Computer games: a proposal for a structured classification

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2014

This paper proposes a classification of videogames by their physical interfaces (controls, keyboards, joysticks, mouse etc.) and how they interact with narrative complexity in videogames. By now, classifications of videogames never took into account of the play element and the aesthetic experience the player had with games. This analysis comprehends the commercial operation of the videogame industry, basically from 1971 to the present day. The classification proposed here is independent of the traditional ones, although there are some similarities and parallels.

Journal of Media Research, 2017

In our work we analyze the phenomenon of video games, their impact on art, media and society. At the beginning of our studies we sadly realized that most articles dealing with "new media" phenomenon starts with the hypothesis that video games are a new form of media (new media), which has not yet found a place on the multicolored palette of interactive multimedia and that is why they are misunderstood and unsupported by academic forums. Video games are a media phenomenon still "unsettled", which still has not found its place in global culture, but it has been over commercialized and therefore it is created a huge amount of video games that cannot be counted in real-time inventory-so it is understandable that relevant scientifical analysis are in delay and that these new media "species" are viewed with disfavour by fans of art, literature and traditional media. We assume that in short time there will be a new generation of interactive programs that can interact intelligently with people around them, and not just using predetermined algorithms or variables generated by chance-as they have done before.

40th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Hawaii, January 3-6, 2007

In this paper, we create a taxonomy of interactive digital entertainment (IDE), which can be used to guide future research in IDE and direct the design of interactive entertainment. We start by defining and explaining the differences between IDE and lifestyle computing. We then review the major taxonomies on gaming that can illuminate research and practice with IDE. Given this review, we propose an overarching taxonomy called the IDE Unification Framework. Based on this framework, we then propose promising areas for future research.

Routledge eBooks, 2014

By the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century, computer games have long discarded the stigma of media non grata. With games studies established as an academic discipline, ludologists have determined - although not always agreed upon - what exactly computer games are (not), particularly vis-à-vis what were often felt to be somewhat intrusive attempts on the part of literary and media studies to impose definitions and theories indebted to, for instance, narratology and film studies. By the same token, since the years leading up to the boost of the gaming industry and the proliferation of commercially oriented, run-of-the-mill genre blockbusters from the 1990s onward, there has been a steady increase in independent game design and development, which has given rise to a wide range of non-commercial artefacts such as art games, online adaptations and parodies of classic platform games and shoot 'em ups, educational, political and socio-critical browser games. This chapter looks at one specific type of such experimental, anti-establishment projects, which I shall refer to as the paradox of literary gaming - "paradox" because literature and computer games are two entirely different receptive, productive, aesthetic, phenomenological, social and discursive phenomena. Having said that, I aim to demonstrate that some qualities of literary computer games and ludic-experimental digital literature of all three major genres (poetry, drama and narrative) are indeed compatible, especially considering how the digital medium enables semiotic multimodality, rule-drivenness, playability, relative agency and interactive variability, thus inviting artistic hybridity and aesthetic fluidity. In what follows, I shall first introduce the essence of general and digital "gameness" (Juul 2003, 2005) as well as the textuality of computer games. I shall then go on to explore the interface between experimental literature and computer games and propose a spectrum between ludic digital literature and literary computer games, which I consider a more appropriate concept than a textual-generic typology. The second half of the chapter will be dedicated to a number of concise close readings covering poetic, dramatic and fictional artefacts.

Games and Culture, 2006

A short, speculative account of the state of play in the formation of a discipline or field of computer games studies. The processes of academic teaching, research, and institutional positioning in regard to computer games are viewed from the perspective of wider currents and crises influencing knowledge formation today. It is argued that the different approaches to computer games cannot ignore the differences in their conceptions of the object of study in a naive pluralism. These different conceptions of games as parts of the technocultural milieu must encounter each other in the name of the struggle against the avoidance of critical thought concerning the nature and forms of technoculture that often prevails in the production of specialist “knowledge” today.

Computer Games and Digital Cultures. Tampere, 2002

Computer Games and New Media Cultures: A Handbook of Digital Games Studies pp. 47-59

So-called games of progression are often film adaptations or are adapted themselves into other media. Computer games are also used in transmedia storytelling. As these games use (visual) narrative techniques, it is natural to use research methodologies from literary and film studies to analyse them, especially when the game is compared to its filmic or literary counterpart. In this article, focussing on the terms genre and mise-en-scène, I point out some of the problems such comparisons can elicit. I will show that genre, in itself already a contested term, is used differently in literary-, film-, and gamestudies. In addition, the changing game demographics have prompted a rethinking of the term for computer games. In mise-en-scène the way a game visualizes setting and props depends on the technical capabilities of the system the game is played on. In newer games film style cinematography is possible but not all gamers are versed in film cues. Furthermore, modern style games increasingly put the camera in the hands of the gamer. Therefore, a comparatist should always be aware of the specificities of the particular medium. Note: an updated version of this article can be found in my dissertation (Chapter V)

2018

This paper addresses the relationship between games and media and discusses to which extend games can be conceived as media, and how they should be studied as such. The paper proposes a revised version of Elleström's intermedial framework that has been harnessed to better describe games. The framework acknowledges the heterogeneous nature of not only games but all media. Elleström's framework allows us to address games as particular tangible objects in the world in a way that avoids normative assumptions about games in general as well as specific types of games such as digital or analog games. This framework has several usages. It can be applied in an analysis the relationship between different modalities in a single game; it can be used to compare different games; and finally, it can be used to discuss the similarities and differences between games and other media objects.

2020

Playing games as an entertainment is not new. Video games have come into people’s lives in 1970’s in form of arcade games. What could be relatively considered new is the PC gaming branch of this wide industry that is estimated to have made over a hundred billion dollars in 2017 as mentioned in The Economist. PC gaming is considered to be the critical change in the gaming technology and industry, as it brought what started as arcade to people’s homes, making gaming accessible to anyone who had, still has a computer. However; there is still much uncertainty as concerns video games. Mostly because, it is such a broad industry with hundreds of genres to hundreds of techniques; for most researchers and even players it is impossible to classifies and focus on just one; thus, the lack of research and facts on the effects of video gaming. As mentioned above, this essay will examine in what way video gaming affects its players and whether it is more beneficial than it is ‘harmful’. Firstly, it shall be defined what video gaming is and how it is interpreted in this article. Secondly, the audience should be determined for a clearer analysis and thirdly, this article will analyze the reports and the data already written/collected on this topic; and lastly it shall drive a conclusion where limitations of the data and analysis are also covered.