espanolEste articulo plantea algunos de los problemas fundamentales que sustentan el debate y la ... more espanolEste articulo plantea algunos de los problemas fundamentales que sustentan el debate y la investigacion recientes sobre las narrativas transmediales y/o el transmedia storytelling. Dichas cuestiones han sido planteadas, en tanto preguntas o retos para las disciplinas implicadas en este debate (estudios comparados de medios, narratologia transmedial, game studies, estudios culturales y literatura comparada): desde las claves de la posible novedad del transmedia storytelling o de las narrativas transmediales, pasando por el nuevo papel de las audiencias, la perdida de peso del factor narrativo en favor de la construccion de mundos (storyworlds) y personajes transmediales; la influencia de los videojuegos, el deficit de atencion y comprension al papel de las adaptaciones en el TS; el efecto «demediador» o de perdida de especificidad mediatica en la teoria del TS; la importancia de la creacion colaborativa y su estimulo para nuevos proyectos de investigacion (academico-empresaria...
... Register and you can start organising your references online. Tags. Allegories of Space: The ... more ... Register and you can start organising your references online. Tags. Allegories of Space: The Question of Spatiality in Computer games. by: Espen Aarseth. edited by: Markku Eskelinen, Raine Koskimaa. RIS, Export as RIS which can be imported into most citation managers. ...
We greatly appreciate the care and thought that is evident in the 10 commentaries that discuss ou... more We greatly appreciate the care and thought that is evident in the 10 commentaries that discuss our debate paper, the majority of which argued in favor of a formalized ICD-11 gaming disorder. We agree that there are some people whose play of video games is related to life problems. We believe that understanding this population and the nature and severity of the problems they experience should be a focus area for future research. However, moving from research construct to formal disorder requires a much stronger evidence base than we currently have. The burden of evidence and the clinical utility should be extremely high, because there is a genuine risk of abuse of diagnoses. We provide suggestions about the level of evidence that might be required: transparent and preregistered studies, a better demarcation of the subject area that includes a rationale for focusing on gaming particularly versus a more general behavioral addictions concept, the exploration of non-addiction approaches,...
This paper will discuss the phenomenon of mediated game spectatorship, from the early games to to... more This paper will discuss the phenomenon of mediated game spectatorship, from the early games to today's e-sport championships and online communities (youtube, twitch.tv, etc), and develop a descriptive model of the different modes of ludic spectatorship, that is, the possibility space of different spectator positions and modes afforded by games and gameplay. Introduction The main research question is, what can an open-ended exploration of ludospectatorship tell us about the oft-assumed line between participants and spectators? This line, imagined or not, reifies the ideological demarcation of power and agency; between those who act and those who (merely) observe. It has been challenged before, see e.g. Skjervheim (1996). But with games, this demarcation has always been suspect, from the gladiatorial slaves locked in semi-deadly combat observed by their wealthy masters (Grant 1971), to Gadamer's (1989) critique of ludic subjectivity: the game plays its players and constitutes the only real subject of gameplay. While a few gladiators rose to fame and wealth based on their ludic success (just as today's boxers,
The subfield of game ontology has seen many models and structural hierarchies, but few that activ... more The subfield of game ontology has seen many models and structural hierarchies, but few that actively build on each other, or even attempt comparisons. This paper introduces a meta-model, which in addition to being an ontological model of its own, also offers a method for comparison between competing or isolated models and concepts. It does so by treating games as mechanisms (Craver 2007) with multiple levels of description, and differentiates between four main layers of the game-mechanism. In the first part of the paper we present the model in detail. In the second part of the paper we show applications of the model-we present how some of the existing approaches to game ontology can be compared within it and how it can be used to describe two case examples: the ancient Egyptian funeral game Senet and the difference between game mechanics and game rules.
In this paper, we reassess the notion and current state of ludohermeneutics in game studies, and ... more In this paper, we reassess the notion and current state of ludohermeneutics in game studies, and propose a more solid foundation for how to conduct hermeneutic game analysis. We argue that there can be no ludo-hermeneutics as such, and that every game interpretation rests in a particular game ontology, whether implicit or explicit. The quality of this ontology, then, determines a vital aspect of the quality of the analysis.
In this paper we address the problem of defining games formally, following Wittgenstein's dic... more In this paper we address the problem of defining games formally, following Wittgenstein's dictum that games cannot be defined adequately as a formal category. Several influential attempts at definitions will be evaluated and shown to be inadequate. As an alternative, we propose a descriptive model of the definable supercategory that games belong to, cybermedia, that is pragmatic, open, and capable of meeting the needs of the diverse, intensely interdisciplinary field of game studies for a uniting conceptuallization of its main phenomenon. Our approach, the Cybermedia model, consisting of Player, Sign, Mechanical System, and Material Medium, offers a medium-independent, flexible and analytically useful way to contrast different approaches in games research and to determine which aspect of the phenomenon one is talking about when the word ‘game’ is used.
In a brilliant and famous passage from his novel Neuromancer (1984), the science fiction writer W... more In a brilliant and famous passage from his novel Neuromancer (1984), the science fiction writer William Gibson analyses the still (e)merging elements of computer culture, ironically describing the digitalization of games, graphics, warfare, work, education, global communication, cityscapes, and the cyborg integration of nerves and electronics, through the voice of a narrator in a children’s TV documentary:
In this paper we address the problem of defining games formally, following Wittgenstein’s dictum ... more In this paper we address the problem of defining games formally, following Wittgenstein’s dictum that games cannot be defined adequately as a formal category. Several influential attempts at definitions will be evaluated and shown to be inadequate. As an alternative, we propose a descriptive model of the definable supercategory that games belong to cybermedia, that is pragmatic, open, and capable of meeting the needs of the diverse, intensely interdisciplinary field of game studies for a uniting conceptualization of its main phenomenon. Our approach, the Cybermedia model, consisting of Player, Sign, Mechanical System, and Material Medium, offers a medium-independent, flexible and analytically useful way to contrast different approaches in games research and to determine which aspect of the phenomenon one is talking about when the word ‘game’ is used.
The notion of a “game port” appears in both: the popular discourse surrounding video games as wel... more The notion of a “game port” appears in both: the popular discourse surrounding video games as well as the academic discourse. As pointed out in the literature, it is notoriously vague and often overlaps with other similar concepts, such as “conversion”. We show that the main reason for the murkiness of the notion of a “game port” is its close connection to the marketing narrative which changed during history. We argue, that despite the problematic nature of the concept of a “game port” it is indispensable in context such as game analysis and game preservation. For this reason, we propose a formal classification of different game versions suitable for future use in these selected contexts.
The subfield of game ontology has seen many models and structural hierarchies, but few that activ... more The subfield of game ontology has seen many models and structural hierarchies, but few that actively build on each other, or even attempt comparisons. This paper introduces a meta-model, which in addition to being an ontological model of its own, also offers a method for comparison between competing or isolated models and concepts. It does so by treating games as mechanisms (Craver 2007) with multiple levels of description, and differentiates between four main layers of the game-mechanism. In the first part of the paper we present the model in detail. In the second part of the paper we show applications of the model we present how some of the existing approaches to game ontology can be compared within it and how it can be used to describe two case examples: the ancient Egyptian funeral game Senet and the difference between game mechanics and game rules.
espanolEste articulo plantea algunos de los problemas fundamentales que sustentan el debate y la ... more espanolEste articulo plantea algunos de los problemas fundamentales que sustentan el debate y la investigacion recientes sobre las narrativas transmediales y/o el transmedia storytelling. Dichas cuestiones han sido planteadas, en tanto preguntas o retos para las disciplinas implicadas en este debate (estudios comparados de medios, narratologia transmedial, game studies, estudios culturales y literatura comparada): desde las claves de la posible novedad del transmedia storytelling o de las narrativas transmediales, pasando por el nuevo papel de las audiencias, la perdida de peso del factor narrativo en favor de la construccion de mundos (storyworlds) y personajes transmediales; la influencia de los videojuegos, el deficit de atencion y comprension al papel de las adaptaciones en el TS; el efecto «demediador» o de perdida de especificidad mediatica en la teoria del TS; la importancia de la creacion colaborativa y su estimulo para nuevos proyectos de investigacion (academico-empresaria...
... Register and you can start organising your references online. Tags. Allegories of Space: The ... more ... Register and you can start organising your references online. Tags. Allegories of Space: The Question of Spatiality in Computer games. by: Espen Aarseth. edited by: Markku Eskelinen, Raine Koskimaa. RIS, Export as RIS which can be imported into most citation managers. ...
We greatly appreciate the care and thought that is evident in the 10 commentaries that discuss ou... more We greatly appreciate the care and thought that is evident in the 10 commentaries that discuss our debate paper, the majority of which argued in favor of a formalized ICD-11 gaming disorder. We agree that there are some people whose play of video games is related to life problems. We believe that understanding this population and the nature and severity of the problems they experience should be a focus area for future research. However, moving from research construct to formal disorder requires a much stronger evidence base than we currently have. The burden of evidence and the clinical utility should be extremely high, because there is a genuine risk of abuse of diagnoses. We provide suggestions about the level of evidence that might be required: transparent and preregistered studies, a better demarcation of the subject area that includes a rationale for focusing on gaming particularly versus a more general behavioral addictions concept, the exploration of non-addiction approaches,...
This paper will discuss the phenomenon of mediated game spectatorship, from the early games to to... more This paper will discuss the phenomenon of mediated game spectatorship, from the early games to today's e-sport championships and online communities (youtube, twitch.tv, etc), and develop a descriptive model of the different modes of ludic spectatorship, that is, the possibility space of different spectator positions and modes afforded by games and gameplay. Introduction The main research question is, what can an open-ended exploration of ludospectatorship tell us about the oft-assumed line between participants and spectators? This line, imagined or not, reifies the ideological demarcation of power and agency; between those who act and those who (merely) observe. It has been challenged before, see e.g. Skjervheim (1996). But with games, this demarcation has always been suspect, from the gladiatorial slaves locked in semi-deadly combat observed by their wealthy masters (Grant 1971), to Gadamer's (1989) critique of ludic subjectivity: the game plays its players and constitutes the only real subject of gameplay. While a few gladiators rose to fame and wealth based on their ludic success (just as today's boxers,
The subfield of game ontology has seen many models and structural hierarchies, but few that activ... more The subfield of game ontology has seen many models and structural hierarchies, but few that actively build on each other, or even attempt comparisons. This paper introduces a meta-model, which in addition to being an ontological model of its own, also offers a method for comparison between competing or isolated models and concepts. It does so by treating games as mechanisms (Craver 2007) with multiple levels of description, and differentiates between four main layers of the game-mechanism. In the first part of the paper we present the model in detail. In the second part of the paper we show applications of the model-we present how some of the existing approaches to game ontology can be compared within it and how it can be used to describe two case examples: the ancient Egyptian funeral game Senet and the difference between game mechanics and game rules.
In this paper, we reassess the notion and current state of ludohermeneutics in game studies, and ... more In this paper, we reassess the notion and current state of ludohermeneutics in game studies, and propose a more solid foundation for how to conduct hermeneutic game analysis. We argue that there can be no ludo-hermeneutics as such, and that every game interpretation rests in a particular game ontology, whether implicit or explicit. The quality of this ontology, then, determines a vital aspect of the quality of the analysis.
In this paper we address the problem of defining games formally, following Wittgenstein's dic... more In this paper we address the problem of defining games formally, following Wittgenstein's dictum that games cannot be defined adequately as a formal category. Several influential attempts at definitions will be evaluated and shown to be inadequate. As an alternative, we propose a descriptive model of the definable supercategory that games belong to, cybermedia, that is pragmatic, open, and capable of meeting the needs of the diverse, intensely interdisciplinary field of game studies for a uniting conceptuallization of its main phenomenon. Our approach, the Cybermedia model, consisting of Player, Sign, Mechanical System, and Material Medium, offers a medium-independent, flexible and analytically useful way to contrast different approaches in games research and to determine which aspect of the phenomenon one is talking about when the word ‘game’ is used.
In a brilliant and famous passage from his novel Neuromancer (1984), the science fiction writer W... more In a brilliant and famous passage from his novel Neuromancer (1984), the science fiction writer William Gibson analyses the still (e)merging elements of computer culture, ironically describing the digitalization of games, graphics, warfare, work, education, global communication, cityscapes, and the cyborg integration of nerves and electronics, through the voice of a narrator in a children’s TV documentary:
In this paper we address the problem of defining games formally, following Wittgenstein’s dictum ... more In this paper we address the problem of defining games formally, following Wittgenstein’s dictum that games cannot be defined adequately as a formal category. Several influential attempts at definitions will be evaluated and shown to be inadequate. As an alternative, we propose a descriptive model of the definable supercategory that games belong to cybermedia, that is pragmatic, open, and capable of meeting the needs of the diverse, intensely interdisciplinary field of game studies for a uniting conceptualization of its main phenomenon. Our approach, the Cybermedia model, consisting of Player, Sign, Mechanical System, and Material Medium, offers a medium-independent, flexible and analytically useful way to contrast different approaches in games research and to determine which aspect of the phenomenon one is talking about when the word ‘game’ is used.
The notion of a “game port” appears in both: the popular discourse surrounding video games as wel... more The notion of a “game port” appears in both: the popular discourse surrounding video games as well as the academic discourse. As pointed out in the literature, it is notoriously vague and often overlaps with other similar concepts, such as “conversion”. We show that the main reason for the murkiness of the notion of a “game port” is its close connection to the marketing narrative which changed during history. We argue, that despite the problematic nature of the concept of a “game port” it is indispensable in context such as game analysis and game preservation. For this reason, we propose a formal classification of different game versions suitable for future use in these selected contexts.
The subfield of game ontology has seen many models and structural hierarchies, but few that activ... more The subfield of game ontology has seen many models and structural hierarchies, but few that actively build on each other, or even attempt comparisons. This paper introduces a meta-model, which in addition to being an ontological model of its own, also offers a method for comparison between competing or isolated models and concepts. It does so by treating games as mechanisms (Craver 2007) with multiple levels of description, and differentiates between four main layers of the game-mechanism. In the first part of the paper we present the model in detail. In the second part of the paper we show applications of the model we present how some of the existing approaches to game ontology can be compared within it and how it can be used to describe two case examples: the ancient Egyptian funeral game Senet and the difference between game mechanics and game rules.
International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG ’20), Sep 15, 2020
[This paper is published as open access, to read it just follow the DOI link]
In this paper, we... more [This paper is published as open access, to read it just follow the DOI link]
In this paper, we reassess the notion and current state of ludo-hermeneutics in game studies and propose a more solid foundation for how to conduct hermeneutic game analysis. We argue that there can be no ludo-hermeneutics as such and that every game interpretation rests in a particular game ontology, whether implicit or explicit. The quality of this ontology, then, determines a vital aspect of the quality of the analysis.
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Papers by Espen Aarseth
In this paper, we reassess the notion and current state of ludo-hermeneutics in game studies and propose a more solid foundation for how to conduct hermeneutic game analysis. We argue that there can be no ludo-hermeneutics as such and that every game interpretation rests in a particular game ontology, whether implicit or explicit. The quality of this ontology, then, determines a vital aspect of the quality of the analysis.