The Motivating Role of Violence in Video Games

2009 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew K. Przybylski ◽  
Richard M. Ryan ◽  
C. Scott Rigby
Keyword(s):  
Video Games

scholarly journals Play! A Special Issue

Sexualities ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 136346072110136
Author(s):  
Caroline Bem ◽  
Susanna Paasonen
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Sexual Pleasure ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Sexuality Studies ◽  
The Past ◽  
Sexual Representation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sexual Play ◽  
Sex Toys

Sexuality, as it relates to video games in particular, has received increasing attention over the past decade in studies of games and play, even as the notion of play remains relatively underexplored within sexuality studies. This special issue asks what shift is effected when sexual representation, networked forms of connecting and relating, and the experimentation with sexual likes are approached through the notion of play. Bringing together the notions of sex and play, it both foregrounds the role of experimentation and improvisation in sexual pleasure practices and inquires after the rules and norms that these are embedded in. Contributors to this special issue combine the study of sexuality with diverse theoretical conceptions of play in order to explore the entanglements of affect, cognition, and the somatic in sexual lives, broadening current understandings of how these are lived through repetitive routines and improvisational sprees alike. In so doing, they focus on the specific sites and scenes where sexual play unfolds (from constantly morphing online pornographic archives to on- and offline party spaces, dungeons, and saunas), while also attending to the props and objects of play (from sex toys and orgasmic vocalizations to sensation-enhancing chemicals and pornographic imageries), as well as the social and technological settings where these activities occur. This introduction offers a brief overview of the rationale of thinking sex in and as play, before presenting the articles that make up this special issue.

scholarly journals The Animation of Gamers and the Gamers as Animators in Sierra On-Line’s Adventure Games

Animation ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 83-95
Author(s):  
Raz Greenberg
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Digital Games ◽  
Free Play ◽  
Digital Gaming ◽  
Adventure Game ◽  
Adventure Games ◽  
Software Publisher ◽  
On Line ◽  
The Relationship

Produced throughout the 1980s using the company’s Adventure Game Interpreter engine, the digital adventure games created by American software publisher Sierra On-Line played an important and largely overlooked role in the development of animation as an integral part of the digital gaming experience. While the little historical and theoretical discussion of the company’s games of the era focuses on their genre, it ignores these games’ contribution to the relationship between the animated avatars and the gamers that control them – a relationship that, as argued in this article, in essence turns gamers into animators. If we consider Chris Pallant’s (2019) argument in ‘Video games and animation’ that animation is essential to the sense of immersion within a digital game, then the great freedom provided to the gamers in animating their avatars within Sierra On-Line’s adventure games paved the way to the same sense of immersion in digital. And, if we refer to Gonzalo Frasca’s (1999) divide of digital games to narrative-led or free-play (ludus versus paidea) in ‘Ludology meets narratology: Similitude and differences between (video) games and narrative’, then the company’s adventure games served as an important early example of balance between the two elements through the gamers’ ability to animate their avatars. Furthermore, Sierra On-Line’s adventure games have tapped into the traditional tension between the animator and the character it animated, as observed by Scott Bukatman in ‘The poetics of Slumberland: Animated spirits and the animated spirit (2012), when he challenged the traditional divide between animators, the characters they animate and the audience. All these contributions, as this articles aims to demonstrate, continue to influence the role of animation in digital games to this very day.

scholarly journals Choices and Consequences: The Role of Players in The Walking Dead: A Telltale Game Series

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 350-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Genovesi
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Comic Books ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Interactive Approach ◽  
Transmedia Storytelling ◽  
The Walking Dead ◽  
Walking Dead

Abstract One of the most important features in a transmedia structure, as Max Giovagnoli argues in his book Transmedia: Storytelling e Comunicazione [Transmedia: Storytelling and Communication], is the development of the user’s decision-making power, defined by the author as “choice excitement.” In this, every choice of the user should have a consequence in the fictional universe of a specific franchise. Consequently, a narrative universe that wants to emphasize choice excitement and the active role of people can focus on video games, where the interactive approach is prominent. This essay will discuss a specific video game, based on the famous franchise of The Walking Dead. This brand, which appears in comic books, novels, TV series, Web episodes and video games, is analysable not only as an exemplary case of transmedia storytelling, where every ramification of the franchise published in different media is both autonomous and synergistic with the others, but also by focusing on the choice excitement of users in the first season of the video game The Walking Dead: A Telltale Game Series.

scholarly journals Tożsamość i jej kreowanie w grach wideo. Przykład postaci LGBT

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 197-212
Author(s):  
Hanna Kuliga
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Sexual Identity ◽  
Sexual Minorities ◽  
Virtual Space ◽  
Game Industry ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Given ◽  
Negative Phenomena

The presented article covers the subject of creating one’s identity in a virtual reality of video games, in the perspective of LGBT characters and their influence on the exploration of the sexual identity of a gamer. It describes the means by which the user has the ability to experiment with and express their identity, putting an emphasis on the role of immersion and cultural reflection in this process. The fol-lowing presented issues concern the representation of sexual minorities and negative phenomena that are present in the virtual space (such as queerbaiting), which have an impact on both the user, as well as the game industry. It emphasizes the role of the appearance of LGBT characters in this medium, which potentially can positively influence the player and producer communities. In this article I also describe three examples of non-heteronormative characters and their importance to users and developers of the given games.

Playful Trajectories and Experimentations

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-102
Author(s):  
Judit Vari
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Peer Relationships ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Political Socialization ◽  
Youth Identity ◽  
Independent Field ◽  
Games Studies

Abstract The main goal of this work is to discuss the place and role of video games in contemporary societies and their impact on individual relationships. It analyses how the development of video games is a sign of and a factor in the democratization of modern societies. It explores how video games contribute to the moral and political socialization of children and teenagers. The work is structured into two parts. The first explores the methodological, ethical and epistemological implications of Games Studies, and shows how the development of an independent field of research on video games can be analyzed as a sign of democratization. The second part focuses on youth identity experimentations and how video games can contribute to the democratization of social relations. Play inequalities are discussed, but it is also shown how video games are reconfiguring family and peer relationships, thereby influencing the movement of democratization of societies.

“Now They’re Playing with Power!”: Nintendo’s Classics and Franchise Legacy Management

2019 ◽  
pp. 105-118
Author(s):  
Matthew Thomas Payne
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Software And Hardware

Matthew Thomas Payne’s chapter considers the role of franchise management through video games. He uses the case study of Nintendo’s NES and SNES micro-consoles. His essay posits that franchises can refer to both software and hardware, as the built-in games on Nintendo’s mini-consoles function as a form of franchise management and corporate canonizing by privileging certain video game texts over others.

The Persuasive Language of Action

2014 ◽  
pp. 113-129
Author(s):  
Martin van Velsen
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Digital Video ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Digital Rhetoric ◽  
Current Generation ◽  
Role Playing Games ◽  
Body Of Knowledge

Besides the visual splendor pervasive in the current generation of digital video games, especially those where players roam simulated landscapes and imaginary worlds, few efforts have looked at the resources available to embed human meaning into a game's experience. From the art of persuasion to the mechanics of meaning-making in digital video games and table-top role playing games, this chapter investigates the changes and new opportunities available that can extend our understanding of digital rhetoric. Starting with a breakdown of the role of choice, workable models from psychology and the untapped body of knowledge from table-top role playing games are shown to allow game designers to enrich their products with a deeper human experience.

Music in Video Games

2016 ◽  
pp. 160-182
Author(s):  
Dimitrios Margounakis ◽  
Ioanna Lappa
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Musical Composition ◽  
Science Field ◽  
Algorithmic Music ◽  
Player Game ◽  
Art Research ◽  
High Level ◽  
Algorithmic Music Composition

The industry of video games has rapidly grown during the last decade, while “gaming” has been promoted into an interdisciplinary stand-alone science field. As a result, music in video games, as well as its production, has been yet a state-of-the-art research field in computer science. Since the production of games has reached a very high level in terms of complication and cost (the production of a 3-d multi-player game can cost up to millions of dollars), the role of sound engineer / composer / programmer is very crucial. This chapter describes the types of sound that exist in today's games and the various issues that arise during the musical composition. Moreover, the existing systems and techniques for algorithmic music composition are analyzed.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Cecilia Sayad
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Spatial Relationship ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Horror Films ◽  
Image Capture ◽  
Analog To Digital ◽  
Found Footage ◽  
Film And Video

The book’s introduction revisits questions around the ontology of photographic and filmic images in order to lay out the role of technology in making supernatural entities become part of everyday life. An examination of theories about the transition from analog to digital image capture considers the potential of photography, film, and video to expand our senses, enhance our perception of the physical world, and work as evidence. The indexical link between the object placed before the camera and its image extends to a discussion about the spatial relationship between the contents of the framed image and the surrounding physical world, which informs discussions about framing techniques in found-footage horror films and participative spectatorship in experiential cinema and video games.

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