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.
Rune Klevjer has written the new DiGRA Hardcore column, about the issue of genre:
There is a curious lack of genre studies in our field, which strikes me as a bit of a missed opportunity. It means that variation, tension and significant detail too easily fall below the radar of academic game studies. It also means that we are less able to bridge the gap between the very specific and the very general, and less able to describe the connections between aesthetic convention and social practice.
“The workplace is not an appropriate place for games,” Bloomberg said. “It’s a place where you’ve got to do the job that you’re getting paid for.”
Edward finds it a little harsh:
“It’s not like I’m the only one that ever did this,” said the 39-year-old father of a toddler.
I think it’s time to review the computer use policies where we work. As a game researcher, I guess I can’t be fired for playing games but only for, say, reading a novel…
This may be too obvious to blog about, but the question of games of skill vs. games of chance just comes up often, and discussions invariably involve some confusion. Here is a simple way of explaining it:
Chance means two different things.
It’s the same issue with Roger Caillois’ distinction between Alea (chance) and Agon (competition) – after all, many games of competition also contain chance elements.
Chance can mean either:
And the two meanings are constantly mixed up. That’s all.
Like mainstream media is beginning to cover games in more detail, some of the gaming press is becoming almost academic. Who would have thought – Gamespot has a piece on mirror neurons.
The article is a bit surprising in that it covers mirror neurons as a question of whether games lead to violence. As I understand it, mirror neurons aren’t really about being “copycat” of the actions you see, but about being able to simulate the actions of others in your head.
Incidentally, I was working on a panel paper proposal for CGDC in 2002 called “Mirror Neurons and Monkeys in Balls”, focusing on the kind of vertigo you experience when a monkey in Super Money Ball is balancing on the edge of a platform. Which is a clear example of mirror neurons at work. I just didn’t finish it.
P.S. For much more about mirror neurons, read V.S. Ramachandran’s article at Edge.org.
More the kind of thing that Gonzalo blogs about, but News.com has discuss “Games that stick it to the Man”, discussing the genre of anti-advergames.
Advertisers, governments and organizations mount huge campaigns to show us what they want us to see, and we want to expose what they’re hiding,” said Ian Bogost, a partner at Persuasive Games, a pioneer of the new genre. “There’s lots of precedent for this sort of speech in print, in film (and) on the Web, but we think videogames are particularly good at exposing the underlying logics of these organizations–how they work and what’s wrong with it.”
I never blogged about “important events of 2005”, but I think that during 2005 the mainstream media became much better at writing informed articles on video games.
The BBC has just released a really good in-depth report on how people game in the United Kingdom.
Not only does it provide details for six age groups (6-10, 11-15, 16-24, 25-35, 36-50, 51-65) and two genders, they also make distinctions between different platforms down to cell phones, and let us get a peek at personal motivations for playing as well as important players find games compared to other media. It’s a treat.
– How many people are playing games in the UK?
– How, where, when and why they play games?
– When is the family television used as a monitor for a console?
– The context in which gaming plays a role in people?s lives?
– Do people play games in isolation, or in a social situation?
– How does the public?s relationship with radio, television and mobile devices affect the games they play?
– What value do people place on the time spent playing?
Promising well for the future, the 6-10 and the 11-15 rank video games as the most important medium they are using.
(Via Jose P. Zagal.)
I haven’t been following the Rubik’s cube scene too closely the past few decades, but it’s doing well according to news.com:
On Saturday, at the International Rubik’s Cube competition held at the Exploratorium here, Lo took just 11.13 seconds to set the world record for solving of one of the iconic red, white, blue, green, yellow and red cubes.
For updates, check speedcubing.com.
Not that “world records” for the Rubik’s Cube are that important – a lot of luck involved in the way a cube is scrambled. I admire the focus that people bring to the thing, I never thought about being so systematic about it. Old puzzles never die.
A favorite obsession is to ponder the differences between Western and Japanese game tastes. Hardcore gaming 101 has published shots of how the boxes of various Western games look in Japan.
I’ll just link straight to Deus Ex: Invisible War, American and Japanese covers:
So this would support the idea that the Japanese are more spiritual & sophisticated. But if you check out the Backyard Wrestling cover, it looks a bit different. Not that Backyard Wrestling is the epitome of taste and sophistication, but still.
(Via Ars Technica.)