scholarly journals Adaptations of Empire: Kipling's Kim, Novel and Game

Loading ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 55-73
Author(s):  
Lindsay Meaning
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Rudyard Kipling ◽  
Procedural Rhetoric ◽  
Colonial Violence ◽  
Role Playing Game

This paper addresses the depiction of colonialism and imperial ideologies in video games through an adaptation case study of the 2016 indie role-playing game Kim, adapted from the Rudyard Kipling novel of the same name. I explore the ways in which underlying colonial and imperial ideologies are replicated and reinforced in the process of adapting novel to game. In the process of adaptation, previously obscured practices of colonial violence are brought to the forefront of the narrative, where they are materialized by the game’s procedural rhetoric. However, the game fails to interrogate or critique these practices, ultimately reinforcing the imperial ideological framework in which it was developed.

Educational Games to Support Caring and Compassion Among Youth

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sinem Siyahhan ◽  
Adam A. Ingram-Goble ◽  
Sasha Barab ◽  
Maria Solomou
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Educational Games ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Academic Learning ◽  
Design Work ◽  
Design Decisions ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Work Identity ◽  
Design Elements ◽  
Role Playing Game

In this paper, the authors argue that video games offer unique and pervasive opportunities for children to develop social dispositions that are necessary to succeed in the 21st century. To this end, they discuss the design of TavCats—a virtual role-playing game that aimed to engage children (ages 9 to 13) in understanding, acting upon, and coming to value being caring and compassionate. The authors' discussion takes the form of a design narrative through which they explain the connections between their theoretical commitments and design decisions. Specifically, they review four design elements they utilized in their design work: identity claims, boundary objects, profession trajectories, and cyclic gameplay. The authors briefly share their observations from a pilot study with children in an afterschool setting to illustrate how their design work might be realized in the world. They conclude their paper with a discussion of the implications of their work for designing educational video games for supporting social dispositions as well as academic learning, and future directions.

Putting Pleasure First: Localizing Japanese Video Games

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minako O’Hagan
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Digital Platform ◽  
Global Industry ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
Localization Model ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
A Chain ◽  
Research Domain

Since their humble beginnings, video games have undergone huge technological advances, becoming a significant global industry today and highlighting the role played by translation and localization. Despite the continuing localization activities undertaken in the industry, translation studies (TS) have not paid much attention to video games as a research domain. Drawing on the author’s previous work on the Japanese Role Playing Game (RPG) Final Fantasy titles, this paper attempts to demonstrate the ample research scope that this domain presents for TS scholars. In particular, it discusses the unique localization model used by Final Fantasy’s Japanese publisher, illustrating how the games’ new digital platform allows the (re)creation of a new gameplaying pleasure directly through the localization process itself. In this model, the original game merely sets off a chain of improvements through localization. In turn, understanding the different pleasures drawn from different localized versions of games will contribute useful insights into emerging games research.

scholarly journals CONTEMPORARY RECEPTION OF EDDIC THEMES IN NEW MEDIA: VIRTUAL 'NORDIC' IDENTITIES, CASE STUDY: DARK AGE OF CAMELOT

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-54
Author(s):  
Ester Jiresch ◽  
Vincent Boswijk
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
New Media ◽  
Computer Games ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Television Programs ◽  
Identity Constructions ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
Poetic Edda ◽  
Popular Television

This article discusses the most recent (twenty-first century) development in reception and adaptation of Nordic mythology (particularly referring to the Prose and Poetic Edda) and the appropriating of Nordic identities (stereotypes) that is taking place in the so-called new media. In the last two decades the reception of Nordic mythology or Nordic 'themes' in different new media like film, comic books, heavy metal music and computer games has exploded. New media are generally considered expressions of 'popular' culture and have therefore not yet received much scholarly attention. However, since those media are growing notably and especially computer games (console and online applications) reach an enormous audience.Scientific interest in them has increased in recent years. Miller mentions the 'sexiness of Vikings in video games, the pretense of Viking-like settings for popular television programs […]' (Miller, 2014, p. 4). The case study is Dark Age of Camelot (DAoC – Mythic Entertainment 2001) which is a MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) that is currently (2015) still available to play online. We will show examples of themes (characters, narratives, objects etc.) deriving from Eddic texts and how they are represented and deployed in the game. Since the representation of 'Nordic' identity is a key feature in the game's construction, it will therefore be addressed as well. The fictional world of DAoC consists of three realms – Albion, Hibernia and Midgard – that are at war with each other. Their (human) inhabitants are respectively based on medieval Anglo-Saxon, Celtic and Norse tribes that differ distinctively in their character traits. Our goal is to elaborate on the representation of identity traits of the fictional 'Norse' races (as defined by the game) that appear in DAoC. We will scrutinize if and how the game uses older or more current concepts of (national) identity. In order to do so, an overview of Scandinavian / Nordic identity constructions that have been popular and / or widespread from antiquity will be presented, via medieval sources to romanticism and nineteenth century nationalism until current discussions of national identity.

Multiplayer Online Game Research

2021 ◽  
pp. 243-266
Author(s):  
Seyed Abdollah Shahrokni
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Online Game ◽  
Ethnographic Case Study ◽  
Data Collection And Analysis ◽  
Community Data ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
Participant Observer ◽  
Methodological Aspects

This chapter explains the process of collecting data for an ethnographic case study in a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game (MMOG) called Stronghold Kingdoms, describing the methodological aspects of the study such as the research site, participants, data collection sources, and analysis. Further, the chapter explains the challenges encountered while conducting the study, including entering and becoming a member of the game community, data collection and analysis in an ever-changing world, being a participant-observer and the risk of going native, and participant attrition. Finally, the chapter provides some solutions and recommendations for researchers interested in conducting studies in MMOG settings.

Sign

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-313
Author(s):  
Mary Beth Willard ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Role Playing ◽  
Signed Language ◽  
Role Playing Game

I present a case study of the use of a table-top role-playing game in a mid-level course that presupposes no previous familiarity with philosophy. The course covered philosophical analyses of propaganda and language, and the pedagogical purpose of the game was to help students grasp the basics of philosophical and linguistic theories of assertion quickly. The game, Sign, directs players to create a signed language collaboratively, and thus forces them to pay attention to the subtle ways in which communication occurs.

scholarly journals World of Warcraft: A Family Therapist's Journey into Scapegoated Culture

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nickolas Jordan
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
News Media ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
The United States ◽  
World Of Warcraft ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Mass Shootings ◽  
Couple And Family Therapy ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
Online Video Games

Relational (online) video games are lucrative business. The extremely popular Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, World of Warcraft, boasts over eight million paying users. Video games are also a lightning rod for criticism and contempt by news media, parents and policy makers as the number of mass shootings increases in the United States. There is some research suggesting violent video games increase violent cognition and behavior. There is other research arguing no relationship exist between violent gaming and aggression. The same dichotomy of views exists within the discussion of how relational video games impact intimate partnerships. The purpose of this study is to continue conversation into the possibility of using games like World of Warcraft as interventions in individual, couple and family therapy. This autoethnorgraphic work examines researcher experience in World of Warcraft and its impact on violent thought, behavior and intimate relationships. In addition to researcher self-exploration, extensive interviews were conducted to provide additional context. Throughout the course of this work, three themes of World of Warcraft culture emerged: Work, Nostalgia and Connection. The theme of connection was most pervasive to the researcher and the participants. Video games like World of Warcraft may present supplemental opportunities for clients to practice healthy connection. Concerned parents should monitor their children’s online gaming relationships as they would any other. Future research in this area may benefit from an experimental design where video games like World of Warcraft are used in the treatment of PTSD and Social Anxiety Disorder.

scholarly journals Simulation and database society in Japanese role-playing game fandoms: Reading boys' love dōjinshi online

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy Hannah Glasspool
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Gender Norms ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
International Markets ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
Media Form ◽  
Popular Texts ◽  
Binary Gender

Japanese video games have been characterized as typifying contemporary postmodernity in the form of simulacra, both as a media form and in terms of their extensive localization for international markets, which creates user fantasies of Japaneseness that are not linked to an authentic or original Japan. These simulations are reappropriated by fans to create new content, in this case boys' love dōjinshi, which are in turn disseminated and consumed in an English-speaking online context. Fantasy role-playing video games, which often privilege heteronormativity and binary gender norms in their goals, narratives, and aesthetics, are among the most popular texts reimagined in this way. This study considers the concepts of simulation and database societies through an examination of the ways in which artificial contours of Japaneseness are constructed in the role-playing game series Final Fantasy VII's boys' love dōjinshi fandoms, how far these fan texts develop possibilities for the deconstruction of heteronormativity, and how transnational digitized consumption methods facilitate the intersection of these phenomena.

Playing Chopin

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Gibbons
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Real World ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Frederic Chopin ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Narrative Strategies ◽  
Mobile Game ◽  
Role Playing Game

This chapter explores two video games that feature the nineteenth-century pianist and composer Frédéric Chopin as the main character: the Japanese role-playing game Eternal Sonata and the mobile game Frederic: Resurrection of Music. The chapter begins by examining three mythic identities that have shaped audience’s understandings of Chopin and his music and that play a role in Eternal Sonata and Frederic: the salon composer, the Romantic composer, and the Slavic composer. To address the challenges of creating a compelling video game narrative about a real-world composer, both games employ innovative but problematic narrative strategies to transform Chopin into a more stereotypically heroic character. Moreover, both games include his music in ways designed to reinforce its musical greatness and increase the music’s appeal to younger audiences.

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