This document discusses debates around how digital games are understood and analyzed. It outlines the narratology and ludology approaches, where narratology focuses on games as storytelling media and ludology emphasizes games as systems of rules and player interaction. The document also discusses how games combine both narrative elements and principles of play, challenging the notion that these are mutually exclusive. It provides examples of games studied through each lens and debates around player agency, character design, and the relationship between gameplay and narrative.
Session slides prepared for MAC281. Material is concerned with ludology and narratology in relation to video games. Also touches on issues surrounding emergent narratives
The Psychology of the Player & Game Character Design and Representation by Sh...Sherry Jones
Dec. 6, 2015 - This presentation explores many psychological theories that can help us understand how players think, and how game characters should be designed.
The Metagame Book Club is a K-12 and College professional development institution that offers free webinars, discussions, live chats, and other interactive activities on the topics of game-based learning, game studies, gamification, and games in general.
Interested in joining us? Visit our website here:
The Metagame Book Club
http://bit.ly/metagamebookclub
Games as Logic Machines: Learning the Humanities through the Logic and Parate...Sherry Jones
Jan. 8, 2016 - This is my keynote presentation on game studies and game-based learning in the humanities for CU Boulder's Spring 2016 Graduate Teacher Program Conference: "Teaching Narrative, Ludology, and Problem-Solving in the College Classroom."
Here is the transcript to my presentation:
https://medium.com/@autnes/transcript-games-as-logic-machines-learning-the-humanities-through-the-logic-and-paratextuality-fc604aa6046c#.n12hb28gk
"Prototyping Immersive Game Design as Interactive Fiction" by Sherry Jones (N...Sherry Jones
November 19, 2015 - This is a presentation on creating Interactive Fiction (IF) works as initial prototypes for large scale games. This presentation is created for the Metagame Book Club - Track 1 - Games & Psychology track. The presentation includes the live webcast recording.
Also featured in this video is Ross Moreno, the Leader Writer for 4th Axis Games (indie game studio).
The Metagame Book Club is a K-12 and College professional development institution that offers free webinars, discussions, live chats, and other interactive activities on the topics of game-based learning, game studies, gamification, and games in general.
Interested in joining us? Visit our website here:
The Metagame Book Club
http://bit.ly/metagamebookclub
"Narrative Design and the Psychology of Emotions and Immersion in Games" by S...Sherry Jones
Nov. 23, 2015 - This presentation discusses various psychological theories employed in game design to induce player emotions and sense of immersion.
The Metagame Book Club is a K-12 and College professional development institution that offers free webinars, discussions, live chats, and other interactive activities on the topics of game-based learning, game studies, gamification, and games in general.
Interested in joining us? Visit our website here:
The Metagame Book Club
http://bit.ly/metagamebookclub
"Overview and Conclusions" by Sherry Jones (August 16, 2014)Sherry Jones
I am the Game Studies Facilitator for the #Metagame Book Club (http://bit.ly/metagamebookclub). This is my Week 5 Lecture on "Overview and Conclusions." This is an overview lecture of major concepts and theories I have discussed during Weeks 1-4 lectures. Please see my previous slideshows for clarification of the ideas discussed in this slideshow.
Live Video Lecture - The live recorded youtube video of this lecture is included toward the end of this presentation.
Join the Metagame Book Club - We welcome all educators interested in gaming in education, game-based learning, gamification, and game studies to join the #Metagame Book Club.
#Metagame Book Club (July 15 - August 16, 2014)
http://bit.ly/metagamebookclub
Find us on various social media with the hashtag, #Metagame
"The Metagame Book Club: Fostering a Community of Gaming Pracademics" by Sher...Sherry Jones
Aug. 6, 2015 - This presentation is co-created by Sherry Jones and Kae Novak for the 2015 Colorado Learning and Teaching with Technology Conference.
This presentation details the origin, the development, and the future of the Metagame Book Club (http://bit.ly/metagamebookclub), an open club offered to K-20 educators to study academic works and popular literature on game studies, game-based learning, gamification (i.e. gamified learning), and the future of gaming. Book club participants also play games, such as War of Warcraft, Minecraft, Google's Ingress, and many more titles to support their teaching practices as "gaming pracademics."
"The Gamer Identity and Representations of Gender and Race in Games" by Sherr...Sherry Jones
November 9, 2014 - This is my Game Studies presentation for the Metagame Book Club titled: "The Gamer Identity, Representations of Gender and Race in Games."
Interested in joining fellow educators to learn more about gaming in education? Access the free book club here:
Metagame Book Club
http://bit.ly/metagamebookclub
Session slides prepared for MAC281. Material is concerned with ludology and narratology in relation to video games. Also touches on issues surrounding emergent narratives
The Psychology of the Player & Game Character Design and Representation by Sh...Sherry Jones
Dec. 6, 2015 - This presentation explores many psychological theories that can help us understand how players think, and how game characters should be designed.
The Metagame Book Club is a K-12 and College professional development institution that offers free webinars, discussions, live chats, and other interactive activities on the topics of game-based learning, game studies, gamification, and games in general.
Interested in joining us? Visit our website here:
The Metagame Book Club
http://bit.ly/metagamebookclub
Games as Logic Machines: Learning the Humanities through the Logic and Parate...Sherry Jones
Jan. 8, 2016 - This is my keynote presentation on game studies and game-based learning in the humanities for CU Boulder's Spring 2016 Graduate Teacher Program Conference: "Teaching Narrative, Ludology, and Problem-Solving in the College Classroom."
Here is the transcript to my presentation:
https://medium.com/@autnes/transcript-games-as-logic-machines-learning-the-humanities-through-the-logic-and-paratextuality-fc604aa6046c#.n12hb28gk
"Prototyping Immersive Game Design as Interactive Fiction" by Sherry Jones (N...Sherry Jones
November 19, 2015 - This is a presentation on creating Interactive Fiction (IF) works as initial prototypes for large scale games. This presentation is created for the Metagame Book Club - Track 1 - Games & Psychology track. The presentation includes the live webcast recording.
Also featured in this video is Ross Moreno, the Leader Writer for 4th Axis Games (indie game studio).
The Metagame Book Club is a K-12 and College professional development institution that offers free webinars, discussions, live chats, and other interactive activities on the topics of game-based learning, game studies, gamification, and games in general.
Interested in joining us? Visit our website here:
The Metagame Book Club
http://bit.ly/metagamebookclub
"Narrative Design and the Psychology of Emotions and Immersion in Games" by S...Sherry Jones
Nov. 23, 2015 - This presentation discusses various psychological theories employed in game design to induce player emotions and sense of immersion.
The Metagame Book Club is a K-12 and College professional development institution that offers free webinars, discussions, live chats, and other interactive activities on the topics of game-based learning, game studies, gamification, and games in general.
Interested in joining us? Visit our website here:
The Metagame Book Club
http://bit.ly/metagamebookclub
"Overview and Conclusions" by Sherry Jones (August 16, 2014)Sherry Jones
I am the Game Studies Facilitator for the #Metagame Book Club (http://bit.ly/metagamebookclub). This is my Week 5 Lecture on "Overview and Conclusions." This is an overview lecture of major concepts and theories I have discussed during Weeks 1-4 lectures. Please see my previous slideshows for clarification of the ideas discussed in this slideshow.
Live Video Lecture - The live recorded youtube video of this lecture is included toward the end of this presentation.
Join the Metagame Book Club - We welcome all educators interested in gaming in education, game-based learning, gamification, and game studies to join the #Metagame Book Club.
#Metagame Book Club (July 15 - August 16, 2014)
http://bit.ly/metagamebookclub
Find us on various social media with the hashtag, #Metagame
"The Metagame Book Club: Fostering a Community of Gaming Pracademics" by Sher...Sherry Jones
Aug. 6, 2015 - This presentation is co-created by Sherry Jones and Kae Novak for the 2015 Colorado Learning and Teaching with Technology Conference.
This presentation details the origin, the development, and the future of the Metagame Book Club (http://bit.ly/metagamebookclub), an open club offered to K-20 educators to study academic works and popular literature on game studies, game-based learning, gamification (i.e. gamified learning), and the future of gaming. Book club participants also play games, such as War of Warcraft, Minecraft, Google's Ingress, and many more titles to support their teaching practices as "gaming pracademics."
"The Gamer Identity and Representations of Gender and Race in Games" by Sherr...Sherry Jones
November 9, 2014 - This is my Game Studies presentation for the Metagame Book Club titled: "The Gamer Identity, Representations of Gender and Race in Games."
Interested in joining fellow educators to learn more about gaming in education? Access the free book club here:
Metagame Book Club
http://bit.ly/metagamebookclub
"Game Design: Creating Psychological Experiences" by Sherry Jones (Nov. 12, 2...Sherry Jones
Nov. 12, 2015 - This presentation on "Game Design: Creating Psychological Experiences," is created for the Metagame Book Club.
The Metagame Book Club is a free resource for K-12 and college educators and students interested in game-based learning, gamification, and game studies. Join today!
Metagame Book Club
http://bit.ly/metagamebookclub
A brief introduction to some of the issues around ethics in Virtual and Augmented Reality. For developers and users, what are the ethical issues around the business, commercial and entertainment uses of VR/AR?
Do decisions made in games have any ethical implications? After all, its just a game!
But are some things too terrible, too taboo, to represent in computer games?
"Constructs of the Real and the Rhetoric of Games" by Sherry Jones (August 14...Sherry Jones
I am the Game Studies Facilitator for the #Metagame Book Club (http://bit.ly/metagamebookclub). This is my Week 4 Lecture on the "Constructs of the Real and the Rhetoric of Games," with study emphasis on Ian Bogost's Procedural Rhetoric theory, and Ryan Lizardi's examination of the counterfactual and alternate histories presented in the Bioshock series.
Live Video Lecture - The live recorded youtube video of this lecture is included toward the end of this presentation.
Join the Metagame Book Club - We welcome all educators interested in gaming in education, game-based learning, gamification, and game studies to join the #Metagame Book Club.
#Metagame Book Club (July 15 - August 16, 2014)
http://bit.ly/metagamebookclub
Find us on various social media with the hashtag, #Metagame
"Ideologies & Games" by Sherry Jones (Nov. 16, 2014)Sherry Jones
November 16, 2014 - This is my Game Studies presentation for the Metagame Book Club titled: "Ideologies & Games."
Interested in joining fellow educators to learn more about gaming in education? Access the free book club here:
Metagame Book Club
http://bit.ly/metagamebookclub
"Studying Video Games as Ideological Texts" by Sherry Jones (October 24, 2014)Sherry Jones
My presentation for Metro State University of Denver's Teaching and Learning with Technology Conference 2014, held on October 24, 2014.
Educators! Register now for the #Metagame Book Club! The book club will run from November 1-21, 2014. I will be your Track 1: Game Studies facilitator. We will be reading interesting and enlightening academic papers on current theories and controversies in gaming and game studies.
#Metagame Book Club Registration Page
http://bit.ly/metagamebooksignup
#Metagame Book Club Home Page
https://sites.google.com/site/metagamebookclub/
"Epistemic Game Design for Collaborative Inquiry and Civic Engagement" by She...Sherry Jones
Aug. 5, 2015 - This is my presentation on epistemic game design for the 2015 Colorado Learning and Teaching with Technology Conference (COLTT).
Through this slideshow, we introduce the epistemic game, "The Perspective Game" by GetTheIssues(GTI) to educators and administrators of higher education.
Paideia as Paidia: From Game-Based Learning to a Life Well-PlayedSebastian Deterding
»Gamification« has sparked the imagination of many for the potential of games in education, but turned away an equal amount within the games and learning community with its disregard for the complexities of design and human motivation.
However, this talk suggests that there is a deeper reason for the negative reaction in the games and learning community: namely, that gamification really provides a distorted mirror that throws into stark relief issues in today's game-based learning at large. Conversely, that best way to advance games for learning today is to look deep into this mirror. Doing so reveals a triple agenda for the field: to expand from deploying games as interventions in systems to the gameful restructuring of systems, and from designing games to the playful reframing of situations; and to shift from the instrumentalization of play and learning to paideia as paidia.
Handmade Pixels: Indie and the Quest for making smaller, newer, and more auth...DevGAMM Conference
How can a video game on a small budget stand out? Through a new history of the independent game festivals from 1998 to 2020, I will show three strategies for making *authentic* games. These strategies show how to combine production, design, and marketing to make an independent game stand out in the world.
Massively Multiplayer Online Role- Playing Games (MMPORPG):A Look into Worl...Danica Christidis
Assignment 3: Web Play, Online Games & Gamification 302
Ever wanted to find out more about massively multiplayer online role playing games? Say no more, everything you need to know is right here!
An Introduction to Educational Game DesignMichael Pinto
This presentation covers:
- Definition of a Game
- What Makes a Game a Game
- Learning Through Play (High Concept)
- How To Start To Learn How to Design Games
- Core Mechanisms of Games
- Soft Qualities of Games
- Survey of Different Types Of Games and Their Mechanisms
- Overview of Educational Games
- Gamification for Education
- Educational Games In Context of Transmedia Storytelling
"Game Design: Creating Psychological Experiences" by Sherry Jones (Nov. 12, 2...Sherry Jones
Nov. 12, 2015 - This presentation on "Game Design: Creating Psychological Experiences," is created for the Metagame Book Club.
The Metagame Book Club is a free resource for K-12 and college educators and students interested in game-based learning, gamification, and game studies. Join today!
Metagame Book Club
http://bit.ly/metagamebookclub
A brief introduction to some of the issues around ethics in Virtual and Augmented Reality. For developers and users, what are the ethical issues around the business, commercial and entertainment uses of VR/AR?
Do decisions made in games have any ethical implications? After all, its just a game!
But are some things too terrible, too taboo, to represent in computer games?
"Constructs of the Real and the Rhetoric of Games" by Sherry Jones (August 14...Sherry Jones
I am the Game Studies Facilitator for the #Metagame Book Club (http://bit.ly/metagamebookclub). This is my Week 4 Lecture on the "Constructs of the Real and the Rhetoric of Games," with study emphasis on Ian Bogost's Procedural Rhetoric theory, and Ryan Lizardi's examination of the counterfactual and alternate histories presented in the Bioshock series.
Live Video Lecture - The live recorded youtube video of this lecture is included toward the end of this presentation.
Join the Metagame Book Club - We welcome all educators interested in gaming in education, game-based learning, gamification, and game studies to join the #Metagame Book Club.
#Metagame Book Club (July 15 - August 16, 2014)
http://bit.ly/metagamebookclub
Find us on various social media with the hashtag, #Metagame
"Ideologies & Games" by Sherry Jones (Nov. 16, 2014)Sherry Jones
November 16, 2014 - This is my Game Studies presentation for the Metagame Book Club titled: "Ideologies & Games."
Interested in joining fellow educators to learn more about gaming in education? Access the free book club here:
Metagame Book Club
http://bit.ly/metagamebookclub
"Studying Video Games as Ideological Texts" by Sherry Jones (October 24, 2014)Sherry Jones
My presentation for Metro State University of Denver's Teaching and Learning with Technology Conference 2014, held on October 24, 2014.
Educators! Register now for the #Metagame Book Club! The book club will run from November 1-21, 2014. I will be your Track 1: Game Studies facilitator. We will be reading interesting and enlightening academic papers on current theories and controversies in gaming and game studies.
#Metagame Book Club Registration Page
http://bit.ly/metagamebooksignup
#Metagame Book Club Home Page
https://sites.google.com/site/metagamebookclub/
"Epistemic Game Design for Collaborative Inquiry and Civic Engagement" by She...Sherry Jones
Aug. 5, 2015 - This is my presentation on epistemic game design for the 2015 Colorado Learning and Teaching with Technology Conference (COLTT).
Through this slideshow, we introduce the epistemic game, "The Perspective Game" by GetTheIssues(GTI) to educators and administrators of higher education.
Paideia as Paidia: From Game-Based Learning to a Life Well-PlayedSebastian Deterding
»Gamification« has sparked the imagination of many for the potential of games in education, but turned away an equal amount within the games and learning community with its disregard for the complexities of design and human motivation.
However, this talk suggests that there is a deeper reason for the negative reaction in the games and learning community: namely, that gamification really provides a distorted mirror that throws into stark relief issues in today's game-based learning at large. Conversely, that best way to advance games for learning today is to look deep into this mirror. Doing so reveals a triple agenda for the field: to expand from deploying games as interventions in systems to the gameful restructuring of systems, and from designing games to the playful reframing of situations; and to shift from the instrumentalization of play and learning to paideia as paidia.
Handmade Pixels: Indie and the Quest for making smaller, newer, and more auth...DevGAMM Conference
How can a video game on a small budget stand out? Through a new history of the independent game festivals from 1998 to 2020, I will show three strategies for making *authentic* games. These strategies show how to combine production, design, and marketing to make an independent game stand out in the world.
Massively Multiplayer Online Role- Playing Games (MMPORPG):A Look into Worl...Danica Christidis
Assignment 3: Web Play, Online Games & Gamification 302
Ever wanted to find out more about massively multiplayer online role playing games? Say no more, everything you need to know is right here!
An Introduction to Educational Game DesignMichael Pinto
This presentation covers:
- Definition of a Game
- What Makes a Game a Game
- Learning Through Play (High Concept)
- How To Start To Learn How to Design Games
- Core Mechanisms of Games
- Soft Qualities of Games
- Survey of Different Types Of Games and Their Mechanisms
- Overview of Educational Games
- Gamification for Education
- Educational Games In Context of Transmedia Storytelling
Presentation looks at the Apple brand over the last 2 and a half decades. These are the early mock-ups of the slides that my colleague Neil Perryman used in my Web Studies module. He gave me permission to upload them here. You can contact Neil here:
neil.perryman@sunderland.ac.uk
MED122 Google, search and market dominanceRob Jewitt
A look at how Google's ability to expand its services help customer maintain customer tie-in and the return to search.
Slides adapted from originals by Tarleton Gillespie: http://www.tarletongillespie.org/
Lecture slides from session on music in games. Draws heavily on William Gibbons' article:
http://gamestudies.org/1103/articles/gibbons
Updated April 2013
Computer Games - Story Writing Theory - Story vs GamesAndrew Ryan
This material has been produced to be used on the BTEC Level 3 Games Development Extended Diploma (formerly National Diploma) course delivery. This resource can be adapted and amended for other relevant courses.
Slides on Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) from a guest lecture at the IS Research on Games course. The lecture introduces the concepts behind ARGs, reviews the related history and inspirations, and poses questions about the current state of ARGs.
The first computer games go back to the 50s when a nought and crosses game was created using an EDSAC computer. An effort at MIT ten years later led to a the multiplayer Spacewar game developed in a PDP-1. Even though these games were primitive, a game industry was born with the first games available in special locations – arcades. Today’s games are produced with modest Hollywood budgets and some are selling more than box-office hits.
In this lecture we look at computer games and the gaming market. Also we cover the impact of gaming and the trends.
The first computer games go back to the 50s when a nought and crosses game was created using an EDSAC computer. An effort at MIT ten years later led to a the multiplayer Spacewar game developed in a PDP-1. Even though these games were primitive, a game industry was born with the first games available in special locations – arcades. Today’s games are produced with modest Hollywood budgets and some are selling more than box-office hits.
Games are powerful. People can spend a lot of time playing games. Games are also great motivators. People do things that don´t even like, if they feel like they are playing game. Gamififcation is the use of game mechanics to motivate people to do stuff they generally would not do.
Presentation on Criminal Case, Crime based Hidden Object Games and hidden audiences for Video Games and Literature, Beyond Stereotypes - 21st June 2018 St. Andrews University
AQA Project
PAPATHANASSIS D., PANTAZIS P., TRAKAS I., PANTAZIS L. (Junior High Doukas School)
Supervisor: Yannis Kotsanis
The Glogster EDU version...
http://game4.edu.glogster.com/game-history
Lecture "An Introduction to Game Research" by Mirjam P Eladhari. Given in 2010 as part of the course International Game Production Studies I at Gotland University in Sweden.
Discursive Game Design or: Game Design as Cultural PracticeStefan Werning
The slides outline Discursive Game Design as a conceptual framework, that frames game design in four distinct ways: a) as cultural practice, b) as play, c) as persuasive communication, and d) as a research heuristic in its own right.
A media industry perspective on digital gamesStefan Werning
The paper explores how media industry studies can be a useful framework for analyzing digital games from a media and cultural studies perspective. It addresses issues like production practices, distribution modalities and a comparative perspective on non-Western game industries.
"Cultural and Social Dimensions of Games" by Sherry Jones (August 5, 2014)Sherry Jones
I am the Game Studies Facilitator for the #Metagame Book Club (http://bit.ly/metagamebookclub). This is my Week 3 Lecture on the cultural and social dimensions of games, with study emphasis on the Paratext theory, and on the paratextuality of games.
Live Video Lecture - The live recorded youtube video of this lecture is included toward the end of this presentation.
Join the Metagame Book Club - We welcome all educators interested in gaming in education, game-based learning, gamification, and game studies to join the #Metagame Book Club.
#Metagame Book Club (July 15 - August 16, 2014)
http://bit.ly/metagamebookclub
Find us on various social media with the hashtag, #Metagame
This is the presentation that was delivered at the 2010 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco that outlined "The Art of Video Games" exhibition that we were developing. Note, this presentation only contains my portion of this joint presentation.
Similar to Med122 digital games: narrative and play (20)
The Art Pastor's Guide to Sabbath | Steve ThomasonSteve Thomason
What is the purpose of the Sabbath Law in the Torah. It is interesting to compare how the context of the law shifts from Exodus to Deuteronomy. Who gets to rest, and why?
This is a presentation by Dada Robert in a Your Skill Boost masterclass organised by the Excellence Foundation for South Sudan (EFSS) on Saturday, the 25th and Sunday, the 26th of May 2024.
He discussed the concept of quality improvement, emphasizing its applicability to various aspects of life, including personal, project, and program improvements. He defined quality as doing the right thing at the right time in the right way to achieve the best possible results and discussed the concept of the "gap" between what we know and what we do, and how this gap represents the areas we need to improve. He explained the scientific approach to quality improvement, which involves systematic performance analysis, testing and learning, and implementing change ideas. He also highlighted the importance of client focus and a team approach to quality improvement.
How to Make a Field invisible in Odoo 17Celine George
It is possible to hide or invisible some fields in odoo. Commonly using “invisible” attribute in the field definition to invisible the fields. This slide will show how to make a field invisible in odoo 17.
2024.06.01 Introducing a competency framework for languag learning materials ...Sandy Millin
http://sandymillin.wordpress.com/iateflwebinar2024
Published classroom materials form the basis of syllabuses, drive teacher professional development, and have a potentially huge influence on learners, teachers and education systems. All teachers also create their own materials, whether a few sentences on a blackboard, a highly-structured fully-realised online course, or anything in between. Despite this, the knowledge and skills needed to create effective language learning materials are rarely part of teacher training, and are mostly learnt by trial and error.
Knowledge and skills frameworks, generally called competency frameworks, for ELT teachers, trainers and managers have existed for a few years now. However, until I created one for my MA dissertation, there wasn’t one drawing together what we need to know and do to be able to effectively produce language learning materials.
This webinar will introduce you to my framework, highlighting the key competencies I identified from my research. It will also show how anybody involved in language teaching (any language, not just English!), teacher training, managing schools or developing language learning materials can benefit from using the framework.
The French Revolution, which began in 1789, was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France. It marked the decline of absolute monarchies, the rise of secular and democratic republics, and the eventual rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. This revolutionary period is crucial in understanding the transition from feudalism to modernity in Europe.
For more information, visit-www.vavaclasses.com
4. Games as…
1. Products (ie texts)
• fuse cutting edge digital technologies with cultural
creativity.
2. Part of the media industry
• take advantage of global networks of production
and distribution with very little regulation.
3. Cultural practice
• encapsulate liberal ideals about individual choice
and agency
4
13. Video Games or Digital Games?
• See Aphra Kerr (2006: 3)
– Arcade
– Computer
– Console
– Mobile
– etc
• See Carolyn Marvin (1988)
13
14. Approaches
• What is it that makes a game ‘good’?
• Is it the story that a game tells?
• Is it the process of playing?
Tension between game writers and game designers
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3965/gam
e_writing_from_the_inside_out.php
14
15. • “There're lots of ways to entertain, but the
two primary ones are story—which is
television and movies and books and all that—
and the other is gameplay—blackjack and
football and Parcheesi. There’re other ones,
but those are two we are very familiar with."
– Rand Miller, co-creator of Myst, Riven and Uru
15
17. • “There're lots of ways to entertain, but the
two primary ones are story—which is
television and movies and books and all that—
and the other is gameplay—blackjack and
football and Parcheesi. There’re other ones,
but those are two we are very familiar with."
– Rand Miller, co-creator of Myst, Riven and Uru
17
19. Story (narrative) vs gameplay (ludus)
19
stability disruption resolution
Act I Act II Act III
20. Narratology
• The theory and study of narrative and
narrative structure and the way they affect our
perception
• Russian Formalists
– Tzvetan Todorov
– Vladimir Propp
– Victor Shklovsky
20
21. Pulp Fiction and narrative structure
21
1) Vince collects
briefcase
2) Vince dates Mia
3) Vince killed by
Butch
4) Vince cleans car
5) Vince at the
diner
stability disruption resolution
22. Pulp Fiction and narrative structure
22
1) Vince collects
briefcase
2) Vince dates Mia
3) Vince killed by
Butch
4) Vince cleans car
5) Vince at the
diner
stability disruption resolution
1) Vince collects
briefcase
4) Vince cleans car
5) Vince at the
diner
2) Vince dates Mia
3) Vince killed by
Butch
23. Hayden White (1987: 1)
• "far from being one code among many that a
culture may utilize for endowing experience
with meaning, narrative is a meta-code, a
human universal on the basis of which
transcultural messages about the nature of a
shared reality can be transmitted".
23
25. Narratology and Gaming
• Concerned with gaming as a new way of
presenting a familiar story
• Allowing the player to enter a new world, to
assume the role of a character
25
26. Narrative & verisimilitude
• Games are often the culmination of numerous
cultural factors and everyday anxieties
• Therefore verisimilitude is important, reflecting
the culture of creation, so that pleasure can be
derived
26
30. Bioshock vs Spec Ops: The Line
• See Anhut, 2012 30
“A man chooses. A slave obeys”
“None of this would have happened if you’d just stopped”
31. Games as literature?
• “the concentration of game designers and
consumers on genres that are fairly low down
the literary pecking order does little to add to
the respectability of the computer game”
– Atkins, 2003: 6
• Eg First Person Shooters?
32. • Focus more on ‘how’ we read games, not
‘what’ we read.
32
33. Games that are examples of the
‘narratology’ approach
• Myst/Riven
• Final Fantasy
• Grand Theft Auto
• Resident Evil
• Call of Duty
• Tetris?
34. • “When people talk about videogames, they tend to
compare them with forms they already know and
love: film, painting, literature and so on. But there’s
one critical difference. What do you do with a video
game? You play it.”
– Poole 2002: 26 34
35. Defining ‘play’
• “That which has neither utility nor
truth nor likeness, nor yet, in its
effects, is harmful, can best be judged
by the criterion of the charm that is in
it, and by the pleasure it affords. Such
pleasure, entailing as it does no
appreciable good or ill, is play”
• (Plato cited in Poole, 200: 13-14)
35
36. Ludology
• From the root ‘ludus’ meaning ‘rule bound’
(see Callois, 2001)
• Although games have stories, these are seen
by ludologists as incidental in the gaming
experience.
36
37. More than identification?
• “When you play a video game you enter into the
world of the programmers who made it. You have to
do more than identify with a character on the screen.
You must act for it. Identification through action has
a special kind of hold […] it puts people into a highly
focused, and highly charged state of mind. For many
people, what is being pursued in the video game is
not just a score, but an altered state.”
• Turkle, 1984/2003, 509
37
38. 3 important dimensions
1. Rules (programmed code)
2. The material system (gameworld)
3. Gameplay (player interaction)
Aarseth (1997): Games do not function under the rules
of semiotics, being not a sequence of signs, but more
akin to a sign generator
38
40. Resistance to ludology in academia (by
narratologists)
• “Do games tell stories? The affirmative answer
suggests that games are easily studied from within
existing paradigms. The negative implies that we
must start afresh”
– (Jesper Juul, 2001)
40
41. Resistance to ludology in academia (by
narratologists):
• “Do games tell stories? The affirmative answer
suggests that games are easily studied from within
existing paradigms. The negative implies that we
must start afresh”
– (Jesper Juul, 2001)
• “Because we are so used to seeing the world
through narrative lenses ... it is hard for us to
imagine an alternative”
– (Conzalo Frasca, 2003: 224)
41
44. Ends?
44
The Walking Dead
Start
Ends?
Start
Ends?
Ends?
x
45. • "the dimensions of Lara Croft's body, already
analyzed to death by film theorists, are
irrelevant to me as a player, because a
different-looking body would not make me
play differently... When I play, I don't even see
her body, but see through it and past it."
(Aarseth, 2004: p48)
45
47. Markku Eskelinen (2004): characters in games are
functional - a means to an end
Client vs server ‘hitboxes’
Less is more...
47
48. 48
• ‘you can have a computer game without any
narrative elements’ (Juul, 1999/2001: 7)
49. • ‘it is then the strength of the computer game that it
doesn’t tell stories’ (Juul, 1997/2001: 86)
49
50. The combination of play & narrative
• ‘It isn't a video game… a conventional video game has
things like a life meter or other icons on the screen.
Ico doesn't have these things.’
• (Fumito Ueda, Ico’s director, 2006)
50
51. • ‘In the beginning, I didn't have a
complete picture of the storyline. But I
did know what I wanted the game design
to be. I try to match the game design with
the storyline, so the story followed from
the mechanics.’ (Ueda, 2006)
51
52. • ‘If I called my work a video
game, people would think,
"Well, this is just a video game,
so I don't want to play it."’
52
57. Far Cry 2
• NPC react to player’s actions and respond accordingly
57
58. Conclusion
• Digital games tell stories
• We ‘play’ digital games
• Digital games are different to existing media
‘art’ forms because of this combination
• Perhaps narrative & ‘play’ aren’t mutually
incompatible?
58
59. Bibliography and sources
• Espen Aarseth, 1997, Cybertext, Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press
• Espen Aarseth, 2004, ‘Genre trouble: narrativism and the art of simulation’, in Noah Wardrip-Fruin & Pat Harrigan (eds), First
Person. New Media as Story, Performance and Game, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, Also available at
http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/firstperson/vigilant
• B Atkins, 2003, More than a Game: The Computer Game as Fictional Form, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
• Roger Callois, 2001, Man, Play and Games, Urbana: university of Illinois Press.
• Markku Eskelinen, 2004, ‘Towards computer game studies’, in Noah Wardrip-Fruin & Pat Harrigan (eds), First Person. New Media
as Story, Performance and Game, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
• Conzalo Frasca 2003 cited in Mark JP Wolf & Bernard Perron (eds), 2003, The Video Game Theory Reader, London: Routledge
• Clint Hocking, 2007, ‘Ludonarrative Dissonance in Bioshock’,
http://clicknothing.typepad.com/click_nothing/2007/10/ludonarrative-d.html
• Jesper Juul, 1999/2001, ‘A Clash Between and Narrative: A Thesis on Computer Games and Interactive Fiction’ Institute of Nordic
Language and Literature, University of Copenhagen, available at: http://www.jesperjuul.net/thesis/
• Jesper Juul, 2001, ‘Games Telling stories? -A brief note on games and narratives’ in Games Studies: the international journal of
computer game research, Vol 1 Issue 1 July - http://www.gamestudies.org/0101/juul-gts/
• Aphra Kerr, 2006, The Business and Culture of Digital Games, London: Sage.
• Carolyn Marvin, 1988, When Old Technologies Were New: thinking about electric communication in the late nineteenth century,
Oxford : Oxford University Press.
• Steven Poole, 2002, Trigger Happy: the inner life of videogames, London: Fourth Estate Limited
• Sherry Turkle, 1984, “Video Games and Computer Holding Power” in Noah Wardrip-Fruin & Nick Montfort (eds.), 2003, The New
Media Reader, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Fumito Ueda, 2006, ‘Behind the Shadow: Fumito Ueda’ http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/03/70286
59
Editor's Notes
Tension between game writers and game developers – see delicious link
B. Atkins, 2003, More than a Game: The Computer Game as Fictional Form, Manchester: Manchester University Press