As Real As Your Life

Below is the trailer for the film "As Real as Your Life" which started as a freshman project by Michael Highland a self confessed game addict. His film brings some debates to light that we will be discussing further in H&A4, not around game addiction but around games as an augmentation, creating the cyborg body. I thought I'd give you the link as a teaser for some of the discussions that will follow next term.

Highland, M. As Real As Your Life, 2009
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr2p5eyjko0

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.

A Game In The Hands Of A Player

This weeks session focused on a video lecture by Jesper Juul given on 28/11/06 at MIT, a presentation of his research post Half Real.

What happens when a player picks up video game, learns to play it, masters it, and leaves it? Using concepts from my book on video games, Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds, I will argue that video game players are neither rational solvers of abstract problems, nor daydreamers in fictional worlds, but both of these things with shifting emphasis. The unique quality of video games is to be located in their intricate interplay of rules and fictions, which I will examine across genres, from casual games to massively multiplayer games.

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

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.