Video Game Escapism During Quarantine

Video games, and especially roleplaying games offer a way for players to escape stress and cope with stressors. Video games are a new, and potentially unique, mechanism for telling stories. They allow a player to not only interact with a world, but to fully immerse themselves in a digital world. Being able to quite literally escape to a fantasy world where your actions matter, and you’re given control can be a great form of self-therapy for players. This study aims to examine the results of a global pandemic and quarantine on player motivations and the reasons they play video games. The study collected detailed information on the video games genres and play time of each user and how it has been affected during self-isolation. Participants were also asked a series of questions that required them to evaluate their gaming habits both prior to and during the pandemic. This information was analysed to attempt to further understand players choices, in particular during a pandemic where there is an increased need to alleviate stress and experience a sense of escapism.

“I’ll just make sure we’re all on the same page”: Talking fictional worlds into being

This poster will present emerging results from a study of material and discursive information practices in tabletop roleplaying games. The focus will be on the ways in which players collaboratively construct and interact with the fictional worlds of play. A “big and small story” approach, influenced by the ethnomethodological methods of conversation analysis and membership categorization analysis, will be used to analyze the players’ talk as they intersubjectively create and sustain a fictional space of play.

Unterrichtsbeispiel: STAR-Rollenspiel „Weltraumrundreise“ zur Förderung der Language Awareness

ZusammenfassungDieser Artikel gibt einen Überblick über die dramadidaktische Lernform STARs (Student Activating Roleplaying Games). Mithilfe des konkreten Beispiels „Weltraumrundreise“ soll aufgezeigt werden, wie ein 90-minütiges Rollenspiel im Unterricht zur Förderung der Language Awareness und der Wahrnehmung der Sprachenvielfalt eingesetzt werden kann.

NOVAS VISÕES SOBRE A ROMA ANTIGA

O presente estudo visa abordar questões relacionadas à recepção do passado romano na Cultura Pop atual, especificamente em dois nichos diferentes: dos Jogos Digitais (Games) e do RPG – Roleplaying Games (Jogos de Interpretação). Para esse fim, dois materiais serão objetos de análise: o game Assassin’s Creed Origins (2017), lançado pela Ubisoft Montreal, e o suplemento de RPG: Requiem for Rome (2007), publicado pela White Wolf. A escolha desses objetos se deu, principalmente pela relação estabelecida por eles mesmos com o período histórico, que é do interesse deste estudo, proclamando uma relação/ligação com o mundo romano. O objetivo desta análise é tecer algumas considerações sobre a produção desses objetos, sobretudo acerca do papel do historiador nas equipes de sua produção, observando também como certos temas aparecem/reaparecem com certa constância e levando em consideração os diferentes movimentos de aproximação e distanciamento da Historiografia.

Gamer Girl Visibility: Networks and Their Gendered Ingroup Behaviours in Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games

‘Why can’t I just be a gamer? Why do I have to be a “female gamer”?’ While a generic term for all gamers may be looming on the horizon, there are still aspects of play which draw clear boundaries between male and female gamers. These boundaries, however, are often illusions. In Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games (MMOs), several networks exist within the game space, and one such network is that of ‘female character’. For male players to gain a part in this network, many gender-bend, and the gender of the character is what determines their actions not the gender of the players themselves. When men use female avatars, they engage in behaviours which they believe are typical feminine acts, (healing, fighting from a distance, etc.) but these are based on false perceptions about gender roles. Gaining access to this network is one which requires constant performance; however, it is a network which is often inhospitable for real-world women.