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Bringing the body back into play
Get PDFThis paper is interested in the physical leakage that takes place in front of the screen during gameplay, in how our bodies escape from the fixed focus of the game. This paper presents anecdotal experiences of play observations in order to look at some physical responses to the phenomena of digital gameplay. The intention of the work is to argue that our physical bodies are actively involved in the game act. My argument treads a path around a range of theoretical concerns that explore notions of the body as relates to a gameplay experience. This paper is not about in-game bodies but the effects the gameplay moment has on our physical bodies. In focusing on our physical inclination for movement a core area of interest in
this work is experiential modality – tactility, proprioception and internal kinesthesia – all senses proper to
the body. By focusing this argument on the visceral experience of gameplay rather than looking to the
aesthetic of a particular game style I hope to offer an introductory look at the ways in which games
confuse and delight our fles
The player character as performing object
Get PDFEngagement in games is manifest through a player’s representation of action in game. The main mechanism for this engagement is through direct control of a player character. This control mechanism can be seen as a form of puppetry in which the player manipulates a game figure ranging from the abstract to the super-human. Through a focus on the player character, this paper posits that it may be productive to conceive of the player focus as one akin to that of the puppet artist, or puppeteer, and discusses one approach to unpacking the abstract sign systems of gameplay in this setting. The player character acts out the movements of the player and marks her progression in game. A doubling happens in this action, between the physical movements on the controller and the representation of agency on screen. As a
player I act, then watch the results of my action on screen,
always already audience to my own play practice. One
ongoing challenge for games studies is the framing of the
relationship between the player and her player character.
From a phenomenological perspective this has been
conceived of as an instrumental extension into the game
world [9, 18]. Using the ‘binocular lens’ [19] of
performance analysis semiotic work is necessary to balance
our sense of the improvisational act of digital game-play.
The player binds to the lived experience of game-play
through engagement with the sign systems at play in a
specific gaming experience.
Puppetry has existed across world cultures, as
entertainment, ritual and celebration, and broadly involves
the animation of inanimate performing objects. The
insertion of objects between the performer and the audience
allows for different, and deeper, levels of signification than
live actors alone can offer. Puppets consist a developed
form of performing object, one that moves. The fascination
with puppets reaches far back into history, revealing our
yearning to play god, to exert domination over our human
experience. Similarly, the seductive illusion of control plays
a central part in the appeal inherent in digital game form. In
the modern setting much work on puppetry remains
relatively hidden across a broad spectrum of fields, from
computer science to anthropology. However performance
theorists such as Tillis [20] introduce a broad semiotics to
conceive of the multitude of ways we engage with
puppetry. Other theorists have engaged in embracing digital
and mediated puppet form, not least in games studies in
areas such as machinima and alternate-reality gaming, yet
attention has been slow in broadening the application of
puppet theory to player characters. Tillis [20] offers a focus
on signs of design, movement and speech as core to
building an aesthetic of the puppet. For the player character
signifiers of affect and control require addition to any such
tentative schema. This paper argues that the metaphor of the
puppet offers a useful frame for the central figure of our
game-play focus by allowing for a kind of ‘double-vision’
[20] that enables a player character to be seen in two ways
at once, ‘as a perceived object and as an imagined life’ [20].
Using the tools of performance analysis this paper
addresses the liminal relationship between player and player
character in the flux of play. The intention is to offer an
explication of the range of methods, whether stylistic,
instrumental or kinesthetic, deployed in this relationship to
engage the player in the act of play
I HEART LocoRoco – a reading of a gameplay experience
No full textIn the diverse landscape of modern gaming it is rare to find specific games that are universally described in affectionate terms. Allegiances to form and genre identify the various tribes and often the divide between gaming sub-cultures runs deep. Passionate players pride themselves both by the longevity of their status and via signifiers of skill acquired. These traits typify what has become known as the “hardcore” player; in popular gaming culture the hardcore is often positioned contra the “casual” player with hours and type of game played as the main criteria for qualification. However these terms are ludicrous at best and fall short in describing the multitude of people who play digital games. The following is focussed on one particular Sony PSP game franchise that has received widespread critical acclaim, LocoRoco. This is a 2D platform game initially released in Europe in Summer 2006 and although it has not gone platinum this title got to No 5 in the UK Charts and has won 2 BAFTA’s for character design and children’s game in 2006. LocoRoco 2 was released in the U.K. in November 2008. Sony’s Tsutomu Kouno, the Director of LocoRoco, has stated that one of his design intentions was to make a game that appealed to those who didn’t normally play games (Kouno, 2006). This statement is key in my selection of this game. As a hugely lucrative yet nascent industry, it is of interest to study the ways in which commercial developers attempt to attract new players to part with their hard-earnt entertainment dollar. My investigation looks to explicate game design decisions that entice a player into dialogue with the ongoing game experience. I will look at issues including pleasure and seduction within the action and reward cycle inherent to gameplay
Crafting play: Little big planet
Get PDFIn the contemporary era of Web 2.0, high-tech consumer culture is increasingly engaged in the production of ‘user-generated content’ (UGC) for digital multicast. The tension between global homogeneity and the potential of technology to support multiple voices, histories and viewpoints is of central interest. The new DIY craft movement is successfully adopting Internet technologies to go straight to market as the digital generation increasingly engages in analogue craft practice. The swell of interest in craft values, both in objects and in hands-on feel and process exhibited in blogs such as Wonderland and distribution aggregators like Etsy, offers a productive frame that connects the digital and the analogue. Whether this reveals any anxiety about the intangibility of the digital or points to an increased creativity inspired by UGC remains open to question. The ‘feedback loop’ (to use Schechner’s (2002) term for the connection between an individual’s behavior and what they observe on street, stage and screen) between digital and real world practice, although far from literal, provides a frame for the dialogue between game form and culture at large. This paper teases out aspects of this feedback loop using examples from Sony’s PS3 series Little Big Planet (2008). The argument presented here does not deal with narratological or ludic structures and only tips its hat at the much broader field of fan culture but foregrounds context, style and characterization in its approach to analysis. The rationale for this approach is two-fold; first through the weight Media Molecule, developers of the game, give to visual communication and secondly through the prioritization of the invitation to create over and above the provision of a full triple-A title more typical of a console launch game
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Playing with Gender: Promoting Representational Diversity with Dress-Up, Cross-Dressing and Drag in Games
Get PDFIndependent game development as craft
Get PDFThis paper celebrates the rise of game making as craft in order to explicate the ways in which this activity is both empowering for those involved as well as at risk of reproducing less desirable aspects of the contemporary cultural landscape. One only has to look at independent game festivals to see how few women and other traditionally excluded groups are visible center stage in this rapidly developing sector – if we are not careful then the very same exclusionary practices that are evident in the mainstream sector will become embedded here. Craft has historically been seen as 'women's work' and the specific positioning of game making as craft in this paper is an intentional feminist act to claim this space and its potential to both play with and against ‘for profit’ game development. This paper blends feminist approaches, new craft theory and indie game culture with the intent of identifying opportunities and strategies for inclusivity for the independent games sector. It will elucidate some processes in action but also, importantly, identify routes forward for building a diverse community of independent game developers
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