scholarly journals Mapping Persona and Games

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Christopher Moore
Keyword(s):  
Media Studies ◽  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Computer Game ◽  
Tipping Point ◽  
Game Studies ◽  
Games Studies

For those new to games studies, the most important primer is the recognition that, as a field of research, it is at its most revealing when in conversation with perspectives from other fields and domains of inquiry. Espen Aarseth (2001) announced that the first issue of Game Studies, the international journal of computer game research, marked the commencement of computer game studies. Aarseth's editorial launched the trajectory for the following two decades of game research, obscuring much of the previous work examining digital and analogue games that had contributed to the tipping point at which the fields' coalescence could become a reality. Emerging from media studies, sociology, and a particular tradition of textual analysis in cinema and literature studies, games studies has since had a reputation for being the latest kid on the block. Like persona studies, game studies features key moments in which intersections between it and other fields and their theoretical and analytical perspectives prove enlightening, enriching, and even entertaining.

scholarly journals Intermediality between Games and Fiction: The “Ludology vs. Narratology” Debate in Computer Game Studies: A Response to Gonzalo Frasca

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michalis Kokonis
Keyword(s):  
Computer Games ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Computer Game ◽  
Game Studies ◽  
Hybrid Nature ◽  
Games Studies ◽  
Semiotic Perspective ◽  
Narrative Forms ◽  
Electronic Games

Abstract In the last ten or fourteen years there has been a debate among the so called ludologists and narratologists in Computer Games Studies as to what is the best methodological approach for the academic study of electronic games. The aim of this paper is to propose a way out of the dilemma, suggesting that both ludology and narratology can be helpful methodologically. However, there is need for a wider theoretical perspective, that of semiotics, in which both approaches can be operative. The semiotic perspective proposed allows research in the field to focus on the similarities between games and traditional narrative forms (since they share narrativity to a greater or lesser extent) as well as on their difference (they have different degrees of interaction); it will facilitate communication among theorists if we want to understand each other when talking about games and stories, and it will lead to a better understanding of the hybrid nature of the medium of game. In this sense the present paper aims to complement Gonzalo Frasca’s reconciliatory attempt made a few years back and expand on his proposal.

Gamers, Gender, and Representation

2009 ◽  
pp. 911-921 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Carr ◽  
Caroline Pelletier
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Computer Games ◽  
Computer Game ◽  
Game Studies ◽  
Formal Learning ◽  
Learning Contexts

The issue of gender reoccurs in debates about the introduction of computer games into formal learning contexts. There is a fear that girls will be alienated rather than engaged by games in the classroom. There is also concern over sexist imagery, and thus about representational aspects of computer games. In this chapter, particular aspects of these issues are addressed in turn. The authors explore the issue of gender and gendered game preferences, in relation to the cultural framing of the gaming audience. Attention is then directed at the issue of representation, with a consideration of the tensions between representation, meaning, and playability. These issues are considered primarily through perspectives drawn from media studies, and with reference to recent work from the emerging field of computer game studies.

scholarly journals Sensuous proximity in research methods with expert teams, media sports, and esports practices

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (64) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
Emma Witkowski
Keyword(s):  
Research Methods ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Computer Game ◽  
World Of Warcraft ◽  
Game Studies ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Performance Practices ◽  
Research Guidelines ◽  
Games Studies ◽  
Expert Team

This paper examines epistemological issues in game studies research, specifically exploring qualitative research approaches to networked, expert computer game teams who engage in esports practices. Expert teams deliver their expert practice in part through interembodied sensitivities to sensorial team-based phenomena, which is made across multiple bodies and machines in the process of play. Drawing on fieldwork with World of Warcraft Arena tournament esports teams and research methods orientations from games studies, sensuous ethnography, and sports studies, a position of sensuous proximity in games research is explored and developed as a suite of research guidelines for engaging with esports teams high performance practices. I suggest a research approach that involves differing lenses and stances in the study of embodied team play, and varying scales of sensuous proximity to the layers of expert team practices that augmens the notion of playing research in game studies.

The Game Thing: Ludology and other Theory Games

2004 ◽  
Vol 110 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Crogan
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Computer Games ◽  
Computer Game ◽  
Academic Competence ◽  
Game Studies ◽  
Current State ◽  
Games Studies ◽  
Productive Potential ◽  
Computer Culture

The current state of computer games studies is critically examined in this paper by means of an analysis of the recently released computer game, The Thing. Game studies is an emerging area of humanities scholarship, an emergence that exhibits characteristically ambivalent processes of defining its own object and staking out its own field of expertise from other areas of academic competence. A principal dynamic of these processes concerns the opposition between ‘ludological’ and narratological theorisations of the computer game. This opposition is examined for both its limitations and its productive potential by means of consideration of The Thing game and its relation to John Carpenter's cinematic iteration of the original short story from which it is adapted. This consideration leads away from the question of the specificity of the computer game object to some concluding speculations about the relation of contemporary computer games to the broader computer culture within which games are taking on an increasingly significant profile.

scholarly journals ‘I realised then how “Parisian” Egypt was’: challenges and rewards of de-westernising travel journalism

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (8) ◽  
pp. 1151-1166
Author(s):  
Andrew Duffy
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Textual Analysis ◽  
The West ◽  
Travel And Tourism ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Newspaper Articles

Bypassing the dominant Western bias in journalism scholarship is a challenge; it raises the question of what might replace it. Similarly, to evade the Western post-imperialism orthodoxies recurrent in cultural studies scholarship into travel and tourism would require other perspectives. This study combines the two and attempts to circumvent the Western bias in scholarship on travel journalism, given that its constituent parts are – for different reasons – becoming de-centred from the West. Textual analysis of Singaporean newspaper articles in Mandarin and English shows that questions of privilege and power remain but need not be associated with narratives of post-imperialism. Instead, destinations are textually constructed to justify the writer’s decision to travel. The intention for this article is to suggest ways that dominant Western perspectives in media studies may be balanced by other viewpoints which still expose issues of power and privilege but offer a less hegemonic, more culturally neutral starting point

Approach: How to Study a Vid

Fanvids ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Charlotte Stevens
Keyword(s):  
Media Studies ◽  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Detailed Knowledge ◽  
Canon Formation ◽  
Complete Form ◽  
Television Media

A vid offers more than just access to the specific interpretive work of the person who created it. The vid is a robust and complete form that is capable of withstanding analysis independent of detailed knowledge of either the source material or the vidder’s own interpretive motives/ beliefs. This chapter discusses the approach to textual analysis taken in Fanvids and reveals what can be learned from studying vids as texts unto themselves. This chapter also explores canon formation in television/ media studies and how this can apply to studying a marginal form. This chapter finishes with a discussion of the canons of vids that are formed through fan convention programming.

scholarly journals Breaking Bad and Narrative Complexity

2018 ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Dubravka Đurić
Keyword(s):  
Media Studies ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Television Studies ◽  
Serial Production ◽  
Breaking Bad ◽  
Cultural Approach ◽  
Crucial Component ◽  
Visual Style

In this paper I deal with the phenomenon of narrative complexity in TV serial production, and as an example I will discuss Breaking Bad. Pointing to this phenomenon as a creative revolution, characterized by a new visual style, I will discuss its self-reflexivity. This means that the mechanics of producing narrative are realized by making the audience follow not just the plot of the story, but also recognize formal aspects of the construction of the storyworld, its characters, and relations. I will illustrate the paradigm shift in television studies from a cultural approach to textual analysis, which focusses on formal aspects of producing the serials. My approach to Breaking Bad will apply both approaches. In cultural analysis, I will focus on the masculinity in crisis which is taking place within the context of American neoliberalism. After that I will deal with the mechanics of visual narrating which is a crucial component of Breaking Bad. Article received: April 28, 2018; Article accepted: May 10, 2018; Published online: October 15, 2018; Original scholarly paperHow to cite this article: Đurić, Dubravka. "Breaking Bad and Narrative Complexity." AM Journal of Art and Media Studies 17 (2018): 49−58. doi: 10.25038/am.v0i17.269

Gaming the Publishing Industry: Exploring Diverse Open Scholarship Models in Digital Games Studies

2020 ◽  
Vol 02 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Saklofske
Keyword(s):  
Publishing Industry ◽  
Short Form ◽  
Journal Article ◽  
Scholarly Communication ◽  
Critical Distance ◽  
Game Studies ◽  
Middle State ◽  
Games Studies ◽  
Quality Video ◽  
Rapid Deployment

The emergent field of digital game scholarship has developed along unique communicative lines, illuminating alternative models and diversified potentials for scholarly communication. Following the decline of print-based magazine journalism, the rise of moderated aggregator sites, such as Kotaku, Polygon, and Rock Paper Shotgun has exposed many independent voices to larger audiences. Much of the scholarship cited in current academic work can be found online at sites like Critical Distance (which uses “roundups, roundtables, podcasts, and critical compilations” to encourage dialogue between “developers, critics, educators and enthusiasts”), First Person Scholar, a middle-state publication that combines “the timeliness and succinctness of a blog, while retaining the rigor and context of a conventional journal article” (Hawreliak), highly polished and curated online zines such as Heterotopias, and from quality video bloggers such as Noah Caldwell Gervais and short-form documentary creators such as Gvmers. These heterogeneous alternatives collectively model a publishing plasticity and adaptiveness, establishing a culture of open scholarship practices, inclusive and diverse voices, and a rapid deployment of ideas and perspectives. This paper argues that emergent models of scholarly communication explored by the game studies community include but also moderate the reactive energies of social media and the toxicity of “gamer” culture.

scholarly journals The state of the digital humanities

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 8-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Liu
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
New Media ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Digital Humanities ◽  
Social Experience ◽  
Tipping Point ◽  
The State ◽  
Related Area ◽  
New Media Studies ◽  
Historical Coverage

The scholarly field of the digital humanities has recently expanded and integrated its fundamental concepts, historical coverage, relationship to social experience, scale of projects, and range of interpretive approaches. All this brings the overall field (including the related area of new media studies) to a tipping point where it has the potential not just to facilitate the work of the humanities but to represent the state of the humanities at large in its changing relation to higher education in the postindustrial state. Are the digital humanities up to this larger task?

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document