Eludamos. Journal for Computer Game Culture
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Everything to Play For: How Videogames are Changing the World by Marijam Did (Verso, 2024): Book review
No full textA review of Marijam Did: Everything to Play For: How Videogames are Changing the World. Published by Verso, 2024. ISBN: 978-1-804-29324-9, 288 page
"I want to play a normal game. I don\u27t need all this.": Exploring equity and diversity in Portuguese esports
No full textEsports in Portugal have been growing steadily in recent years. As in many other countries, women are significantly underrepresented in Portuguese esports. New studies with Portuguese students show conservative views towards gender roles and disinterest in prioritising diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), which contrasts with the global tendency to incorporate it in the industry. Lately, initiatives promoting DEI have populated the esports landscape. However, the communities’ response, which may impact effectiveness, remains under-examined. This work is part of a larger ethnographic project that aims to understand how the esports communities in Portugal perceive and react to DEI initiatives such as women-only tournaments or harassment awareness campaigns. This paper will discuss findings from the thematic analysis of 10 interviews with Portuguese members of an esports community. The recurring themes were (1) DEI initiatives are imposed; (2) Portugal is too small to care (about DEI); (3) nepotism; (4) self-preservation; and (5) ubiquity of online toxicity
Changing the game but keeping to the rules: Ambivalences between social activism and content creation in the Brazilian sports scene
No full textThe vulnerabilities faced by social minorities in Brazil, such as women, Black people, and LGBTQ+ people, are also very prevalent in local gaming cultures. Because of this, members of these groups organize collectives through social media to debate strategies and to provide mutual support for their esports initiatives. In the last few years, many of these activist collectives were absorbed by formal esports organizations, with some of their members now leading equality and diversity initiatives for esports in Brazil. Nevertheless, the movement from grassroots activists to PR representatives has contradictions, especially considering how social media platforms mediate the transition between activism and cause marketing. This paper aims to highlight some of these ambivalences, and how they impact the most vulnerable esports workers in Brazil
Who cares about esports? Introduction to the special section on Sustaining Equitable Competitive Gaming
No full textMeant as both a provocation and a prompt, ‘who cares about esports?’ opens the topic up to critical scrutiny at a time when the esports industry is in the midst of a(nother) serious contraction, even as there is a sizeable jump in the breadth and amount of esports research. As the introduction to this special section on Sustaining Equitable Competitive Gaming, this article considers the interplay of these two transformations, while also opening up a third, vital line of inquiry: ‘who cares for competitive gaming?’ This question is meant, on the one hand, to underscore the difference—and the relationship—between competitive gaming and esports, while also providing an overview of the kinds of critical and timely care documented by the four articles in this special section
Transgender emergence in video games: Intersections, discourses, directions
No full textOver the past two decades, trans theory has conceptualised gender identity and bodily autonomy, advocating for self-exploration and political affirmation (Nagoshi & Brzuzy, 2010; Stryker, 2017; Stryker & Whittle, 2006). This focus has resonated with game studies, which have examined video games as a medium for trans representation (Ruberg, 2020; Ruberg, 2022; Thach, 2021). This commentary explores the emergence of transgender identities in video games, outlining the state of the art of transgender representations and the experiences of trans players and designers. It highlights the significance of procedural elements such as character customisation, embodiment, and player-avatar relationship for transgender players. In doing so, it also suggests potential tensions and contradictions inherent in transgender emergence, arguing that while video games can provide positive and beneficial spaces for exploring gender identity, they may simultaneously perpetuate transphobia and exploit transgender experiences
Distinguishing the players of the digital field: A multiple correspondence analysis of the socialisation practice within Swedish gaming
No full textThis article explores the field of contemporary gaming practices and preferences among players of various social backgrounds. From a Bourdieusian perspective based on the notion of different capital forms (economic, social, and cultural), the socialisation process of Swedish players of digital games (n=1019) is investigated through a multiple correspondence analysis on questionnaire data. The findings show that the contemporary Swedish gaming culture is clearly divided by gender and age, but not as visibly by social class, birthplace, or upbringing. The article concludes that the contemporary gaming culture restricts present dispositions and future trajectories among the agents of the gaming field.
Parties as playful experiences: Why game studies should study partying
No full textPartying is a widespread, understudied, and playful phenomena. Game Studies has seen great value from defining important concepts related to games since its inception. Foundational play and game scholars urged for a need to analyze parties and celebrations as a form of playfulness, yet there is little empirical Game Studies work enabling a deeper understanding of partying. Partying bears striking resemblances to games: inefficient use of resources, arbitrary rules, cultural group formation, and ongoing moral panics. There are also practical overlaps: games occur at parties and digital party games are quite popular. This work contributes to a deeper understanding of parties by analyzing 33 semi-structured interviews where individuals from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds had highly playful experiences at parties. A new theoretical conception of partying as a form of playfulness is proposed as a “phenomenon that creates an experience of social connection in a group mediated through a shared engagement-prioritizing activity”. This work concludes with a call for party studies to become a sub-field in game studies
World War Two Simulated: Digital Games and Reconfigurations of the Past by Curtis D. Carbonell (University of Exeter Press, 2023): Book review
No full textA review of Curtis D. Carbonell\u27s monograph World War Two Simulated: Digital Games and Reconfigurations of the Past. Published by University of Exeter Press, 2023. ISBN: 978-1-804-13060-5, 264 pages
(Re)producing orientalism: Industry logic of Chinese mobile game re-skins in the global app empire
No full textThrough the case study of the mobile title Game of Sultans, this article examines the proliferation of iterative and copycat games through the practice of reskins in the mobile game industry. Based on year-long autoethnographic fieldwork working in a Chinese mobile game company, I provide an on-the-ground perspective of how Orientalist representations in reskinned games are instrumentalized through the roles of “cultural brokers” and the work of localization for Western markets. By taking a theoretical and technological understanding of reskins, I argue that reskinned games, as a form of industrial mimicry, while an important aspect of standardized game production, can also serve as means of subversion against seemingly totalizing control of the US-dominated app economy. This article addresses the dearth of studies in theorizing the industry practice of game reskins beyond just a monetization tool but also its extractive labor process within the global app empire
Playing rogues: Picaresque experiences in videogames
No full textThis article explores how video games, with no apparent connection to the literary rogue, still articulate Picaresque episodes and simulate Picaresque experiences through their intended gameplay and worldbuilding. These experiences are a specific expression of the combination of mechanics, narrative, and the agency of the player around a defined type of character, the rogue. They show how pervasive the influence of Picaresque Literature is, influencing design choices and informing key forms of being and acting in virtual worlds. This paper aims to define what a Picaresque experience in video games is and how it is possible to produce them. To achieve this, three video games will be analysed to show the different specific tools video games use to enable these experiences. The analyses will be supported by a theoretical framework based on existing bibliography about agency, videoludic narrative, mechanics, and Picaresque Literature with the objective of offering a comprehensive description of Picaresque experiences while also explaining them as a transmedia phenomenon that demonstrates the influence of Picaresque Literature in video games