Eludamos. Journal for Computer Game Culture
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Digital Historicism: Archival Footage, Digital Interface, and Historiographic Effects in Call of Duty: World at War
No full textHistorical videogames offer the promise of a new relationship between the reader of history and the account of an historical event, potentially transforming the “reader” of history into the active “user” or even “maker” of history. Indeed, the concept of historical videogames suggests that the user may play an active part in the construction of historical narratives and, thereby, in the implications of these historical events for the present. In this paper, I examine the appropriation of indexical archival documents into two instances of what I call “digital historicism” – the videogame Call of Duty: World at War (Activision, 2008) and the database narrative Tracing the Decay of Fiction: Encounters with a Film by Pat O’Neill (Pat O’Neill, Rosemary Comella, and Kristy H.A. Kang, 2002) – and their respective historiographic effects. I argue that the appropriations of indexical archival footage in each of these two digital media works produce in the user a phenomenological experience of the documentary “real,” but at the same time shape and limit the meanings that may be attributed to this footage. Indeed, I suggest that Call of Duty, while at the cutting edge of game design, imports and reinforces a conservative and even reactionary historiographic model into the emergent genre of digital history. Moreover, I argue that although Tracing the Decay of Fiction offers a less teleological and more open-ended encounter with the historical past, it is precisely its lack of a singular narrative that may ultimately (and paradoxically) undermine the user’s sense of historiographic agency as she is confronted with the unruly indexical traces of the past
"Stay Small and Keep it All": Making a Big Splash in Boutique Game Development
No full textThis interview is excerpted from a series we conducted in 2010 with Michael Thornton Wyman, founder and CEO of Big Splash Games (http://www.bigsplashgames.com/). Big Splash Games is a boutique game design and development studio well known for its Chocolatier series of casual games. Before founding Big Splash Games, Wyman worked as a Producer for Electronic Arts and Maxis, and a Project Leader for Lucas Learning, contributing to such titles as SSX On Tour, Def Jam Fight For New York, Star Wars Pit Droids, and SimTunes
Really Fake: The Magic Circle, the Mundane Circle, and the Everyday
No full textThis article focuses on how the “everyday" has colonized and complicated the virtual world. Using examples drawn primarily from Sony Online Entertainment\u27s Everquest 2, I explore the way that both the institutional force of the everyday and mundane objects such as tables and chairs have come to be a major part of play in MMORPGs. In exploring these topics, I consider the possibility of a "mundane circle" in which mundane objects and activities exist in a fantasy setting. I also examine how the presence of these mundane objects refreshes the fantasy world. In the end, I question whether play can truly be called so when the virtual world is so reminiscent of the real world
Hyper-Ludicity, Contra-Ludicity, and the Digital Game
No full textThis article identifies and interrogates a primary design principle that exists across digital game genres and formats, articulated as ludicity. The article uses specific examples across videogame genres to communicate a spectrum of ludicity with two opposing poles, hyper-ludicity and contra-ludicity. Hyper-ludicity describes instances where the game mechanics inflate, expand, or enable the player to perform actions either beyond their usual effectance, providing a sense of empowerment, or provide new actions previously outside the boundaries of the game mechanics. Contra-ludicity is the opposing principle, where the game mechanics deflate, contract, or disempower the player, where tried and tested mechanics become less effective or have no effect at all, and in some instances where entire mechanics are wholly removed from the system. Though this would seem contrary to the pleasure of play, this article investigates how this design principle also maintains its own form of pleasure
Designing and Implementing an Assessment Plan for a Virtual Engineering Lab
No full textThis article describes the process of creating, implementing, and assessing an innovative learning tool. The game based laboratory simulation, “Gaming for Applied Materials Engineering” (GAME), incorporated into the Engineering curriculum at a large public university, is intended to facilitate the same learning previously taught in a traditional hands-on laboratory. Through this technological tool, researchers hope to extend an integral learning opportunity to students currently unable to access physical labs, as well as, to augment and reinforce the material taught to those currently enrolled in physical lab courses. Throughout the article, the research team discusses the assessment methodology, describes several challenges overcome, and offers recommendations for others interested in utilizing game-based technology in educational settings.
Online Gaming and the Social Construction of Virtual Victimization
No full textOnline computer gaming is becoming an increasingly popular leisure activity as well as a growing context for social networking and social interaction in general. Drawing from a cyber-ethnography conducted in one such online game, I analyze the process by which the notion of victimization is socially constructed within the online gaming community. I contextualize this analysis within the framework of social construction theories, specifically addressing how internal and external norms, beliefs and values influence the assessment of the severity of virtual harm and the subsequent validity of victim claims. The reported findings suggest a distinction between virtual violence and theft within the context of the game; the latter being assessed as more harmful to the cohesiveness of the online community as well as the individual victim. Reasons for this distinction as well as a broader analysis of the interaction between online and offline culture is discussed
Why so serious? On the relation of serious games and learning
No full textSerious games have become a key segment in the games market as well as in academic research. Although the number of games that identify themselves as belonging to this category as well as the research done on their effects has been rapidly growing, there has thus far been no attempt to define all of the various opportunities that digital games provide for learning. To address this issue we look at existing definitions of serious games and their potential for learning. We identify the shortcomings of existing definitions and typologies. We discuss opportunities for an educational use of serious games which have been marginalized so far and develop a more flexible classification system for serious games in order to include commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) games for learning purposes and description options for future developments of gaming technology. This classification system for digital and serious games uses labels and tags as a preferable solution instead of fixed genre categories. The aim of this paper is to move the focus from what serious games and their uses for learning currently are to what they can be
Key Dimensions of Contemporary Video Game Literacy: Towards A Normative Model of the Competent Digital Gamer
No full textRecent developments in digital games technology, economy, and content have further expanded the popularity of the medium. At the same time, requirements for competent gaming or digital game literacy need to be reconsidered in the light of the rapid evolution of digital games. The paper outlines three important dimensions of contemporary video game literacy: (1) Resilience against effects of game content on automatic cognition (such as stereotypes and aggressive thinking), (2) the ability to cope with social affordances of multiplayer games, and (3) the ability to manage inertia processes in playing motivation that result in a perceived risk of losing investments of time and effort when deciding against playing. Finally, the importance to substantiate game literacy concepts with scientific theory and empirical research is articulated
An Analysis of Persistent Non-Player Characters in the First-Person Gaming genre 1998-2007: a case for the fusion of mechanics and diegetics
No full textThis paper describes the results of an analysis of persistent non-player characters (PNPCs) in the first-person gaming genre 1998-2007. Assessing the role, function, gameplay significance and representational characteristics of these critical important gameplay objects from over 34 major releases provides an important set of baseline data within which to situate further research. This kind of extensive, genre-wide analysis is under-represented in game studies, yet it represents a hugely important process in forming clear and robust illustrations of the medium to support understanding. Thus, I offer a fragment of this illustration, demonstrating that many of the cultural and diegetic qualities of PNPCs are a product of a self-assembling set of archetypes formed from gameplay requirements
Passionate Digital Play-Based Learning. (Re)Learning in computer games like Shadow of the Colossus
No full textAbstract: In the last decades the potentials for teaching and learning based on computer games have increasingly become a focus in scientific research and the computer industry. It is argued that computer games are a valuable tool to enrich learning. While in traditional educational institutions the enhancement of motivation for learning something was often reduced to a pressure to perform for someone, games are said to lead to a more learner-centred teaching. However the “great expectations” were not fulfilled: The reasonable symbiosis of meaningful content and an engaging environment transformed through digital media stayed beyond its instructional expectations. Especially the dimension of passion as a circular and non-linear process of relearning and learning anew was overlooked in a majority of theories, concepts and designs of games. In this understanding the passionate dimension of learning refers to a kind of learning, where the learners’ expectations disprove and he explores resistive experienced. The paper outlines how a unique game such as "Shadow of the Colossus" can open up a new horizon of experiences that lead to a passionate dimension of learning by playing digital games. By stressing a theoretical learning perspective on the process of experience within the game "Shadow of the Colossus", a new understanding of learning based on playing games will be given. Therefore the paper will give insight into the concept of learning by passion and Digital Play-Based Learning and show a new dimension for twenty-first century learning games