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.
Drew Davidson has just posted volume 1, number 2 of the Well Played Journal.
BioShock and Portal: A Discussion of Poetics
Yotam Haimberg
We should be heroes… A case study of community building as a dominant strategy
Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen
Cracking the Code: Untangling Game Structure, Properties and Player Experience
Elizabeth Goins
A Life in Baseball, Digital and Otherwise
Abraham Stein
For your theoretical pleasure, here is the latest issue of Game Studies: Game Studies 2011-03.
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A Survey of First-person Shooters and their Avatars
by Michael Hitchens
A survey of over 550 first person shooters, The titles are compared by year of release, platform and game setting. Characteristics of avatars within the surveyed titles are also examined, including race, gender and background, and how these vary across platform and time. The analysis reveals definite trends, both historically and by platform…
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Against Procedurality
by Miguel Sicart
This article proposes a critical review of the literature on procedural rhetoric, from a game design perspective. The goal of the article is to show the limits of procedural rhetorics for the design and analysis of ethics and politics in games. The article will suggest that theories of play can be used to solve these theoretical flaws…
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The pastoral and the sublime in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
by Paul Martin
The landscape in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is seen here as a central aspect of the game’s theme of good versus evil. The analysis looks at the game’s distinction between the pastoral and the industrial realms and the way the player’s encounter with the landscape transforms over the course of the game from the sublime to the picturesque mode…
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Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams: Popular Music, Narrative, and Dystopia in Bioshock
by William Gibbons
The science-fiction world of the video game Bioshock (2K Games, 2007) presents a dystopian vision of mid-century America. The game explores the creation and ultimate destruction of the underwater city of Rapture, an Ayn-Rand-inspired capitalist Utopia. Though the game features an award-winning original score, its soundtrack also borrows…
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 :)