Eludamos. Journal for Computer Game Culture
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Hollow pursuits: Desire, therapy, and \u27play\u27 on Star Trek: The Next Generation\u27s holodeck
No full textIn so many ways the vision of the future imagined in the Star Trek universe seems painfully distant. Perhaps, the closest the show has come to anticipating the world as it is today, however, can be found in its depiction of the holodeck as the crew’s primary space for leisure. This article focuses on episode 21, season 3 of Star Trek: The Next Generation, ‘Hollow Pursuits’, in which we meet Reginald Barclay, a nervous engineer who becomes addicted to the ship’s virtual reality simulator. Taking its cue from Janet Murray’s book, Hamlet on the Holodeck, writing on the Enterprise’s leisure technology has tended to explore the holodeck’s role as a theatrical story-telling device. However, in ‘Hollow Pursuits’, I argue, Barclay’s use of the software resonates far more with its closest comparator today: virtual reality videogaming. For Barclay the holodeck blurs the line between the virtual world and reality in ways that make other crew members uncomfortable. In doing so, as this paper demonstrates, it also reveals flaws in The Next Generation’s utopia particularly in relation to desire, addiction, therapy, and ‘play’
Reified gameplay: Revisiting playbour through critical theory
No full textTraditionally, theories of play and games have drawn a clear distinction between two different forms of activity; play and labour. Over the last two decades, the concept of playbour has challenged this division, with empirical studies and observations showing the intertwining of play and labour. This article offers an analysis of playbour through different perspectives of Critical Theory and explores its theoretical implications. The novel concept of reified gameplay is presented to understand the alienating tendencies of playbour, using the games EVE Online and CryptoKitties as key examples. Reified gameplay is a form of gameplay action shaped by processes of reification and rationalisation within and as part of the culture industry
Fictional videogames as framing devices: Suicide communication in MMOs
No full textIn this paper, I argue that the use of fictional Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs) as framing devices serves as a reflexive narrative tool that suggests an understanding of MMOs as spaces with their own internal rules of communication. To do this, I conduct a close reading of Agony of a Dying MMO, a singleplayer demo game that depicts the final hours of service of a fictional MMO through a series of semi-explorable vignettes showing the activities of fictional players. In order to analyse how MMOs are represented as spaces with internal rules of communication, I focus my analysis on three instances of direct suicide communication—communicative acts directly referring to past, present, or future suicidal intent. As suicide communication is often indirect, I focus on how the social logic and rules of MMOs enable direct suicide communication. Through the close readings, I found that MMOs alter, enable, and restrict specific types of communication through a combination of their game design features, their user interfaces, and their existence as (and contiguity with) online spaces. In particular, I found that written communication through an MMO’s chat box can provide an alibi by turning seemingly serious statements into jokes; that acts embedded in the process of engaging with MMOs, like logging out and the consequent disappearance of a character, can serve as a communicative tool denoting finality; and that game design features meant to bring players together, like guilds and factions, can enable player authenticity and openness by attracting like-minded players, for better or for worse. As the use of videogames as framing devices presents a meta-referential commentary on videogames in the real world, these represented social affordances suggest that virtual online spaces provide unique opportunities and alibis for direct suicide communication
The Middle Ages in Computer Games: Ludic Approaches to the Medieval and Medievalism by Robert Houghton (D. S. Brewer, 2024): Book review
No full textA review of Robert Houghton’s book The Middle Ages in Computer Games: Ludic Approaches to the Medieval and Medievalism. Published by D. S. Brewer, 2024. ISBN: 978-1-84384-729-8, 355 pages
Curled up with a good game: A survey study on personality traits and game motives of cozy game players
No full textCozy games, risen in popularity since the COVID-19 pandemic, are generally characterized by their easy mechanics, prosocial narratives, lack of violence, and overall feelings of comfort, safety, abundance, and softness. While academic research primarily focuses on defining cozy games and exploring their impact during the pandemic, little is known about who plays them and why. Therefore, we conducted an online survey of 277 cozy game players, examining players’ game motives and their Light and Dark Triad personality traits. Results show key reasons to play cozy games, including moral self-reflection (i.e., seeing cozy gameplay as a morally sensible activity), agency (i.e., having the freedom and control to make decisions and pursue actions according to players’ own desires or goals), escapism (i.e., escaping from daily reality into a safe virtual environment), experiencing eudaimonic emotions (i.e., feeling moved, awe, and having elevating or heartwarming or feelings), and an interest in the game’s narrative. Additionally, players scored significantly higher on Light Triad personality traits, with those scoring high on Humanism being more motivated by eudaimonic and social reasons. This study provides novel insights into the study of cozy games, the (eudaimonic) motives to play them, and cozy game players’ personality traits
Gaming Democracy: How Silicon Valley Leveled Up the Far Right by Adrienne L. Massanari (The MIT Press, 2024): Book review
No full textA Review of Adrienne L. Massanari’s Gaming Democracy: How Silicon Valley Leveled Up the Far Right. Published by The MIT Press, 2024. ISBN: 9780262380331, 238 pages
Despot: The game that looks back
No full textIain Banks’ Complicity (1993) features a fictional ‘world-builder’ game called Despot that actively watches and emulates the player. This fictional game emerges as part of the Scottish Fantastic, a literary tradition that explores split selves and divided identities. Despot plays into this literary tradition as it creates a violent ludic other for the otherwise passive protagonist that plays it. Yet as a closer examination of Despot reveals, the game does not ‘uncover’ or ‘mirror’ the protagonist’s latent violence so much as it refracts it through its procedural logic. Despot prophetically predicts and critiques the rise of the quantified self within games, as features like morality meters, achievements, reputation systems and Elo ratings all ‘watch’ and create ludic versions of the player. Towards the end of the novel, the protagonist leaves Despot running and returns to find a radically altered version of the game. Without the protagonist’s interference, his empire has crumbled and been reclaimed by nature. Through this, Banks also provides a lens through which the quantified self can be subverted and repurposed in ways not limited by the cultural logics that produced it
Emergent ecological dynamics in videogames: What player paratexts reveal
No full textVideogames invite players to inhabit virtual worlds that often represent or simulate ecologies. Existing conceptual frameworks for understanding these dynamics and experiences as they arise from play emphasise the role of the videogame text in structuring such meaning. This article introduces the concept of emergent ecological dynamics to explain how, within the situated and ephemeral experience of playing a videogame, new ecocritical meaning can emerge, and can be captured in user-created paratexts. Undertheorised in ecocritical game studies are player experiences of ecologies and environments that emerge in ways unanticipated and unintended by gamemakers. By drawing on explanations of assemblage, emergence, and the materiality of digital media, this article suggests a latent potential for all videogame texts to convey ecocriticality. The methodological value of addressing player paratexts—as a means for scholars to access and analyse otherwise transitory emergent ecological dynamics—is also explored. The capacity of such user-created artefacts to manifest players’ revelations of ecological entanglement, development of ecological awareness and encounters with potent sensations of affect drawn upon as examples
“Was Barbarossa not German?!” : Nation, history, and identity in Civilization players’ online discussions
No full textThis paper investigates how players engage with and reflect on the construction of the nation and its place in history in the turn-based strategy game series Civilization (1991–2025). The Civilization series has been studied extensively concerning portrayals of history and nationhood within the games, mainly through their rule systems. This study’s purpose is to add a player-centered perspective to this body of scholarship and thereby critically challenge assumptions about players’ reception of the games’ portrayals of the nation throughout history. For this purpose, a structuring qualitative content analysis was conducted to analyze player discussions on the largest German-speaking Civilization forum. As this study demonstrates, players neither simply internalize nor ignore the games’ ideological underpinnings inherent to the structure of their rules as previous literature assumes. Rather, players negotiate Civilization’s portrayal of the nation throughout history in complex ways that are, most of all, dependent on their own national identities and feelings of belonging. The study thereby speaks to broader disciplinary discourses within game studies by critically investigating whether or how ideologies ingrained within games’ rule systems are perceived, discussed, negotiated, or sometimes even subverted by players
Queer gender identities and videogames: A literature review
No full textThis narrative literature review discusses peer-reviewed research articles connecting queer gender identities and videogames. Its main purpose is to describe directions of research on connections between queer gender identities and videogames, and to indicate gaps and missing connections in existing studies. The analysed material was collected in April–August 2023 using Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Scopus databases. Three major thematic categories were identified in the publications: representation of queer gender identities in videogames; player–avatar connections and gender dysphoria; and queer gender identities in game-related spaces. The main finding of the review is that articles focused on queer people do not tend to address the inherent queerness of videogames. Queer temporality and spatiality are not sufficiently studied in interaction with queer players, and narrative and/or visual elements remain in focus, even when potentially interactive activities like avatar creation are being researched