scholarly journals Secrets, Stealth, and Survival

Barnboken ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Reay
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Critical Theory ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Dependent Child ◽  
Subject Positions ◽  
Child Characters ◽  
Digital Texts ◽  
Games Studies ◽  
Anxious Parent ◽  
Cultural Constructions

This article combines critical theory from children’s literature studies with research methods from games studies to explore the connection between silence and childhood in two digital texts. Little Nightmares (2017) and INSIDE (2016) are wordless video games that feature nameless, faceless children as their avatars. Weak and weaponless, the children must avoid detection and stay silent if they are to survive. By slinking and skulking, crouching and cowering, the children navigate their way through vast, brutal adult environments in order to reach safety – or so the player thinks. Both games, in fact, end in shocking, unexpected ways, prompting the disturbing realisation that silent children have secrets of their own. The games use scale, perspective, and sound to encourage close identification between the player and avatar, and position the silent, blank-faced child as a cipher onto which the player can project their own feelings of fear, dread, and vulnerability. The child-character’s quiet compliance with the player’s commands also situates the player as an anxious parent, orbiting, assisting, and protecting a dependent child as it moves through a dangerous world. For both subject positions, the child-character’s silence closes the distance between the player and avatar. However, when it is revealed that the child-characters have hidden, unknowable, and potentially sinister motivations, the meaning of their silence is wholly transformed. Using aetonormative theory (Nikolajeva; Beauvais; Gubar) in conjunction with studies of ideologies surrounding childhood (Jenks; Kincaid; Meyer; Balanzategui; Stockton; Lury), this article examines the extent to which these digital texts affirm or subvert cultural constructions of “the Child.” It employs a close reading approach proposed by games scholar Diane Carr to argue that the player-avatar relationships in these games shed new light on some of the fundamental contradictions that characterise adult normativity and child alterity, and concludes by suggesting some ways in which video games might productively expand and disrupt conceptions of aetonormative power relations.

scholarly journals The Musicality of 140: Tempo, Rhythm and Structure

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan Browne
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Traditional Music ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Interactive Nature ◽  
Spatio Temporal

This paper explores relationships between video games and music through a close reading of the minimalistic platform game 140 (Carlsen, 2014). Of particular interest to this investigation are concepts of tempo, rhythm and structure, and how these ideas can be extended to discuss the immediate case study as well as video games as a medium. Most importantly, this analysis is concerned primarily with these elements in a performative, spatio-temporal sense as opposed to an expression of sonic qualities. Comparisons between video games and other forms of media, while certainly valuable, can become problematic as the interactive nature of games is inherently unique. While cinema or literary texts can be seen as interactive, it is the explicit nature of the interactivity that games manifest which sets them apart from other disciplines. It is in this sense, that commonality can be found between games and music through the act of play. 140 facilitates a unique dialogue on this topic as it is a game that is intensely musical while also functioning outside of some of the precincts of traditional music games, providing a distinctive lens for analysis without being distracted by its own aesthetics. Evidence of this can be seen in the game’s design, aesthetics, mechanics and spatiality—a game where the player becomes part of a greater performance, enacting the musicality of space through play.

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.

Tense, Mood, and Aspect

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Simon
Keyword(s):  
Jim Crow ◽  
Temporal Structure ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Musical Analysis ◽  
Subject Positions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Migration Narratives ◽  
And Migration

The verbal characteristics of tense, mood, and aspect are used in this chapter to examine the structuring of narratives in the blues. Arguing that the blues articulate an unconventional story arc marked by a timeline that both reaches back retrospectively into the past and gestures toward a future, Simon argues that the temporal structure approximates Jim Crow and migration narratives in its open-endedness. The discussion of tense, mood, and aspect reveals an unstable, resonant, and oscillating system of temporalities and subject positions. Beginning with explorations of Memphis Minnie’s “In My Girlish Days” and Freddie King’s “Someday, After Awhile,” the chapter culminates in a close reading of Freddie King’s guitar solo in “Have You Ever Loved a Woman.” Through musical analysis, musical correlates to tense, mood, and aspect demonstrate the musical narrative’s reliance on structures similar to those that underpin the lyric content.

Cute, cuddly and completely crushable: Plushies as avatars in video games

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Reay
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Game Mechanics

This article examines video game avatars that are designed to resemble toys. It names this trope the ‘Blithe Child’ to capture the carefree, careless and childlike interactions this avatar invites. This article argues that the connection between the Blithe Child and traditional toys functions to express and explain non-violent game mechanics, to shape sentimental player–avatar relationships, to create cosy, snug playspaces and to encourage pro-social, creative and self-expressive playstyles. However, the Blithe Child inherits some of the more sinister dynamics latent in human–toy relationships, namely the desire to humiliate and mutilate the cute object and anxieties about what it means to be ‘real’ – to be an independent, agential subject rather than a passive, manipulated, othered object. Drawing on theories derived from cuteness studies and toy studies, this article uses a close reading approach to critique the age-based hierarchies that underpin this trope.

Appraising the Poetic Power of Children's Video Games

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Reay
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Media Ecology ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Children's Media ◽  
Aesthetic Value ◽  
Open Dialogue ◽  
The Aesthetic

To date, most studies of video games by children's literature scholars have been ‘child-oriented’ rather than ‘text-oriented’, focusing on the needs and capabilities of child-players rather than on the literary and artistic potential of the games themselves. This essay proposes that in-depth textual analyses of children's video games will not only illuminate the aesthetic value of specific texts, but also refashion and redirect scholarly debate about the medium itself. What is more, an open dialogue between games scholarship and children's literature scholarship is likely to yield the kind of rich, flexible and nuanced critical discourse necessary to navigate a rapidly evolving, increasingly diverse children's media ecology. Here the case is made for both a strong interdisciplinary alliance between children's literature scholarship and games scholarship, and for modelling a style of close reading that attends specifically to the visual, auditory, tactile and performative elements of children's video games. This method of close reading is called ‘critical ekphrasis’, where ‘ekphrasis’ denotes the careful and creative transcription of the supralinguistic, non-verbal signifiers of video games for the purpose of critical analysis. Critical ekphrasis is offered as a bridge between disciplines that enables children's literature scholars to bring their unique expertise to bear on the complex, varied and exciting body of texts that constitutes ‘children's video games’.

Unfaithful Passions: Coding Women Coding Men in Jeremiah 2-3 (4:2)

1996 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 288-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.R. PETE DIAMOND ◽  
Kathleen M. O'Connor
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Reader Response ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Marriage Metaphor ◽  
Rhetorical Function

AbstractThis close reading of Jeremiah 2:1-4:2 uses critical theory on narrative, metaphor and reader response to investigate the gender symbolism in the text in order to assess its governing symbolic grammar, rhetorical function and reception. Jeremiah's metaphor of the broken marriage functions as a root metaphor that unifies and narratizes the disparate materials in these chapters. The variants between the MT and the LXX Vorlage appear as alternative performances of Jeremiah's metaphor. The majority of variants cluster around the female addressee as a means to ruin the latter's image and sharpen national application of the metaphor. Jeremiah re-encodes Hosea's version of the marriage metaphor to serve new circumstances and create a new configuration of readers. The essay concludes with a contemporary, feminist assessment of Jeremiah's gender symbolism in relation to violence against women.

scholarly journals Towards a Critical Theory of Disability in Social Work

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanmala Hiranandani
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Critical Theory ◽  
Disability Studies ◽  
Medical Model ◽  
Disciplinary Power ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Cultural Constructions ◽  
Personal Tragedy

The dominant discourse on disability in social work has been that of an individual/medical model, which largely relegates the ‘problem’ of disability to a deficit within the individual. This paper calls for re-visioning disability: notions of disability in social work are contrasted with alternative frameworks, such as social and cultural constructions, materialist and political economy perspectives, and critiques of disciplinary power and the discourses of normalcy and measurement. These alternative conceptualizations drawn from humanities, social sciences, and disability studies can form the foundation of a dynamic critical theory of disability that questions impairment as necessarily a personal tragedy, and asserts that the notion of individual inadequacy is socially reproduced.

scholarly journals Perceiving the Default: Navigating Choice Architecture in Video Games / Vaikesätte jälgedes: valikuarhitektuuri navigeerimine videomängudes

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (27/28) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Luise Meier
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Game Design ◽  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Interactive Media ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Choice Architecture ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Cass Sunstein

Abstract: Using Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler’s concept of nudge (2008), this article transforms Stuart Hall’s notion of preferred reading (1973) into the concept of preferred playing to create a new approach to textual analysis appropriate for video games as interactive media. Markers for preferred playing as an alternative to more traditional close reading are discussed together with concepts and insights from contemporary game studios and game design regarding the medium’s different layers.   Käesolev artikkel loob Stuart Halli (1973) eelistatud lugemise (preferred reading) käsitluse alusel eelistatud mängimise (preferred playing) kontseptsiooni, kasutades selleks Cass Sunsteini ja Richard Thaleri (2008) nügimise (nudge) mõistet, et luua uus lähenemine tekstianalüüsile, mis oleks sobiv videomängude kui interaktiivse meediumi analüüsiks. Koos mõistete ja uuendustega nüüdisaegsest ludoloogiast ja mängudisainist arutatakse eelistatud mängimise markereid kui alternatiivi levinumale lähilugemisele videomängu meediumi eri kihistuste uurimiseks. Artikli alguses on välja toodud varasemate kvalitatiivsete ja kvantitatiivsete lähenemiste problemaatika videomänguanalüüsis, mis on eriti märgatav siis, kui käsitletakse rassi, klassi ja soo kujutamist videomängudes. Kuna varasemates lähenemistes jääb tihti puudu objektiivsusest ning tihtipeale kujutatakse videomänge, vältimatult interaktiivset meediumit, ka liiga lihtsustatult, soovitan kaheosalist lähenemist videomänguanalüüsile. Alustuseks pakun ma potentsiaalsete tegevuste ja sündmuste kaardistamise videomängudes, võttes aluseks Fernández-Vara (2015) kontseptsiooni võimalusruumist (space of possibilities). Kuigi see aitab videomänge mõista terviklikena, ei piisa sellest siiski mängusiseste vaatepunktide ja ideoloogiate analüüsiks, sest need on tihti kodeeritud eelistama üht või teist valikut. Seetõttu loon ma Halli (1973) mõiste „eelistatud lugemine“ (preferred reading) alusel, koos selle alla kuuluvate vastanduva (oppositional) ja sobitava (negotiated) lugemise mõistetega, kontseptsiooni eelistatud mängimisest (preferred playing). Sel eesmärgil kasutan ma Thaleri ja Sunsteini (2008) terminit „nügimine“ (nudge), pakkudes välja, et videomäng ise markeerib ideaalse viisi enda mängimiseks. Eelistatud mängimine on seega domineeriv mängustiil, mis on tuletatud neist nügimistest, mida mäng mängijale esitab; vastanduv mängimine on mängustiil, mis tunneb need nügimised küll ära, kuid vastandub neile tahtlikult, näiteks lõhestava või etendusliku mängimise eesmärgil. Sobitav mängimine seevastu aga kaasab tihti eelistatud mängimist, kuid muudab seda vastavalt mängija soovidele. Selleks, et mõista, millised nügimised videomängudes moodustavad eelistatud mängimise, on vaja analüüsida videomängude erinevaid aspekte ja kihistusi. Nügimine on eriti tavapärane nn visuaalsete vaikesätete puhul, kuid esineb ka paljudes mängumehhaanika detailides, näiteks tasakaalustamises, keerukuses ja väljakutsetes, aga ka eesmärkides ja auhindades. Tähendusrikas tasemedisain ja žanri- ning narratiivielementide kasutamine kujundavad täiendavalt kujutluspilti ideaalsest teekonnast läbi videomängu sündmuste, mille põhjal saavad seega tuletada videomängu eelistatud mängimise nii mängijad ise kui ka ludoloogid. Kirjeldatud metodoloogia abil saab luua lähteteksti, analüüsimaks videomänge nii soo kujutamise osas kui ka näiteks rassi kujutamises, kuna alaesindatuse probleem on mõlema aspekti puhul tavapärane (Williams jt 2009). Kuna tegemist on kohandatava töövahendiga videomängude analüüsiks, saab seda vastavalt vajadusele kasutada ka koos teiste teoreetiliste lähenemistega.

Reprogramming the History of Video Games: A Historian’s Approach to Video Games and Their History

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Lawler ◽  
Sean Smith
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Digital Games ◽  
Game Studies ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Games Studies ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Rich ◽  
States History

Abstract This paper explores the need and opportunities for historians to recognize the importance of video games to their research in modern American history. While this paper is rooted in examples specific to United States history, the call for historians to examine video games, engage with the rich field of games studies, and explore video games as sources in historical scholarship is a universal one, applicable to all fields of history. In this paper we argue that digital games are an essential part of media and cultural history and while media scholars and others interested in game studies have taken up the mantel of video games history, historians have been slow to respond to the medium and even slower to engage with video games as historical sources.

Video games through the refrain: Innovation and familiarity

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-302
Author(s):  
Sian Tomkinson
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Games Studies

The video game market is dominated by numerous franchises and many players lament that games are becoming boring and repetitive. However it is evident that players desire these games, which sell well. This article suggests that Deleuze and Guattari’s refrain can help explain why players desire repetition in games, and what kinds of risks and potentials it can provide. Specifically, in regard to gameplay I consider elements including genre and mechanics, and player’s desire to re-experience games. To explore repetition in players I consider game communities and the gamer identity, which can open up players to difference or encourage restriction. I argue that understood through the refrain, repetition in video games has the potential to generate difference, innovation and connections, but also possibly a closing off. The refrain is a useful tool for games studies and industry workers who are interested in understanding how new experiences can emerge from repetition.

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