My name is Jesper Juul, and I am a Ludologist [researcher of the design, meaning, culture, and politics of games]. This is my blog on game research and other important things.
ETC Press has posted the first issue of the new Well Played Journal.
Minecraft, Beyond Construction and Survival
Sean C. Duncan
Architecture as teambuilding in Left 4 Dead 2
Matt Haselton
Afterland – From well theorized to well learned?
Konstantin Mitgutsch, Matthew Weise
Little Big Planet and Metal Gear Solid 4: Being Old Sack Snake
Caroline C. Williams
ETC Press has another book out, this time Tabletop: Analog Game Design by Greg Costikyan and Drew Davidson.
Even as the digital revolution has progressed apace, tabletop games — board and card, roleplaying and miniatures — have grown and attracted many new fans. Indeed, in tabletop gaming there is far more diversity and design innovation than in digital games, and tabletop games have become of increasing interest to videogame designers, game design instructors, and people who study games of all forms.
In this volume, people of diverse backgrounds — tabletop game designers, digital game designers, and game studies academics — talk about tabletop games, game culture, and the intersection of games with learning, theater, and other forms. Some have chosen to write about their design process, others about games they admire, others about the culture of tabletop games and their fans. The results are various and individual, but all cast some light on what is a multivarious and fascinating set of game styles.
The third installment in the Well Played series is now out, covering once again close readings & playings of video games.
(Personal comment: Well Played is an important series, but I do think that ETC should work on the formatting of the text online – in fact, there isn’t any at the moment, and no illustrations either.)
New issue of Game Studies, Volume 11 issue 2, May 2011. This time with plenty of book reviews.
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by Phillip D. Deen
Pragmatist philosophy of art provides an account of aesthetic experience particularly suited to the transactive and immersive qualities of video games and superior to spectatorial and institutional alternatives. It also distinguishes between mere emotion and artistic expression, providing a response to those who assert games cannot be aesthetic.
Bishojo Games: ‘Techno-Intimacy’ and the Virtually Human in Japanby Patrick W. Galbraith
This paper offers an in-depth analysis of bishojo games. Observing that interactions with shojo characters are central to the play experience, and building on Thomas LaMarre’s discussion of a free or open relation to technology grounded by the shojo as “god,” the paper considers what it means for players to interact intimately with gaming machines.
The Leisure of Serious Games: A Dialogueby Geoffrey M. Rockwell, Kevin Kee
In this dialogue, performed at a conference, the presenters test the claim that “games can be educational”. They draw on the insights of philosophers and theorists in an attempt to provoke discussion, and eventually agree that the line separating games and learning may be blurry, and that in game design we may find the seeds of serious play.
Subjective Measures of the Influence of Music Customization on the Video Game Play Experience: A Pilot Studyby Alexander Wharton, Karen Collins
The Xbox 360 introduced the ability for players to substitute a personal music playlist into any game produced for the console. We carried out a smalls study to explore the influence that a player’s selection of music has on both gameplay tactics and on their reported perceived levels of immersion.
What is love?by Olli Leino
Gaming – Essays on Algorithmic Culture. Alexander R. Galloway, 2006. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN-13: 978-0-8166-4851-1
Tensions Between Meaning Construction and Persuasion in Gamesby Jan H.G. Klabbers
Persuasive Games. The expressive power of video games. Ian Bogost, 2007. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. Pp. xii+450. ISBN-13: 978- 0-262-02614-7 (hardcover)
Congenial by Design: A Review of A Casual Revolutionby Stewart Woods
A Casual Revolution: Reinventing Video Games and Their Players. Jesper Juul, 2009. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. ISBN-13: 978-0-262- 01337-6
Not a Casual Review: Reading Jesper Juul’s A Casual Revolutionby Staffan Björk
A Casual Revolution: Reinventing Video Games and Their Players. Jesper Juul, 2009. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. ISBN-13: 978-0-262- 01337-6
Reading Processes: Groundwork for Software Studiesby Raine Koskima
Expressive Processing: Digital Fictions, Computer Games and Software Studies. Noah Wardrip-Fruin, 2009. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. ISBN-13: 978-0-262-01343-7
Critical Theory, Political Economy and Game Studies: A Review of “Games of Empire: Global Capitalism and Video Games”by Bart Simon
Games of Empire: Global Capitalism and Video Games. Nick Dyer-Witherford and Greig de Peuter, 2009. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN: 978-08166-6611-9
Hackers, History, and Game Design: What Racing the Beam Is Notby José P. Zagal
Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System. Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost, 2009. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. ISBN-13: 978- 0-262-01257-7
Book Review. Racing the Beamby Lars Konzack
Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System. Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost, 2009. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. ISBN-13: 978-0-262-01257-7
New issue of Digital Culture & Education on Digital Games and Second Language Acquisition in Asia.
Digital Culture & Education: Special Issue on Digital games and second language acquisition in Asia
-Guest edited by Michael Thomas
Articles
-Hayo Reinders and Sorada Wattana
Learner autonomy development through digital gameplay
-Alice Chik
Digital gaming and second language development: Japanese learners interactions in a MMORPG
-Mark Peterson
Teaching and learning English through digital game projects
-Jonathan deHaan
Book Review
-Darren Elliot
Gonzalo Frasca has just posted his excellent 2007 PhD dissertation, “Play The Message”. To quote Gonzalo:
I haven’t posted anything in years –I’ve been too busy working on my game studio, Powerful Robot Games. And I’m enjoying it a lot.
So, I’ve been pretty much outside from the ludology/game studies field since I completed my PhD dissertation in 2007. I didn’t share the file online since I wanted to publish it in book form. I still want to but, let’s face it, it’s been almost 4 years… So I decided to share the pdf with you guys out there. It’s about games but mainly about Play. And communication. Play Rhetoric. And toys, too. Hope you enjoy it!
Here it is:
http://www.powerfulrobot.com/Frasca_Play_the_Message_PhD.pdf
Feel free to share it, read it, quote it, translate it, compose music for it :)
The new special issue of Game Studies on Game Reward Systems is out. This issue was edited by Mikael Jakobsson and Olli Sotamaa.
by guest editors Mikael Jakobsson and Olli Sotamaa
The guest editors introduce this special issue on game reward systems by discussing its origin, the focus, the need for further studies, and by presenting the included papers.
The papers from the Nordic DiGRA 2010 conference are now available here.
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Review on psychophysiological methods in game research
Kivikangas Matias, Ekman Inger, Chanel Guillaume, Järvelä Simo, Cowley Ben, Salminen Mikko, Henttonen Pentti, Ravaja Niklas
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This paper reviews the psychophysiological method in game research. The use of psychophysiological measurements provides an objective, continuous, real-time, non-invasive, precise, and sensitive way to assess the game experience, but for best results it requires carefully controlled experiments, large participant samples and specialized equipment. We briefly explain the theory behind the method and present the most useful measures. We review previous studies that have used psychophysiological measures in game research, and provide future directions.
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Designing for Player Experience: How Professional Game Developers Communicate Design Visions
This paper investigates the prevalence of deliberate design for player experience in big game studios, and how potential visions of intended player experience are articulated and communicated to the team in the course of the development process. The primary data consist of interviews with six Swedish game developers. The study shows that the practice of designing for player experience is indeed in use by many game developers, and that a wide variety of tools are employed to articulate and communicate their visions. The main purpose of this communication is to allow everyone in the development team to make design choices that are in line with the commonly shared design vision.
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A public place of their own. A Fieldstudy of a Game Café as a Third Place
Jonsson Fatima
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This article investigates the meaning and function of the game café as a ‘Third place’ for boys and young men who play games in a game café. As there has been relatively little focus on game cafés in Western Europe as compared to studies of game cafés in Asia this paper examines the meaning and function of a game café in Sweden. This is achieved through an ethnographic study of a game café in central Stockholm. The author argues that the game café functions as a public place of their own. This means that for this group the game café is an escape from the moral judgments and parental restrictions and control at home. It also provides young men with a local hang out to maintain, negotiate and establish relationships with friends, peers and like minded through gaming. This place is a rather restricted third place which fosters interaction within a homogenous community of people of the same gender and age group. Therefore the game café shares more similarities with a sport club than a traditional café.
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“I’m in love with someone that doesn’t exist!!” Bleed in the context of a Computer Game
It is not unusual for computer games to include romance, but most games treat romance as a narrative theme rather than as an integrated part of gameplay. In this article I investigate the gameplay experience in the game Dragon Age, a single-player game that allows players to actively engage in romance. Based on an investigation of blog and community comments, we argue that this sometimes will create an experience that is similar to the “bleed” effect in non-computerised role-play, and that the player to some extent shares emotions with his or her character.
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The Positive Negative Experience in Extreme Role-Playing
Montola Markus
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Fun is often seen a necessary gratification for recreational games. This paper studies two freeform role-playing games aiming to create extremely intense experiences of tragedy, horror, disgust, powerlessness and self-loathing, in order to gratify the self-selected group of experienced role-players. Almost all of the 15 interviewed players appreciated their experiences, despite crying, experiencing physiological stress reactions and feeling generally ―bad‖ during the play.
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On Making Good Games: Using Player Virtue Ethics and Gameplay Design Patterns to Identify Generally Desirable Gameplay Features
Björk Staffan
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This paper uses a framework of player virtues to perform a theoretical exploration of what is required to make a game good. The choice of player virtues is based upon the view that games can be seen as implements, and that these are good if they support an intended use, and the intended use of games is to support people to be good players. A collection of gameplay design patterns, identified through their relation to the virtues, is presented to provide specific starting points for considering design options for this type of good games. 24 patterns are identified supporting the virtues, including RISK/REWARD, DYNAMIC ALLIANCES, GAME MASTERS, and PLAYER DECIDED RESULTS, as are 7 countering three or more virtues, including ANALYSIS PARALYSIS, EARLY ELIMINATION, and GRINDING. The paper concludes by identifying limitations of the approach as well as by showing how it can be applied using other views of what are preferable features in games.
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Social Play? A study of social interaction in temporary group formation (PUG) in World of Warcraft
Eklund Lina, Johansson Magnus
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One of the main components and reasons for the success of the Massive Multiplayer Online Games genre (MMOG) is that these games are seen as arenas for social interaction. The focus of this paper is the phenomenon of “Pick up Groups” (PUGs), a neglected aspect of online gaming. How is the social interaction structured in these temporary groups? The results of a participant observation study reveal a low level of social interaction between PUG players. Communication is held to a minimum and dungeons completed at high speed. Even in the event of downtime, interaction is rare. What little interaction has been observed is divided into instrumental and sociable interaction. A higher level of sociable interaction was found when several players from the same guild played together in the same group. But looking at greetings and goodbyes, normally used to acknowledge an ongoing social situation, we see that the social engagement in most PUGs is low. In summary, social interaction in PUGs, if any, is mainly instrumental, making these temporary groups unsocial game experiences; something not normally associated with group play in the MMOG genre.
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And Justice for All – the 10 commandments of Online Games, and then some…
Johansson Magnus, Verhagen Harko
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As part of our research project on the social aspects of gaming and more in particular the structuring of behavior in online multiplayer games using norms and rules, we present an overview of the type of rules used by clans and guilds in both MMOGs and FPS games. Not surprisingly, both genre and player motivation play a role in the selection and creation of rules. We also note that one of the types of behavior addressed in many rules, griefing, needs a more sophisticated analysis than used in previous game research. We conclude by presenting a set of “game commandments” that summarize the rule sets analyzed.
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Leadership Style in World of Warcraft Raid Guilds
This study shows how guild leaders in World of Warcraft (WOW) and leaders of real life organizations compare in terms of leadership style. This comparison is used to shed some light on leadership in Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs). 12 interviews were conducted, six with leaders of successful WOW raiding guilds and six with leaders of various real life organizations. The Leadership Grid was used to analyze and compare the different leadership styles. The leadership style of the guild leaders can be described as “Janus-faced”. It uses both “County-Club Management” putting human needs first and “Authority-Compliance Management” focusing on efficiency and results depending on the situation. To secure the success of the raid a leadership style with focus on results is used during the actual raid. During the every-day life, outside of the actual raid, a leadership style concerned about human needs is chosen to be able to solve social problems and build strong social relationships using only digital media for communication.
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Why gamers donʼt learn more An ecological approach to games as learning environments
Linderoth Jonas
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This paper criticizes the argument that video games by their nature are good learning environments. By applying the ecological approach to perception and learning to examples of game play, the paper shows that games can be designed so that players are able to see and utilize affordances without developing skills. Compared to other practices, gaming demands less learning of the practitioner since progress can be built into the system. Contrary to the arguments put forth by James Paul Gee in his book What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy, this paper comes to the conclusion that good games do not necessarily imply good learning.
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Undercurrents: A Computer-Based Gameplay Tool to Support Tabletop Roleplaying
Bergström Karl, Jonsson Staffan, Björk Staffan
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This paper introduces Undercurrents, a computer-based gameplay tool for providing additional communication and media streams during tabletop roleplaying sessions. Based upon a client-server architecture, the system is intended to unobtrusively support secret communication, timing of audio and visual presentations to game events, and real-time documentation of the game session. Potential end users have been involved in the development and the paper provides details on the full design process.
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Modelling Experimental Game Design
Holopainen Jussi, Nummenmaa Timo, Kuittinen Jussi
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This paper uses two models of design, Stolterman’s and Löwgren’s three abstraction levels and Lawson’s model of designing, from the general design research to describe the game design process of an experimental pervasive mobile phone game. The game was designed to be deployed at a big science fiction convention for two days and was part of a research through design project where the focus was to understand which core mechanics could work for pervasive mobile phone games. The design process was, as is usual for experimental designs, very iterative. Data were gathered during the design process as entries in a design diary, notes from playtesting and bodystorming sessions, user interface sketches, and a series of software prototypes. The two complementary models of design were used to analyse the design process and the result is that the models give a good overview to an experimental game design process and reveal activities, design situations, and design choices which could have otherwise been lost in the analysis.
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Stillborn Gamers? Writing a Birth Certificate for Corporeality and Locomotion in Game Research
Nørgaard Rikke Toft
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The paper presents a theoretical cornerstone in my current, ongoing PhD project which overall aim is to investigate relations between gamers’ corporeal, digital, and communicative practices. The present paper explores, in a beginning way, one of the more overlooked perspectives on the gamer, namely, the gamer as a ‘tool-wielding, moving body.’ It considers the theoretical and analytical questions that might begin to be asked if we understand gamers as moving bodies rather than e.g. visual perceivers or cognitive learners. The outlined framework will constitute the foundation for the project’s future research into gamers’ practices and hopefully open the doors for a more inclusive perspective on the gamer. The paper is organized in two parts: Firstly, a compact ‘reading’ of current game research is presented, secondly, possible theoretical and analytical tools for studying gaming as a corporeal activity is introduced. The aim is to make room for and shed light on corporeality and locomotion as valid, significant, and meaningful dimensions in game research.