Author: Jesper

Handmade Pixels book launch October 10th in New York

I will be presenting my new book, Handmade Pixels, on October 10th 2019 at the New York University Game Center.

“Join us to celebrate the launch of Jesper Juul’s latest publication, Handmade Pixels! Handmade Pixels: Independent Video games and the Quest for Authenticity is the new book (MIT Press) from video game researcher Jesper Juul, about the history and idea of independent video games.

Through examples of many interesting and strange games, and through audience participation, I will tell the history of independent games, and point to their ongoing challenges: What happens when players deny that an experimental independent game is a “real game”? Are experimental independent video games for everyone, or only for a small group of connoisseurs? Can we continue to make new video games by referring to older analog or digital visual styles? How can we create authenticity in a thoroughly digital world?”

Get your tickets here.

Game Studies 19/1

For your theoretical scrutiny: Game Studies volume 19, issue 1.
 
 

“This Action Will Have Consequences”: Interactivity and Player Agency
by Sarah Stang

This article discusses interactivity and player agency in video games and uses BioShock and The Walking Dead as case studies to explore ways in which developers connect morality and the illusion of player agency. It also discusses the ways in which players have exercised agency by engaging with fan communities and making demands of game developers.[more]

Novel Subjects: Robinson Crusoe & Minecraft and the Production of Sovereign Selfhood
by Phillip Lobo

A comparative analysis of Robinson Crusoe and Minecraft as works of formal realism, with a focus on subjectivity-generation and sovereignty.[more]

Older adults’ digital gameplay, social capital, social connectedness, and civic participation
by Yu-Hao Lee

Can older adults maintain social connectedness, social capital, and civic participation through playing games? This study found that older adults who played with local and distant ties reported higher social connectedness and social capital. Playing with online friends was associated with more bridging social capital and more civic participation.​[more]

The right way to play a game
by C. Thi Nguyen

Is there a right way to play a game? Some have argued that, by following the rules, we give too much weight to the author’s intent and destroy the freedom of play. I argue that the rules are essential for shared experience. They make possible the communication of sculpted experiences of activity.[more]

Book Reviews

Venturing into the House of Digital Horrors: A Review of The World of Scary Video Games
by Daniel Vella

The World of Scary Video Games: a Study in Videoludic Horror (2018) by Bernard Perron. New York : Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN: 9781501316210, 1501316214. 488 pp.[more]

Virtual Reality: Fictional all the Way Down (and that’s OK)

Are virtual reality objects real? I have a new paper out in the Disputatio journal, titled Virtual Reality: Fictional all the Way Down (and that’s OK) .

The paper came about as a response to David Chalmer’s 2017 paper The Virtual and the Real, about which Pawel Grabarczyk organized a seminar in Copenhagen in the summer of 2018.

TL;DR: Chalmers uses virtual reality to argue that there are structures (such as calculators) that exist regardless of their physical or non-physical implementation, and as such virtual reality objects can be perfectly real.

I argue, orthogonally, that virtual reality is not becoming “just-like-the-real-thing” based on any fidelity to the physical world. VR is not just technology, but art; a human act of communication and selective implementation. I also argue that VR is half-real: we are not magically transported to another world, as VR is only selectively implemented (it rarely has the photons that make up light, for example), and as users we we are conscious of how the world is a limited implementation made for the purpose of a particular experience.

No Don’t Die interview online

Here I am interviewed by David Wolinsky as part of his No Don’t Die series.

“In the first half of our conversation, we discuss what people deeply immersed in videogame culture don’t understand about people who don’t play for any number of reasons, how that disconnect stunts the medium’s growth and acceptance, and why the image of people who play videogames was once seen as being predominantly young and male — why that went away and then came back.”

And part two:

“In the second half of our conversation, we talk about how game critics frequently don’t have a grasp on the medium’s history and how that ripples out into broader conversations about games that become more circular then they ought to be, how exploring parallel topics in other industries isn’t always helpful or instructive, and much more.”

ROMchip journal issue 1/1

The inaugural issue of the ROMchip journal on game history is out now.

ARTICLES

INTERVIEWS

MATERIALS

My next book, Handmade Pixels, will be out in September

Handmade Pixels

It’s real: My new book, Handmade Pixels: Independent Video Games and the Quest for Authenticity is now in the MIT Press fall catalog, and will be out in September 2019.

For the book I interviewed 21 developers, artists, and festival organizers, and I will be posting interviews as we get closer.

Interviewees: Celia Pearce, David Kanaga, Jason Rohrer, Jonathan Blow, Kelly Wallick, Mattie Brice, Naomi Clark, Nathalie Lawhead, Pippin Barr, Rami Ismail, Robin Hunicke, Sam Roberts, Simon Carless, Tale of Tales, Thorsten Wiedemann, Tracy Fullerton, Zach gage, Anna Anthropy, Bennett Foddy, Paolo Pedercini, Bernie Dekoven.

Thanks to all who helped, made the games, or let themselves be interviewed!

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/handmade-pixels

Will start blogging again

How it happened: I used to use this blog to post what I did, promote interesting things I saw, and comment on the world in general.

Then most people stopped using RSS readers, and discussions and comments moved to social media, where we are at the mercy of algorithms, discussion only happens in small groups, and history disappears quickly.

So I will start blogging again.

Question: How to make people aware of new posts? Are there RSS reader holdouts? Would you be interested in getting emails when I post something?