Overview of game research public
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The document outlines several main areas and fields of game research including researching games as objects, gameplayers as subjects, and gameplay activities. It discusses fields such as viewing games as textual/narrative media or systems, exploring gameplayers as voyeurs or social beings, and studying gameplay as transportation or cognition. The purpose is to map out the different focuses and approaches that comprise the interdisciplinary field of game research.
![Field 2: Games as systems
or simulational media
“As a formalist discipline, it [game research] should focus
on the understanding of [games] structure and elements –
particularly its rules – as well as creating typologies and
models for explaining the mechanics of games”
(Frasca, 2003, p. 222).
“The computer game is the art of simulation.”
(Aarseth, 2003, p. 52)
“…it is clear that the game is its rules”
(Eskelinen & Tronstad, 2003, p. 214).](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/overviewofgameresearch-public-130304104546-phpapp02/85/Overview-of-game-research-public-13-320.jpg)
![Field 2: Games as systems
or simulational media
“As a formalist discipline, it [game research] should focus
on the understanding of [games] structure and elements –
particularly its rules – as well as creating typologies and
models for explaining the mechanics of games”
(Frasca, 2003, p. 222).
“The computer game is the art of simulation.”
(Aarseth, 2003, p. 52)
“…it is clear that the game is its rules”
(Eskelinen & Tronstad, 2003, p. 214).](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/overviewofgameresearch-public-130304104546-phpapp02/85/Overview-of-game-research-public-14-320.jpg)
![Field 6: Gameplayers as
voyeurs
Spectatorship is clearly central to the form. As we play we
watch ourselves play […] Thus it is more accurate or at
least more inclusive, to speak of the avatarial relation: a
“structure of seeing” in which the subject, acting on its
desire to see itself as other, pursues its reflection in the
imaginary like a cat chasing its tail. (Rehak, 2003, pp. 118-
119)
“Since our actions are visible on a television or computer
screen, it is where we actually act […] Today, the mirror is
replaced with the screen” (Filiciak, 2003, p. 100).](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/overviewofgameresearch-public-130304104546-phpapp02/85/Overview-of-game-research-public-29-320.jpg)
Overview of game research public
- 1. Rikke Toft Nørgård, Ph.D. Centre for Teaching Development and Digital Media
- 2. Game research Research on: Games Gameplayers Gameplay
- 3. 3 Main areas Game- Game- activities objects Game- subjects
- 4. 1. Game-objects Games as textual media Games as systems or simulational media The farm of game research on games Games as narrative media Games as visual media
- 5. 2. Game-subjects Gameplayers as voyeurs Gameplayers as thinkers The farm of game research on gameplayers Gameplayers Gameplayers as situated as avatars selves Gameplayers as social or cultural selves
- 6. 3. Game-activities Gameplay as digital transportation Gameplay as dramaturgic performance The farm of game research on gameplay Gameplay as cognitive transmission and transference Gameplay as perceptual differentiation
- 7. Game-objects The ontology of games What is a game? The object-oriented side of the area
- 8. Trying a game-object Bejeweled 2: Action http://www.popcap.com/games/bejeweled2/onlin e?mid=bejeweled2_pcweb_en_full
- 9. Field 1: Games as textual media
- 10. Field 1: Games as textual media “The text I construct as I read Tomb Raider or Half-Life belongs only to me, and to me alone, in effect, „I wrought the urn‟. No other player or reader reads or writes the same text. It is unique. It is an original. Every one of us is an author, every one of us is an artist. There is something truly radical here, something significantly novel, something that demands that we rethink the ways in which we view the artwork, and our relationship with the individual work of art.” (Atkins, 2003, p. 153)
- 11. Field 1: Games as textual media “Are games texts? The best reason I can think of why one would ask such a crude question is because one is a literary or semiotic theorist and wants to believe in the relevance of one‟s training.” (Aarseth, 2004, p. 47).
- 12. Field 2: Games as systems or simulational media
- 13. Field 2: Games as systems or simulational media “As a formalist discipline, it [game research] should focus on the understanding of [games] structure and elements – particularly its rules – as well as creating typologies and models for explaining the mechanics of games” (Frasca, 2003, p. 222). “The computer game is the art of simulation.” (Aarseth, 2003, p. 52) “…it is clear that the game is its rules” (Eskelinen & Tronstad, 2003, p. 214).
- 14. Field 2: Games as systems or simulational media “As a formalist discipline, it [game research] should focus on the understanding of [games] structure and elements – particularly its rules – as well as creating typologies and models for explaining the mechanics of games” (Frasca, 2003, p. 222). “The computer game is the art of simulation.” (Aarseth, 2003, p. 52) “…it is clear that the game is its rules” (Eskelinen & Tronstad, 2003, p. 214).
- 15. Field 2: Games as systems or simulational media
- 16. Field 2: Games as systems or simulational media
- 17. Field 3: Games as narrative media
- 18. Field 3: Games as narrative media It does not make much narrative sense to knock down rows of colored blocks if the behavior of those blocks has no connection to your presence in the gameworld. Once you identify those colored blocks as a force field designed by the forces of evil to stop your advance through the universe, you are much more motivated to enter into a conflict with them. Your action becomes meaningful within the narrative frame of the game. (Salen & Zimmerman, 2004, p. 387)
- 19. Field 3: Games as narrative media
- 20. Field 4: Games as visual media
- 21. Field 4: Games as visual media “In fact, the distinction between the more hypermediated and the more transparent games often turns on whether the primary remediation is television or film” (Bolter & Grusin, 2000, p. 91) “Video games remediate cinema; that is, they demonstrate the propensity of emerging media forms to pattern themselves on the characteristic behaviors and tendencies of their predecessors” (Rehak, 2003, p. 104)
- 22. Field 4: Games as visual media
- 23. Field 5: Games as presentation
- 24. Field 5: Games as presentation
- 25. 1. Game-objects Games as textual media Games as systems or simulational media The farm of game research on games Games as narrative media Games as visual media
- 26. Game-subjects The anthropology of games What is a gameplayer? The subject-oriented side of the area
- 27. Being a game-subject Power Pamplona http://www.fungamesarena.com/power- pamplona.html
- 28. Field 6: Gameplayers as voyeurs
- 29. Field 6: Gameplayers as voyeurs Spectatorship is clearly central to the form. As we play we watch ourselves play […] Thus it is more accurate or at least more inclusive, to speak of the avatarial relation: a “structure of seeing” in which the subject, acting on its desire to see itself as other, pursues its reflection in the imaginary like a cat chasing its tail. (Rehak, 2003, pp. 118- 119) “Since our actions are visible on a television or computer screen, it is where we actually act […] Today, the mirror is replaced with the screen” (Filiciak, 2003, p. 100).
- 30. Field 7: Gameplayers as thinkers
- 31. Field 7: Gameplayers as thinkers “Recent studies indicate that the intellectual activities that constitute successful gameplay are nontrivial, including the construction of new identities, collaborative problem solving, literacy practices that exceed our national standards, systemic thinking, and, as one might expect, computer literacy.” (Steinkuehler & Duncan, 2008, p. 532) ”Good Game designers are practical theoreticians of learning, since what makes games deep is that players are exercising their learning muscles” (Gee, 2005, p. 5).
- 32. Field 8: Gameplayers as situated selves
- 33. Field 8: Gameplayers as situated selves “The Internet has become a significant social laboratory for experimenting with the constructions and reconstructions of self that characterize postmodern life, we self-fashion and self-create”(Turkle, 1997, p. 180) “the exciting, daunting task of looking at how the online body (typically conceived of as a decidedly non-digital thing) is produced, constructed, and experienced.” (T. L. Taylor, 1999, p. 438) “The virtual identity thus becomes one of many „selves‟ included in the user‟s identity” (Filiciak, 2003, p. 92) and “people play games eagerly to be able to shift their identities” (Filiciak, 2003, p. 98).
- 34. Field 9: Gameplayers as members
- 35. Field 9: Gameplayers as members “Ultimately, if the gamers I played with wanted to succeed in their endgame or stage two endeavors, the importance of social networks and social capital far outweighed game-content knowledge.” (Chen, 2009, unpaged) “Expertise development within WoW, then, is tied inextricably to a player‟s ability to learn social skills.” (Chen, 2009, unpaged).
- 36. Field 10: Gameplayers as avatars
- 37. Field 10: Gameplayers as avatars “When I play I am more my own avatar than the person sitting by the console/computer.” (Filiciak, 2003, p. 92) “Since our actions are visible on a television or computer screen, it is here we actually act” (Filiciak, 2003, p. 100). “The player undergoes a process of identification, with the avatar becoming a projection or imagination of the self” (Hutchinson, 2007, p. 288) “We create avatars to leave our bodies behind” (Rehak, 2003, p. 123).
- 38. Field 11: Gameplayers as craftsmen
- 39. 2. Game-subjects Gameplayers as voyeurs Gameplayers as thinkers The farm of game research on gameplayers Gameplayers Gameplayers as situated as avatars selves Gameplayers as social or cultural selves
- 40. Game-activities The phenomenology of games What is a gameplay activity/experience? The interaction-oriented side of the area
- 41. Being in gameplay Flash Mario Bros http://www.mariogames.zuhu.com/playgame/191 4/Flash_Mario_Bros/
- 42. Field 12: Gameplay as digital transportation
- 43. Field 13: Gameplay as dramaturgic performance
- 44. Field 14: Gameplay as cognitive transmission and transference
- 45. Field 15: Gameplay as perceptual differentiation
- 46. Field 16: Gameplay as corporeal locomotion
- 47. 3. Game-activities Gameplay as digital transportation Gameplay as dramaturgic performance The farm of game research on gameplay Gameplay as cognitive transmission and transference Gameplay as perceptual differentiation
- 48.
- 49. Research areas and fields Game research Gameplayer research Gameplay research Games as textual media Gameplayers as voyeurs Gameplay as digital transportation Games as systems / simulational Gameplayers as thinkers Gameplay as dramaturgic media performance Games as narrative media Gameplayers as communicators Gameplay as cognitive transmission/transference Games as visual media Gameplayers as situated selves Gameplay as cyborgian extension Games as representational media Gameplayers as members Gameplay as perceptual differentation Gameplayers as avatars Games as presentation Gameplayers as Gameplay as corporeal- of corporeal-locomotive corporeal-locomotive locomotive activity and designs? craftsmen? experience?
- 50. New concepts
- 51. Homework for Monday 11 th Read the literature + Please write down your first ideas for your final project. Even if you have not decided yet, you have probably an idea about the subject, the approach and, quite important, the people you wish to work with. All these element can still change, you are not committing yourself (yet). But I would like to have a look at your drafts before the evening of Friday 8th, 22.00. Next time we will devote some of the time on discussion on projects. Please ask questions on G+ or send an email if you are in doubt. (I am at a conference, I might not answer quickly)