Playing Research

This weeks reading is Espen Aarseth's - Playing Research:Methodological approaches to game analysis given at the MelbourneDAC, the 5th International Digital Arts and Culture Conference. May 19 - 23, 2003.

We will be doing quite a large feedback session on this text next week so make sure you read it, make notes and bring you discussions to class.

Student Presentations

The time is almost here for your marked student presentations, as your PA2 states…

This image is a link to a copy of your PA2

It has been students responsibilities to assign their own groups (of no more than 3) to present their arguments. As the PA2 states this is 40% of your 10 credits, so it is important that you all pose a coherent argument and prepare yourself for the questions and answers that will follow. Don’t forget that if you are arguing for one school of thought that there will probably be people in the audience that are there to argue the other so be prepared.

You can book suggested slots for your presentation here using doodle

I have tried to help you assign groups but it seems to be increasingly difficult week by week to keep track of your groups so… can people please add a list of group members to the comments of this post so I can try and keep track of them and try to help those not in groups to find people to work with.

Here is a link to a video debate on Game Studies hosted at HumLab between Henry Jenkins and Espen Aarseth which might be interesting for you to watch for your research…

http://www2.humlab.umu.se/video/speldebatt.ram

"I HAVE NO WORDS"

This week’s reading is a two parter, but unlike a TV series, there is no “to be continued...” so if you wish to read the full text this week then feel free. The text is…

Costikyan, Greg "I Have No Words & I Must Design: Toward a Critical Vocabulary for Games" Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference Proceedings, Tampere: Tampere University Press, June, 2002

(Greg Costikyans keynote speak from the 2002 Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference all papers from the conference can be found here)

And we will be looking at the first section pages 9>26 (up to the “LEBLANC’S TAXONOMY” section). This text although long is a great read and shouldn’t be a struggle. We will be feeding back on our thoughts in the session so it is imperative that you read this text before the session.

For those that are keen on the term gameplay and want to read some more then this article is good - Attempting to Define Gameplay

Semiotics: in and out of a game space

Thursday’s session will focus on structural linguistics, semiotics, semiotic structures and semiotic domains in video games, we will be looking at a couple of texts to help us understand what semiotics is and what it might offer you in terms of game analysis.

One of the main texts we will be using is “Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art” by Scott McCloud which we will be going through in the session. Hopefully it will help us crack the nut of what semiotics is and how it works.

One of the sections we will be looking at focuses on a piece of art by René Magritte entitled Ceci n’est pas une pipe (trans. This is not a pipe)

You can view these pages online here

You might be interested in this page as well which is a very short piece by Michel Foucault about Ceci n’est pas une pipe which might be useful in helping you further understand the picture.

McClouds book has become a seminal writing in the practice of sequential arts (comics) and looks at how we understand comics, investigating the structures and tools of the comic book to open up the realm of the sequential arts.

Some more of the book that we are using can be found here (which is a power point presentation on digital comics)

I have dug out some interesting links for you that you might like to look at for further understanding of the book

How comics can invigorate your storytelling

iFanboy – video review of the book Understanding Comics

Further Reading on Games and Semiotics

Chandler, D. - Semiotics for Beginners

Lindley, C. - The Semiotics of Time Structure in Ludic Space As a Foundation for Analysis and Design computer game research , Game Stdies, Volume 5 Issue 1, October 2005

Behrens, J. Frezzo, D. Mislevy, Kroopnick, M. and Wise, D.- Structural, Functional, and Semiotic Symmetries in Simulation-Based Games and Assessments

Friedman, T. – Semiotics of SimCity

Lemke, J.- MULTIMEDIA SEMIOTICS and DIGITAL GAMES

Neiva, E. and Romano, C. - The Semiotic Immersion of Video Games, Gaming Technology and Interactive Strategies, The Public Journal of Semiotics Volume I No. 2 July 2007

Ludology VS. Narratology

As part of the Module requirement you will need to present an argument to support either one of the two of the schools of thought within game studies, either Ludology or Narratology. We looked at some defining quotes in our first session and tried to sketch out a sense of what these words mean. As the module progresses we will discuss some of the standpoints on these two fields of research. I think it is important to lay out the battlefield for this argument and see where we all stand in what has been described as a “polemic” argument or “binary” positions (an argument with two defined apposing sides).

There has been a lot of work looking at these two schools of thought and more recently work done to try and find a middle ground through approaches such as looking at games through spatiality (games as a space) such as Henry Jenkins Game Design as Narrative Architecture in The Game Design Reader (which has been photocopied for you as part of the Narratives Module with Vee Uye) and Peter Bergers There and Back again: Reuse, Signifiers and Consistency in Created Game Spaces in Computer Games as a Sociocultural Phenomenon.

BUT…

We need to focus on the Ludology vs. Narratology debate.

Here are some links that you might find useful; as you scour the internet for useful resources it would be good to share your links with the group. If you post comments with URL’s we can start to share our resources and research. It would be good if you could drop in something along with the URL so we know what to expect from the link (and maybe an opinion on the content)

Blog Posts:

Game Studies: Narratology v. Ludology

Ludology v. Narratology: it lives!

"No Justice, No Peace": No Truce in the Narratology/Ludology War

N&L: I Can’t Take it Anymore!

Articles and Papers:

Juul Jesper “Games Telling stories? -A brief note on games and narratives”

Frasca, Gonzalo “Ludologists love stories, too: notes from a debate that never took place”

Cavazza, Marc; Pizzi, David "Narratology for Interactive Storytelling: A Critical Introduction"

Gomes, Renata "The Design of Narrative as an Immersive Simulation"

Kücklich, Julian "The Playability of Texts vs. the Readability of Games: Towards a Holistic Theory fo Fictionality"

Lindley, Craig A. "The Gameplay Gestalt, Narrative, and Interactive Storytelling"

Mateas, Michael; Stern, Andrew "Build It to Understand It: Ludology Meets Narratology in Game Design Space"

Pearce, Celia "Theory Wars: An Argument Against Arguments in the so-called Ludology/Narratology Debate"

Tronstad, Ragnhild "Defining a Tubmud Ludology"

Murry, Janet “The Last Word on Ludology v Narratology in Game Studies” – A damning of the binary.