Just landed on my desk, a great new video game anthology edited by Barry Atkins and Tanya Krzywinska: Videogame, Player, Text.
My piece is Without a Goal: On Open and Expressive Games.
Videogame, player, text
Edited by Barry Atkins & Tanya Krzywinska
Videogame, player, text examines both the playing and playful subject through a series of analytical essays focused on particular videogames and playing experiences. With essays from a range of internationally renowned game scholars, the major aim of this collection is to show how it is that videogames communicate their meanings and provide their pleasures. Each essay focuses on specific examples of gameplay dynamics to tease out the specificities of videogames as a new form of interaction between text and digital technology for the purposes of entertainment.That modes of engagement with the videogame text are many and varied, and construct the playing subject in different ways, provides the central theme of the collection. Online play, clan membership, competitive or co-operative play, player modification of game texts, and the solo play of a single player are each addressed through individual analyses of the gameplay experiences produced by, for example, The Sims, Grand Theft Auto, Prince of Persia, Doom, Quake, World of Warcraft, Street Fighter and Civilisation.
Contents
Introduction: Videogame, player, text – Barry Atkins and Tanya Krzywinska
1. Beyond Ludus: narrative, videogames and the split condition of digital textuality – Marie-Laure Ryan
2. All too urban: to live and die in SimCity – Matteo Bittanti
3. Play, modality and claims of realism in Full Spectrum Warrior – Geoff King
4. Why am I in Vietnam? – The history of a video game – Jon Dovey
5. ‘It’s Not Easy Being Green’: real-time game performance in Warcraft – Henry Lowood
6. Being a determined agent in (the) World of Warcraft: text/play/identity – Tanya Krzywinska
7. Female Quake players and the politics of identity – Helen W. Kennedy
8. Of eye candy and id: the terrors and pleasures of Doom 3 – Bob Rehak
9. Second Life: the game of virtual life – Alison McMahan
10. Playing to solve Savoir-Faire – Nick Montfort
11. Without a goal – on open and expressive games – Jesper Juul
12. Pleasure, spectacle and reward in Capcom’s Street Fighter series – David Surman
13. The trouble with Civilization – Diane Carr
14. Killing time: time past, time present and time future in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time – Barry Atkins
Hi Jesper
James from the Kryptonite Cafe here.
You said: A version of foursquare played with scorekeeping… would likely see very different behaviour from the players.
As an proud ex-foursquare champion, I can tell you that it has one of the most effective scoring systems ever – you’re the champ if you’re on square 1, you’re the challenger if you’re on square 2, you’ve got 2 to beat of you are on square 3, and if you’re on square 4 – the only way is up.
Simple, clear, & compelling. You know exactly where you stand in relation to every other player.
I would find it hard to believe that any points system couldn’t match a scoring system where your actual location in physical space indicates your progress in the game!
Hi James
Ah – there is temporary status, but no final score, that’s the point. At least in the versions I have played and seen referenced.
I’m sure I’ll hate most of this. So looking forward to getting my hands on it :D
Are you saying that you believe that there will be a difference between the behaviours of a player who is playing to win and a player who is playing to be winning?
Good question. I think foursquare promotes focus on winning, or at least on the process of playing. (The paratelic, in Apter’s terms.)