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2008
The paper aims to bring the experience of playing videogames closer to objective knowledge, where the experience can be assessed and falsified via an operational concept. The theory focuses on explaining the basic elements that form the core of the process of the experience. The name of puppetry is introduced after discussing the similarities in the importance of experience for both videogames and theatrical puppetry. Puppetry, then, operationalizes the gaming experience into a concept that can be assessed.
2008
In this paper we address the question: What factors of game experience are measured and have to be measured? by proposing a concept called Puppetry to assess the experience while playing videogames. Puppetry was obtained using qualitative methods on the experiences of players. The main characteristic of Puppetry is that it looks at the common elements of videogames that allow the user to build the experience.
2018
This dissertation is a multidisciplinary study on video game gameplay as an autonomous form of vernacular experience. Plays and games are traditional research subjects in folkloristics, but commercial video games have not been studied yet. For this reason, methods and concepts of the folkloristic research tradition have remained unknown in contemporary games studies. This thesis combines folkloristics, game studies and phenomenological enactive cognitive science in its investigations into playergame interaction and the video game gameplay experience at large. In this dissertation, three representative survey samples (N=2,594, N=845, N=1,053) on "Rewarding gameplay experience" are analyzed using statistical analysis methods. The samples were collected in 2014-2017 from Finnish and Danish adult populations. This dissertation also analyzes data from 32 interviews, through which the survey respondents' gameplay preferences, gaming memories, and motivations to play were further investigated. By combining statistical and qualitative data analyses, this work puts forward a mixed-methods research strategy and discusses how the findings relate to prior game research from several disciplines and schools of thought. Based on theoretical discussions, this dissertation argues that the video game gameplay experience as a cultural phenomenon consists of eight invariants in relation to which each individual gameplay experience can be interpreted: The player must demonstrate a lusory attitude (i), and a motivation to play (ii). The gameplay experience consists of explorative and coordinative practices (iii), which engender a change in the player's self-experience (iv). This change renders the gameplay experience inherently emotional (v) and performative (vi) in relation to the gameworld (vii). The gameplay experience has the dramatic structure of a prototypical narrative (viii) although a game as an object cannot be regarded a narrative in itself. As a key result of factor analytical studies and qualitative interview analyses, a novel approach to understanding player-game interaction is put forward. An original gameplay preference research tool and a player typology are introduced. This work argues, that, although video games as commercial products would not be intuitive research subjects for folkloristics, video game gameplay, player-game interaction, and the traditions in experiencing and narrating gameplay do not differ drastically from those of traditional social games. In contrast to this, all forms of gameplay are argued to be manifestations of the same vernacular phenomenon. Indeed, folkloristic research could pay more attention to how culture is experienced, modified, varied and expressed, regardless of whether the research subject is a commercial product or not.
Performance studies deals with human action in context, as well as the process of making meaning between the performers and the audience. This paper presents a framework to study videogames as a performative medium, applying terms from performance studies to videogames both as software and as games. This performance framework for videogames allows us to understand how videogames relate to other performance activities, as well as understand how they are a structured experience that can be designed. Theatrical performance is the basis of the framework, because it is the activity that has the most in common with games. Rather than explaining games in terms of ‘interactive drama,’ the parallels with theatre help usunderstand the role of players both as performers and as audience, as well as how the game design shapes the experience. The theatrical model also accounts for how videogames can have a spectatorship, and how the audience may have an effect on gameplay.
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.
2021
This article examines performances produced in two Performing Gameplay workshops in 2017 and 2019. These performances are labeled as intermedial, as they were produced by using video games alongside live performers. The aim is to explore the changes frame of performance causes in players and games, as well as in performances, performers, and spectators. The article focuses on two main themes: the transformative process from gameplay to performance, and vice versa; and the significance of non-human participants in this process.
Affective responses to the “Let’s Play” Videos on YouTube This study intends to enhance our understanding in the field of online consumer behaviour by exploring the popular phenomenon of branded user-generated content and the consumers’ emotional responses to such content that seem to be overlooked by the current literature. Given the numerous forms of the available user-generated content, the study is focused on a particular type of user-generated videos on YouTube named “Let’s Play” videos and the viewers’ generated emotions while consuming them.
Games and Culture, 2019
Video games differ from films, books, and other mainstream media both in their interactive capabilities and in their affordances for gameplay. Interactivity and gameplay are closely related, as interactivity is necessary for gameplay. Unfortunately, this close relationship has led many video game scholars to conflate these two concepts when discussing player experience. In this article, I argue that, when discussing emotional responses to video games, gameplay and interactivity should be understood as distinct concepts: Gameplay involves both interactive and noninteractive elements, and interactive works do not always involve gameplay. I propose that there are significant drawbacks to overlooking this distinction and that highlighting it is important for understanding player experience, player emotion, and the ways video games differ from other entertainment media.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2004
The film-maker uses the camera and editing creatively, not simply to present the action of the film but also to set up a particular relation between the action and the viewer. In 3D video games with action controlled by the player, the pseudo camera is usually less creatively controlled and has less effect on the player's appreciation of and engagement with the game. This paper discusses methods of controlling games by easy and intuitive interfaces and use of an automated virtual camera to increase the appeal of games for users.
Human-Computer Interaction Series, 2009
Digital games elicit rich and meaningful experiences for the gamers. This makes games hard to study solely with usability methods that are used in the field of human-computer interaction. Here is presented a candidate framework to analyze multidimensional user experience (UX) in games. Theoretically, the framework is grounded both on previous game studies and on relevant psychological theories. Methodologically, it relies on multivariate data analysis of approximately 320 games (n = 2182), with the aim of revealing the subcomponents of UX in games. The framework captures the essential psychological determinants of UX, namely, its quality, intensity, meaning, value, and extensity. Mapping these determinants to the game mechanics, the narrative and the interface offers a rich view to UX in games and provides added value to those who want to understand why games are experienced in certain ways.
This thesis is a critical examination of videogame theory and of videogames. The analysis of various approaches to videogames, from ludology to unit operations and simulation, places each approach alongside each other to compare and contrast what is gained and lost by adhering to each perspective. Following from this, I develop a framework which considers the role of the player as part of the game system, whose attitude will influence their relationship with the videogame. Critics must acknowledge and respect the varied play practices of various kinds of players in exploring what any given videogame means. Finally, I explore three broad videogame-play experiences: ludic play, narrative or dramatic pleasure, and paidic curiosity and exploration. Each of these offer fundamentally different ways of addressing videogames as objects and the play of games as a practice, which creates a more nuanced language with which to discuss various kinds of videogames and experiences of play. Through close studies of a range of contemporary, mainstream videogames, I conclude that not only are there fundamentally different kinds of videogames which cannot all be adequately served by a single approach, but that players utilise different approaches themselves when playing. Therefore, videogame theory should become at least as varied and agile as videogame players themselves. The goal of this thesis is to explore what certain games mean, to certain players, rather than appeal to a higher, objective sense of true, universal meaning.
2015
Video game space design presents numerous challenges, not only in creating game content which successfully conveys game concepts to players, but also in promoting engaging play which results in a positive player experience. In view of this challenge, I discuss an approach to game space design comprised of three overlapping design concerns - functionality, context, and performance, in order to provide a perspective which encapsulates several conventional theories of player experience. In the first part of the thesis I characterise the interaction model for video games as one in which game conveyance is served by functional, contextual, and performance design and these in turn can be seen in combination as components of design patterns in successful video games. In the second chapter I use Csikszentmihalyi’s notion of flow (Csikszentmihalyi 1991) as an analytical structure for examining the overlap between functionality, context, and performance in providing players with the components necessary for the desirable outcomes of flow. The game space design implications of flow prerequisites are examined against my approach and specific practices are highlighted which promote immersion in both narrative (transformation), and game space (spatial presence). The attainment of these goals is shown to hinge on the complementary relationship between functionality, context, and performance in game space design.
The video game medium, embedded within one of the most lucrative industries today, is developed to entertain and create satisfying experiences for the game player. Extensive work has been developed on these experiences, exploring concepts such as immersion or flow, or centering on specific experiencerelated models. However, we consider that these do not fully portray the nature of the gameplay experience -a dynamic interplay between a video game and the player. This work summarizes a Gameplay Experience Model proposal centered on the dynamic interaction that exists during video game play. We describe the development of the proposed model, centered on a literature review process and complemented with two focus group sessions where the gameplay experience and its characteristics were discussed. Posteriorly, the conceptual model is explored in terms of its various elements and dimensions, in addition to its applicability in game contexts.
2008
Table of Contents Prologue ..................................................................................................................... .....7 Foreword by Sam Inkinen Quo vadis, homo ludens? ............................................................... ... ... Julian Kücklich Set DeusEx.JCDentonMale bCheatsEnabled True: Cheating as a ...
Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds, 2011
The Philosophy of Computer Games (Philosophy of Engineering and Technology)
This paper presents a gameplay experience model, assesses its potential as a tool for research and presents some directions for future work. The presented model was born from observations among game-playing children and their non-player parents, which directed us to have a closer look at the complex nature of gameplay experience. Our research led into a heuristic gameplay experience model that identifies some of the key components and processes that are relevant in the experience of gameplay, with a particular focus on immersion. The model includes three components: sensory, challenge-based and imaginative immersion (SCI-model). The classification was assessed with self-evaluation questionnaires filled in by informants who played different popular games. It was found that the gameplay experiences related to these games did indeed differ as expected in terms of the identified three immersion components.
Immersion is a type of experience characterizing the gameplay of computer games. I propose a phenomenological model that defines the essential features of such experience. I start from the notion of immersion as a graded experience composed by three phases: engagement, engrossment, and total immersion or presence. Then, I put in relation these three grades with a phenomenological framework in which I explain how the immersion is experienced by the player. In the first phase of gameplay (engagement), players discover and learn how the game works, as well as its commands. When she has assimilated sensorimotor skills demanded by game mechanics in her body schema, the computer game as interactive medium becomes experientially transparent. The player is not longer aware of the computer game as an interactive medium, but she is experiencing a virtual environment that appears rich of affordances and obstacles for goal-directed actions. In the second phase (engrossment), the avatar turns into a prosthetic extension whose function is to extend the physical body of the player in the virtual world so to realize her intentions and plans. The experience of computer games is rooted in the prosthetic extension: through the magic of real-time control, it is like if the player is reaching directly the world of the game by means of a prosthesis, an extended arm. In the third phase (total immersion), the player feels like an embodied presence who is “there”, in the game world. I suggest that presence arises only when the player can interact with 3-D game space, and when the avatar is a navigable point of view provided by camera device. Also, the presence occurs when the player represents the game environment as an egocentric space whose point of origin is her own body, and this is possible because of body schema's plasticity. I conclude arguing the our embodied experience can be modified, reshaped, by interacting with interactive media. More specifically, the body is a nest of potentialities that can be discovered and actualized by media, whereas the physical body is only one of its shapes.
Video games structure play as performance in both the virtual and the physical space. On the one hand, the player encounters game worlds as virtual stages to act upon. On the other hand, the game world stages the player and re-frames the play space. This essay sets out to suggest some of the elements that are at work in this dualism of games as performative media. The two key elements here are the mediation of the game environment and the transformation of the player through virtual puppetry. Both cases will be argued with a focus on spatiality in performance.
2010
Video games structure play as performance in both the virtual and the physical space. On the one hand, the player encounters game worlds as virtual stages to act upon. On the other hand, the game world stages the player and re-frames the play space. This essay sets out to suggest some of the elements that are at work in this dualism of games as performative media. The two key elements here are the mediation of the game environment and the transformation of the player through virtual puppetry. Both cases will be argued with a focus on spatiality in performance.