With the rise of participatory culture and Web 2.0, what constitutes gaming and its attendant for... more With the rise of participatory culture and Web 2.0, what constitutes gaming and its attendant forms of skill has dramatically expanded. Participatory media heralds new forms of engagement inside and outside the space of gameplay. This phenomenon also proclaims new tensions around what constitutes professional and amateur skills. This is further enriched by the burgeoning of the online with ancillary texts adding to players experience, knowledge and expectation of the game. In game studies, multi-player games have gained much attention for their social and commercial dimensions, especially around the rise (and fall) of E-Sports and professionalisation of gaming as part of broader shifts in commodifying leisure and lifestyle.
In these shifts focusing upon the increasingly social aspects of gaming, single-player games have been relatively overlooked. No longer an isolated practice, single-player games have become progressively more social and collaborative. As such, there is a need to examine the ways in which single-players also redefine mastery and skill as part of a dynamic practice that involves negotiation between game and ancillary texts and experiences.
This thesis addresses the transformative role of the paratext (Genette, 1987) within the wider cultures of gaming. Through the discussion of changing notions of mastery as part of the sociality and creativity within games, this thesis attempts to understand how the contemporary form of paratexts shapes skill, social, creative and labour dimensions of single-player games today. In sum, how paratexts contribute to a gaming knowledge or “gaming capital”.
This thesis will give an insight into how contemporary Japanese Video Game media communicate cult... more This thesis will give an insight into how contemporary Japanese Video Game media communicate cultural exchange between eastern and western society.
Through discussion of the cultural exchange between both east and west through games will allow a deeper understanding of the function that computer and video games serve in today’s society of both young and old from both cultures. Video Game style and aesthetics will be discussed in conjunction with the work of Anne Allison on the globalization of Japanese Popular Culture.
In this study, the roles and forms that that ‘style’ takes in Video Games, both aesthetically and mechanically, will be of key interest. It will be suggested that through the various forms in which style is articulated through video game aesthetics and play, allows for a platform upon which cultural exchange and influence to occur.
The layout of the thesis is based on four case studies, and the way in which each communicates a ‘style’ (As defined in the thesis), and how this style facilitates cultural exchange and speaks of cultural history.
Each chapter will be pertinent to a different aspect and way in which the discussed ‘style’ articulates. ‘Style as Experience’, ‘Style as the Center of Production’, ‘Style as Retrospection’ and finally, ‘Style is Playable’ all make use of case studies of four Japanese made video game series which are popular both at home and abroad.
These games have been selected as each has an appearance of the ‘Superflat’, in that they do not appear to have any overt cultural origin. Through this thesis, we shall illustrate the ways that these games do articulate cultural values and in turn lead to an exchange between players who play these games and the developers who make them.
A brief study into the concept of "Hauntology" and how it expresses and functions in the contempo... more A brief study into the concept of "Hauntology" and how it expresses and functions in the contemporary media form of video games, and furthermore the wider effects of this dynamic on cultural consumption of new media.
A Critical Visual analysis of the work by ''Zain7'', an underground Japanese born artist whose ar... more A Critical Visual analysis of the work by ''Zain7'', an underground Japanese born artist whose artwork critiques the current state of Japanese popular culture and society.
With the rise of participatory culture and Web 2.0, what constitutes gaming and its attendant for... more With the rise of participatory culture and Web 2.0, what constitutes gaming and its attendant forms of skill has dramatically expanded. Participatory media heralds new forms of engagement inside and outside the space of gameplay. This phenomenon also proclaims new tensions around what constitutes professional and amateur skills. This is further enriched by the burgeoning of the online with ancillary texts adding to players experience, knowledge and expectation of the game. In game studies, multi-player games have gained much attention for their social and commercial dimensions, especially around the rise (and fall) of E-Sports and professionalisation of gaming as part of broader shifts in commodifying leisure and lifestyle.
In these shifts focusing upon the increasingly social aspects of gaming, single-player games have been relatively overlooked. No longer an isolated practice, single-player games have become progressively more social and collaborative. As such, there is a need to examine the ways in which single-players also redefine mastery and skill as part of a dynamic practice that involves negotiation between game and ancillary texts and experiences.
This thesis addresses the transformative role of the paratext (Genette, 1987) within the wider cultures of gaming. Through the discussion of changing notions of mastery as part of the sociality and creativity within games, this thesis attempts to understand how the contemporary form of paratexts shapes skill, social, creative and labour dimensions of single-player games today. In sum, how paratexts contribute to a gaming knowledge or “gaming capital”.
This thesis will give an insight into how contemporary Japanese Video Game media communicate cult... more This thesis will give an insight into how contemporary Japanese Video Game media communicate cultural exchange between eastern and western society.
Through discussion of the cultural exchange between both east and west through games will allow a deeper understanding of the function that computer and video games serve in today’s society of both young and old from both cultures. Video Game style and aesthetics will be discussed in conjunction with the work of Anne Allison on the globalization of Japanese Popular Culture.
In this study, the roles and forms that that ‘style’ takes in Video Games, both aesthetically and mechanically, will be of key interest. It will be suggested that through the various forms in which style is articulated through video game aesthetics and play, allows for a platform upon which cultural exchange and influence to occur.
The layout of the thesis is based on four case studies, and the way in which each communicates a ‘style’ (As defined in the thesis), and how this style facilitates cultural exchange and speaks of cultural history.
Each chapter will be pertinent to a different aspect and way in which the discussed ‘style’ articulates. ‘Style as Experience’, ‘Style as the Center of Production’, ‘Style as Retrospection’ and finally, ‘Style is Playable’ all make use of case studies of four Japanese made video game series which are popular both at home and abroad.
These games have been selected as each has an appearance of the ‘Superflat’, in that they do not appear to have any overt cultural origin. Through this thesis, we shall illustrate the ways that these games do articulate cultural values and in turn lead to an exchange between players who play these games and the developers who make them.
A brief study into the concept of "Hauntology" and how it expresses and functions in the contempo... more A brief study into the concept of "Hauntology" and how it expresses and functions in the contemporary media form of video games, and furthermore the wider effects of this dynamic on cultural consumption of new media.
A Critical Visual analysis of the work by ''Zain7'', an underground Japanese born artist whose ar... more A Critical Visual analysis of the work by ''Zain7'', an underground Japanese born artist whose artwork critiques the current state of Japanese popular culture and society.
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Papers by Damian Asling
In these shifts focusing upon the increasingly social aspects of gaming, single-player games have been relatively overlooked. No longer an isolated practice, single-player games have become progressively more social and collaborative. As such, there is a need to examine the ways in which single-players also redefine mastery and skill as part of a dynamic practice that involves negotiation between game and ancillary texts and experiences.
This thesis addresses the transformative role of the paratext (Genette, 1987) within the wider cultures of gaming. Through the discussion of changing notions of mastery as part of the sociality and creativity within games, this thesis attempts to understand how the contemporary form of paratexts shapes skill, social, creative and labour dimensions of single-player games today. In sum, how paratexts contribute to a gaming knowledge or “gaming capital”.
Through discussion of the cultural exchange between both east and west through games will allow a deeper understanding of the function that computer and video games serve in today’s society of both young and old from both cultures. Video Game style and aesthetics will be discussed in conjunction with the work of Anne Allison on the globalization of Japanese Popular Culture.
In this study, the roles and forms that that ‘style’ takes in Video Games, both aesthetically and mechanically, will be of key interest. It will be suggested that through the various forms in which style is articulated through video game aesthetics and play, allows for a platform upon which cultural exchange and influence to occur.
The layout of the thesis is based on four case studies, and the way in which each communicates a ‘style’ (As defined in the thesis), and how this style facilitates cultural exchange and speaks of cultural history.
Each chapter will be pertinent to a different aspect and way in which the discussed ‘style’ articulates. ‘Style as Experience’, ‘Style as the Center of Production’, ‘Style as Retrospection’ and finally, ‘Style is Playable’ all make use of case studies of four Japanese made video game series which are popular both at home and abroad.
These games have been selected as each has an appearance of the ‘Superflat’, in that they do not appear to have any overt cultural origin. Through this thesis, we shall illustrate the ways that these games do articulate cultural values and in turn lead to an exchange between players who play these games and the developers who make them.
In these shifts focusing upon the increasingly social aspects of gaming, single-player games have been relatively overlooked. No longer an isolated practice, single-player games have become progressively more social and collaborative. As such, there is a need to examine the ways in which single-players also redefine mastery and skill as part of a dynamic practice that involves negotiation between game and ancillary texts and experiences.
This thesis addresses the transformative role of the paratext (Genette, 1987) within the wider cultures of gaming. Through the discussion of changing notions of mastery as part of the sociality and creativity within games, this thesis attempts to understand how the contemporary form of paratexts shapes skill, social, creative and labour dimensions of single-player games today. In sum, how paratexts contribute to a gaming knowledge or “gaming capital”.
Through discussion of the cultural exchange between both east and west through games will allow a deeper understanding of the function that computer and video games serve in today’s society of both young and old from both cultures. Video Game style and aesthetics will be discussed in conjunction with the work of Anne Allison on the globalization of Japanese Popular Culture.
In this study, the roles and forms that that ‘style’ takes in Video Games, both aesthetically and mechanically, will be of key interest. It will be suggested that through the various forms in which style is articulated through video game aesthetics and play, allows for a platform upon which cultural exchange and influence to occur.
The layout of the thesis is based on four case studies, and the way in which each communicates a ‘style’ (As defined in the thesis), and how this style facilitates cultural exchange and speaks of cultural history.
Each chapter will be pertinent to a different aspect and way in which the discussed ‘style’ articulates. ‘Style as Experience’, ‘Style as the Center of Production’, ‘Style as Retrospection’ and finally, ‘Style is Playable’ all make use of case studies of four Japanese made video game series which are popular both at home and abroad.
These games have been selected as each has an appearance of the ‘Superflat’, in that they do not appear to have any overt cultural origin. Through this thesis, we shall illustrate the ways that these games do articulate cultural values and in turn lead to an exchange between players who play these games and the developers who make them.