other addictions, although in the overall context, their economic impact is much greater. The social consequences of pathological gambling are even greater than in case of other addictions, as pathological gamblers mostly have a family, and because of their dependence, their family often becomes dysfunctional, with all the related consequences. There exist several effective treatment approaches to treat pathological gambling, as in the case of substance dependencies. For an understanding of pathological behaviour in online games and digital games, it is also necessary to understand the development of related phenomenon – pathological gambling. The aim of this article is to briefly describe pathological gambling and co-dependence.

KEY WORDS: addiction, co-dependence, family, games, pathological gambling.

ABSTRACT: This document details the abstract for a study on zombie narratives and zombies as units and their translation from cinemas to interactive mediums. Focusing on modern zombie mythos and aesthetics as major influences in pop-culture; including videogames. The main goal of this study is to examine the applications of zombie units that have their narrative roots in traditional; non-ergodic media, in videogames; how they are applied, what are their patterns, and the allure of their pervasiveness.

KEY WORDS: case studies, cinema, narrative, Romero, unit operations, videogames, zombie.

ABSTRACT: This paper discusses the relationship between locative games and music, using as reference the notions of sound space, acoustic space, and soundscape. The locative game genre reflects the opposite side considering the video game format: in this case, the action leaks from screens and consoles to the urban space with the use of locative media, turning the city into support for the actions of the players. Our hypothesis argues that by using music and other sound features (sounds, effects and so on), the locative game can create a resonant sensory environment caused by music and sound signals that are impregnated in the region. As a methodology, we analysed the locative game GPS Musical Crosswords Puzzle from these concepts – sound space, acoustic space, and soundscape – to show how they can be designed from the experience of locative games.

KEY WORDS: locative games, music, place, sensorial environment, space.

ABSTRACT: The main theme of my article is the relationship between virtual worlds of video games and the concept of utopia. I aim to present a wide variety of different definitions and theories of utopia, which seem indispensable in order to further the relationship between video game and virtual reality research and the multitude of utopian studies discourses. The thesis starts with a short recollection of Alexander Galloway’s thesis on video games and utopias from his article on World of Warcraft which I am trying to supplement with some of the most interesting contemporary utopian studies research. The core of the article focuses on sketching an alternative proposal which includes a variety of definitions of utopia and utopianism. My aim is to introduce precise and useful notions which could be further utilized in game analysis and game research.

KEY WORDS: digital games, game studies, magic circle, utopia, utopian studies, utopianism, video games.