Understanding Genre

It is important for us to understand that just calling a game by a tag word such as "RPG" or "shooter" is not enough to analyse a game and understand how it both fits within the matrix or taxonomy of genre and how genre works both as a category and a framework to understand games and their development. Genre is an important aspect of game analysis, many frameworks and methods of categorisation have been established throughout the development of game studies as a defined discipline, some are helpful in understanding the development of games and some are somewhat ludicrous!

Genre frameworks work both as an analytical tool and a marketing tool and it is important to understand what frameworks to use and what purposes they serve.

Costikyan, G. 2005 Game Styles, Innovation, and New Audiences:An Historical View
Proceedings of DiGRA 2005 Conference: Changing Views - Worlds in Play
http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/theory/styles.html

Apperley, T. H. Genre and Game Studies: Towards a critical approach to video game genres
http://sag.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/37/1/6
(This will have to accessed from within the university firewalls on a student computer/athens login)

What sort of player are you???

The Bartle Test
(MMORPG players)

A player personality analyzer that classifies you as an explorer, socializer, killer or achieve. Originally designed for MUD (multi-user dungeon) participants, it remains relevant to new virtual worlds and MMORPGs. This is an updated version of the Bartle Test, the format and questions remain the same, the wording has just been updated to keep it relevant.

FPS Quiz
(Multiplayer First Person Shooter Players)

Based on the format of the famous Bartle Test, this test applies to multiplayer FPS players, and classifies players as Recon, Shock Trooper, Support and Commander.

RTS Quiz
(Real Time Strategy Players)

Are you a Turtle, Strategist, Commander or Rusher?

"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

The Narrative Design Exploratorium

Here is a link to a site I accessed through the IGDA website. It's a great little resource called The Narrative Design Exploratorium. For those on the Narrative Skills module, this is a tool you should all be taking advantage of. I also think it is going to be useful to anybody with even a passing interest in game narratives and game writing.

So check it out and if anyone finds an article of particular interest, post it here and let us know about it and I will do the same.

Cheers all.

There and Back Again

This week we will be reading "There and Back Again: Reuse, Signifiers and Consistency in Created Game Spaces" by Peter Berger. The text is taken from the book Computer Games as a Sociocultural Phenomenon: Games Without Frontiers - War Without Tears. The essay looks at mapped spaces and signifiers.

The book is an amazing collection of essays about games and game culture and way published earlier this year. It is expensive (£48) but i will be researching how to get the library to buy in copies into Salford as we will be using it as a key text in the module next term (H&A4). A sample of the book can be found here, it has the books contents and one of the essays "The Aesthetic Vocabulary of Video Games" by Joost van Dreunen, which is another great essay that you should look at.

Searching for Articles

I thought that i would put something on the blog to help you go through step by step how to find articles through Google. It's a tool/skill that I stumbled upon, and not a lot of people know it, so i thought I’d write a small tutorial for you and it will help you do your research and make sure you end up with some good outcomes from your search... (hopefully)

A lot of papers from conferences and articles from journals get thrown up onto the internet, hidden away under the piles of trash. Sometimes people put things up as a form of storage so they don't link from their website to it and it sits on a server as a back-up, Academics are notoriously unorganised so the tech savvy ones know this is a good way to keep things safe. GOOGLE BOTS AND SPIDERS FIND EVERYTHING, and a lot of people don't realise that even if it's not linked to it's still there to find, it just takes the bots longer, that's their job, to trawl the internet finding stuff. Most of this stuff gets .pdf'd to try and cut down on size and to try and stop people copying it (which doesn't work unless your really clever about it)

OK... so without further ado how to use advanced search in Google to get good results...

Instead of just using the normal Google search bar and button on http://www.google.co.uk/ click on advanced search

Enter in the search terms, i usually use the "all these terms" box unless I’m looking for an article i want that i know a sentence from and I’ll put it into the "exact words" box. The exact words box is great if you have a text that you think people might have quoted from in their work and you want other opinions or someone might be writing or have used the same paper. Some lecturers also use this to see if your work is plagiarised as an initial search before we start feeding your work into the system and bring out the big guns (software that sniffs out plagiarism). Plagiarism is easy to spot, Lecturers have probably read the work you’re copying from and it's easy to spot the change in tone or language you’re using. Lecturers are sent on training courses to sniff it out... don't do it, you will get caught.

Anyway, enter you search words and in the "file format" drop down box, pick "Adobe Acrobat PDF" and click the advanced search button

You can skip all that though and streamline your search by typing "filetype:pdf" after your search in the normal Google search bar or website. If I’m trawling through looking for lots of different stuff I’ll just cut and paste that bit, keep it on my clipboard and just paste it after each search.

Hope this is helpful and it should improve your research skills and what sort of work your referencing.

Maybe we can start sharing links through the blog that you have found using your newly learned skills...

Wii-Mote Hacks

This is non-module specific content...

I thought i would share this with you all after a discussion that i had after the class on Thursday with one of you (who will remain nameless). It is only 5 mins long and a must see for game developers...

Johnny Lee: Creating tech marvels out of a $40 Wii Remote

The wii-mote seems to have boundless possibilities with how we interact and interface with computers and blows open the some what limited capabilities that game controllers had in the past. It is an area of research for me at the moment and thought it might interest you as well.

Here are some other wii-mote hack projects i am following at the moment...

Wii-mote finger tracking
Wii-mote finger tracking Youtube link

Wii-mote controlled robot
Wii-mote controlled robot Youtube link

Wii-mote dance suit
Wii-mote dance suit Youtube link

Leisure Suit Larry to Exploit Wii Technology - The new Leisure Suit Larry to use new wii-mote interactivity

Wii + Second Life = New Training Simulator Real-world simulations like these are perfectly suited to Nintendo's Wiimote, says MIT research fellow David E. Stone. In fact, he claims the motion-sensitive controller is "one of the most significant technology breakthroughs in the history of computer science." Say what?

Share the wii-mote hack links in the comments...

Literary Theory and the Game

We have looked at the benefits and limitations of using Literary Theory to investigate games and their narrative structures.

Three key areas that we have looked at are:

• Poetics
• Hermeneutics
• Aesthetics

And defined these terms in very simple terms as

• Poetics – The study of literary conventions and rules
• Hermeneutics – The study of literature’s meaning, what signifiers mean within the text
• Aesthetics – The study of literature’s effects

I think that a review of Genre construction is important and it is important to understand how the poetics of videogames plays a part in their construction.

Further Reading on Games and Literary Theory

Kücklich, J. - Literary Theory and Computer Games

Ryan, M.-L. - Immersion vs. Interactivity: Virtual Reality and Literary Theory

Rockwell, G. -Gore Galore: Literary Theory and Computer Games (you may need to login to Athens in order to view these)