Video Game Studies

As videogames are set to become the dominant pop-cultural medium of the 21st century, this paper aims to provide approaches to a critical reading of Bethesda’s Fallout 4, informed by perspectives of cultural studies. Tracing arguments from the fronts of the ludology/narratology debate, this paper adds the conception of videogames as commodities of a culture industry to provide a critical perspective on the meanings and ideologies negotiated in Fallout 4, one of the most successful games of the last decade. Drawing from various theoretical approaches, salient narrative and ludic aspects of the games are investigated. Among them is the game’s plot, its nostalgic retrofuturistic aesthetic, its ruins and ecology as evocative spaces, its stylization of the gameworld as frontier through its mechanics, and tangible neoliberal ideologies present in its levelling system. Ultimately, it is shown that Fallout 4 is a game negotiating US history and its present. While the engagement with history, most notably the Revolutionary War and slavery, relies on ironic detachment and celebratory excess, its engagement with the present hints on resting anxieties with legacies of slavery and pollution.

Games like World of Warcraft have been called "inherently queer," providing gamic spaces where gender and sexuality seem fluid and customizable. Although the provocation is exciting and revisits many of the arguments made about the liberatory potential of cyberspace, this article hopes to antidote the assumption that the virtual is "inherently" queer and to unpack what I call the "interactive fallacy," the further assumption that video games offer players unlimited power and control. Through a close reading and close playing of two massively multiplayer games-Zynga's casual game FrontierVille and Blizzard's World of Warcraft-I hope to identify and interrogate the ways that gender and sexuality (even race) in games are both normative and subversive. In other words, in games about fantasy and fun, how and where and why might real world queerness, gender, and race be rendered, negotiated, and disrupted? Is that even possible? Games like FrontierVille and World of Warcraft offer beginnings for gendered and queered play, allowing players to imagine and enact a range of desires, but ultimately both games narrow these choices and possibilities, rendering them algorithmically inconsequential, and restore them to heteronormative ends. Looking at character creation, game play, and game narratives, this article argues for the productive opportunity in the play of, with, and play in sexuality and gender and race to discover what Lisa Nakamura calls "disruptive moments of recognition and misrecognition" that can offer subversive and queergaming potential and practices. Perhaps more important, this article also uncovers the ways that logics of digital games limit and norm players, narratives, and play itself.

As a yet small academic field, historical video game studies are in a crucial and interesting moment of development. The most recent contributions, looking at the re-validation of historical themed video games as proper historical narratives, are opening a door for new analysis on the discourses behind these portrayals of the past, and the role of historiography as a direct influence. In this context, the questions about the protagonists of such histories, as well as the perspective implied on these portrayals, appear as relevant for the future of video games and academia. This research is an attempt to answer such questions and bring some further considerations on the relation between the representation of the past and the characteristics of the medium. Applying comparative and critical discourse analysis, and focusing on the representation of non-Western societies, this research analyses the presence of Eurocentrism in two historical themed video games: Age of Empires II HD Edition and Total War: Rome II. The application of discursive devises within textual, visual, and game play elements are studied to clarify the approach and perspective of these games to the past, as well as the implications behind their portrayal of diverse societies and cultures. Linking back to postcolonial theory, discourse analysis, and video game studies, further considerations are made over multicultural representations, the conceptualization of history, and the capabilities of the medium to further explore the past in meaningful and complex ways. The expectation with this research is to open a path for future applications of the methodologies on video game studies, and deeper explorations of Eurocentrism and on the medium, as a most required subject to confront on the analysis of historiography and popular culture.

MA Thesis. MA in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies. University of Limerick.

Abstract: This article discusses the processes involved in the construction of group membership and cohesion in a semiprofessional team of esports in the city of Belém, the capital of the state of Pará, in the Brazilian Amazonian territory. This effort discusses what characterizes the progression and union of a particular team in a local competitive scenario in which ephemeral teams predominate. Based on an eleven-month ethnography with a set of players engaged in professional competitive practice, and through observations from field research, we compiled a set of 12 essential characteristics filled out by the team. Also, this study points to the development of an ethos of professionalism in a peripheral context, indicating the existence of an Amazonian esports scenario – in the North Region of the Brazil, with emphasis in Belém, Pará. The results indicate the subsistence of a social fabric composed of a variety of other elements that, in turn, constitute an ethos of group camaraderie that plays a central role in the competitive dynamics that underlie the team as a group.

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The gendered marketing of videogames is an underexplored topic within the vast literature of games and gender. In this paper, I contribute to this body of literature a configurative analysis on gendered marketing strategies for the Mass Effect. I explore the genealogy of the configuration concept and propose an expansion of it based on communication theory. Subsequently, I analyse the configurative dynamics between marketing, company, and gamers that resulted in a shift from male to female focus in Mass Effect's marketing materials in the course of 10 years since the first game's release.

This book is about the three identities of the videogame, the gamer, and Game Studies. I write that there are no definitive truths but rather discourses and constructions; ideas, actions, beliefs, and practices related to videogames are discourses that merge and shape our perception of videogames as an area of study of its own right. These discursive responses meet and clash creating what we call truths, which are temporary and negotiable.

This perspective is inspired by Foucauldian ideas and present few questions about videogame-related identities in and outside of academe. Does Game Studies have a conceptual core? What makes game studies difficult to be disciplined in academe? What do we learn from the scholarly and popular discourses on videogames that would help understand the identity questions related to games?

I go on to describe what makes the videogame identity according to game studies: aesthetics, fictions, meaning-making, performance, transformation, etc. and what makes it difficult for game studies being an open market of ideas and an academic "un-discipline". This leads me to the gamer's identity: an aficionado first, and a connoisseur of fictional worlds.

In what ways do we find and create meaning in our post-modern era? How do we use existing frameworks to engage in new debates, both in style and in content, on what it means to exist in the 21st century? These are the main questions this paper aims to answer, analyzing the Jungian, Gnostic, and existential themes in the video game 'Genshin Impact' (2020) and the implications they pose on the future of myth and philosophy in pop culture.

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This paper addresses the lack of solid historical information concerning early computer game sales and preferences. Two consistent data series from the magazines Softalk and Computer Gaming World (CGW) are analyzed to give an overview of the best selling and best rated games by players for the period of 1980-1984. A “genre palette ” is inferred from the sources, giving a snapshot of how contemporaries framed and interpreted the offer in computer games. A comparison of the series reveals the CGW readership constitutes a distinct “hardcore ” play community amongst general computer game players. It is also observed that genre preferences vary in time: arcade games peak in 1982 and then recede in favor of computer-native genres. A brief comparison with Atari 2600 best sellers reveal the inadequacy of the computer game genre palette to describe home console games. The historical and constructed nature of genres as “horizons of expectations ” is discussed.

The multiplatform Ni no Kuni (Bandai Namco, 2010/2013) represents anime studio Studio Ghibli's first dedicated video game project. Although Japanese video game company Level-5 developed Ni no Kuni, Ghibli contributed to the story and was responsible for its visual design. The game demonstrates not only Ghibli's distinct visual style, but it also shares with the studio's films similar themes (loss of innocence, youth empowerment, the relationship between nature and technology) and storytelling characteristics (a young hero and a synthesis of Eastern and Western elements). Beyond its aesthetic and narrative contributions, Studio Ghibli also provided Level-5 a means of differentiating itself within the contemporary Japanese video game industry, as several companies attempt to expand into the West in response to shifts in the domestic market. Likewise, Ghibli has been adjusting to its own shifts, including co-founder Hayao Miyazaki's retirement from feature films and the studio's subsequent hiatus on film productions. As such, Ni no Kuni represents a particularly significant example of convergence between the anime and video industries, as it suggests paths for both Studio Ghibli and Level-5, as they each look to diversify into new markets and revenue streams.

Following the negative reception of Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two (2012), The Walt Disney Company’s Disney Interactive division shuttered the game’s developer Junction Point. This closure signaled a definitive corporate shift from home console development to games made for the emerging mobile market, such as Where’s My Water? (2011). The company's multiplatform game Disney Infinity (2013) combines the collectible aspect of Activision’s Skylanders series (2011-Present) with the creativity-encouraging play mechanics of Mojang’s Minecraft (2009). As such, the game represents Disney’s reconciliation of the console and mobile markets to drive sales of branded merchandise available at retailers as well as the company’s own theme parks and brick-and-mortar stores. This paper analyzes how Disney Infinity functions both as a platform for video game adaptations of Disney media and as a means of cross-promoting various sectors of The Walt Disney Company amidst changes in the video game market.

Simulation video games (SVGs) are extremely wide category of modern video games, which provide innovative educational possibilities for personal and professional development. SVGs represent practically all forms of human activities, which in turn may raise sophisticated ethical issues. In terms of methodology, most of the educational vehicle SVGs can be studied within the framework of ludology. The typological features of hybrid social SVGs can be investigated by means of narratological methodology and non-reductionist approach (I. Bogost). It is possible to identify two problematic ethical aspects of SVGs: "internal" and "external". The "internal" aspect investigates ethical issues within the virtual worlds of SVGs. The "external" aspect focuses on the problem the use of SVGs experience for the violation of moral and legal norms in society. The main objective of the paper is to identify key educational possibilities of SVGs and reveal their ethical dimension. Civil vehicle SVGs (car, bus, truck, train, racing games) provide outstanding educational possibilities for training driver skills, but may provoke traffic offense. Flight SVGs allow training pilots of civil airlines, but can be used by terrorists. Military aviation, tank, navy and submarine SVGs train combat vehicles control and raise ethical issues of violence against virtual/real civilians. Sports SVGs allow skills training and actualize the problem of cheating/doping. More complicated social SVGs represent the models of social behaviour as well as the problems of deviant behavior and virtual harassment. Business simulators are relevant in the context of gamification, but raise the ethical issues of capitalist exploitation. Medical SVGs can help to rehearse a surgical operation and at the same time represent medical errors. Educational combat SVGs actualize the problems of the virtual violence and its influence on social behavior. Construction and management SVGs raise moral dilemmas in city management ("SimCity"). Government SVGs besides the educational aspects of public administration may represent the violation of legal norms. God games actualize the problems of moral choices in the discourse of religious ethics. The findings of the paper can be useful for the study of game based learning and modern ethical research.

Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso (TCC) que investiga como se dá a relação dos jogadores com os jogos através de um Estudo de Caso do League of Legends. Com isso, busca-se entender as práticas de consumo dos jogadores e entender como a relação de jogador-consumidor pode evoluir para uma relação de jogador-fã.

It is hard to say what ranks lower on the artistic food chain than video games. Comic books? TV sit-coms? X-rated films? These ratlike vermin at the bottom scurry to avoid the thunderous footfalls of the towering behemoths of the art world. […] Is that even art? (Robinett viii)

Vandewalle, A. (2020). 'Ludendo Discimus: The Learning Possibilities of Video Games set in Antiquity' Frons 40 (3), 40-46. This paper was presented as a lecture at the first ‘Symposium voor jonge classici’ [Symposium for young classicists] on the theme ‘Docendo discimus: leren in en over de oudheid’ [Docendo discimus: learning in and about antiquity], in Leiden (The Netherlands) on 30/11/2019. The Dutch title of the lecture was ‘Wat men van spelen leren kan: games over de oudheid in educatieve context’. The present article is a shortened and modified version of the lecture, and describes multiple learning possibilities of video games set in antiquity. It is meant as an introduction into the ludic reception of antiquity.

The popularity and influence enjoyed by Japanese video games is irrefutable. There is little doubt, for many scholars, that the Japanese video game industry has helped establish the standard procedures of production, distribution and localization for the global sector. However, beyond titles of overwhelming international repercussion— from Space Invaders (Taito, 1978) to Silent Hills (2015), without forgetting Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo, 1985)—very little has been published on the production of Japanese video games destined for the domestic market, where genres unpopular in the West, such as visual novels or dating sims, are the staples. This leads us to consider the effectiveness and necessity of the term gêmu (Picard, 2013) as a sepa-1 Author Biographies Víctor Navarro-Remesal (Guadalajara, 1983) is a researcher in Video Game Design Theory and a specialist in East Asia. His PhD dissertation presents the idea of “directed freedom ” as the basis of the relationship between player a...

Este é um trabalho com enfoque no videogame como objeto cultural em interface com a literatura. Esta pesquisa se deu como continuidade ao trabalho de conclusão de curso de 2012. Nesta ocasião, buscou-se ampliar a pesquisa bibliográfica sobre teorias de estudos de videogames que pudessem responder às seguintes perguntas: a) O que a pesquisa contemporânea tem elaborado e proposto como possibilidades teórico-metodológicas para os estudos de videogames em sua especificidade como objeto cultural, para além dos estudos de narratologia?; b) Os videogames podem ser utilizados como fonte e objeto de apreciação e formação crítica?; c) É possível “ler” o videogame, dialogando com noções teóricas como representação, prática, apropriações, objeto cultural e comunidade cultural, estudadas por Roger Chartier? Depois de pesquisa bibliográfico-documental e sistemática análise do corpus formado por três jogos, Final Fantasy VII (1997), Grand Theft Auto San Andreas (2004) e God of War I (2005), verificou-se que os estudos humanísticos sobre o objeto cultural videogame têm se ampliado, mas que a contribuição dos estudos literários para o campo do game studies ocorre de forma escassa. Desse modo, propomos, em interface com as discussões histórico-culturais, novas chaves de leitura para esse objeto cultural.



This work focuses on the videogame as a cultural object in interface with literature. This research is the development of a final project from 2012. On this occasion, we sought to extend the literature review on theories of videogame studies to answer the following questions: a) Which contemporary research has been developed and proposed as theoretical and methodological possibilities for videogame studies in its specificity as a cultural object, in addition to narratology studies?; b) Can videogames be used as source and object for studies and critical constitution of oneself?; c) Can one “read” the game, establishing links with theoretical notions as representation, practice, appropriations, cultural object and cultural community as studied by Roger Chartier? After bibliographic and documentary research and systematic corpus analysis consisted of three videogames, Final Fantasy VII (1997), Grand Theft Auto San Andreas (2004) and God of War I (2005), it was verified that the humanistic studies of this object cultural have expanded, but the contribution of literary studies for the game studies field is modest. Thus, we propose, in interface with the historical and cultural discussions, new ways for reading this cultural object.

Book cover description (full version of this book is available in Amazon.com):
The nature of the video game industry is extremely dynamic and many of the technologies that were studied here are already reaching their plateau. The stories of the Filipino women social gamers, however, are still very much relevant even though many of them had already transferred to different gaming platforms. Gameplay is a manifestation of one's identity, regardless of what platform one is using.

This book is about Filipino women players and their usage of social games, focusing specifically on social games on Facebook. The research looks at how Filipino women social gamers co-create images of identity and empowerment through play. Some of their communication practices can be expressed not only in the games, but also through the virtual communities provided by game development companies. These virtual communities exist via official social networking pages or fora, wherein players discuss game features that they like and how they could interact with these features. These are the places where the game co-creation among developers and players take place.

L'interférence musicale au cinéma, à la télévision et dans le jeu vidéo par Andréane Morin-Simard Département d'histoire de l'art et d'études cinématographiques Faculté des arts et des sciences Mémoire présenté à la Faculté des études supérieures en vue de l'obtention du grade de Maître ès arts (M.A.) en études cinématographiques Août, 2014 © Andréane Morin-Simard, 2014 i Résumé L'omniprésence de la musique populaire dans le paysage médiatique contemporain fait en sorte qu'il est fréquent de retrouver la même chanson dans plusieurs trames sonores. En s'appuyant sur des théories de l'intertextualité et de la communication, ce mémoire cherche à définir la relation qui s'établit entre deux ou plusieurs oeuvres narratives et / ou interactives partageant une chanson, ainsi qu'à appréhender les effets de ces recontextualisations multiples sur l'expérience spectatorielle et vidéoludique. Le premier chapitre examine les principales fonctions narratives et ludiques de la musique à l'aide d'une synthèse des principaux travaux sur la musique de film, de télévision et de jeu vidéo. Le deuxième chapitre interroge la notion de référence dans le contexte des usages répétés d'une même chanson populaire. Le concept d'interférence musicale est proposé à partir de différentes déclinaisons du terme « interférence » issues des travaux de Michel Serres, Sébastien Babeux et Philip Tagg. Les assises théoriques sont appliquées à l'analyse des trajectoires médiatiques respectives de deux chansons aux chapitres trois et quatre. La figure du réseau est finalement déployée afin d'illustrer la complexité des relations entre les oeuvres intégrant une même chanson à leur mise en scène.

Video games are increasingly becoming an important media today, despite the light connota-tion of its initial categorization. Today they are an industry that produces billions of dollars and employs engineers and artists alike in an art form spanning interactive games, to virtual socie-ties where millions of people dwell. However, like all human products, our same fears, flaws and xenophobia show in the games, with the reflection of hatred, racism and stereotypes that are our everyday experience. Also, because of the influence of other media, like television, with misrepresentations of blacks, Latinos and other races, or the objectification of women are pre-sent in video games. The significant thing found researching for this assignment is that most of those who use these games are themselves part of minorities or races that are not exactly white Americans. Abuse of the frustrations and desires of the user, handling codes and the system an-swers of gamers to maintain the player engagement, has more resemblance to the use of illegal drugs than with art, but however, the complexity of the design, stories and global assessment, have led to other considerations by experts. Competing in the games could be considered as having more of escapism that the reality of engaging, but all human beings are expected in their tribes to compete and demonstrate their value as a member while complying with social norms or expectations. Same as satisfying or surrender to corporate or group interests. Here are some thoughts for the purpose of this study.

How might we think about ways to play games and make games that take advantage of the affordances of digital computers as well as the happy accidents, workarounds, and transformations that provide alternative practices, opportunities, and endgames?  How might we think about what Alexander Galloway calls countergaming, which does not simply identify “alternate formal strategies” of gaming but actively employs and gleefully explores those strategies (Gaming 111).  By extension, how might we imagine queergaming, ways of playing against the grain, against normative design, and ways of designing gamic experiences that foreground not only alternative narrative opportunities but ludic ones as well.  Queergaming embraces the possibilities of nonproductive play, the uncertainty of glitches and exploits, and the desire for queer worlds as opportunities for exploration, for different rules and goals, and even for the radical potential of failure.  Looking at a range of games, from mainstream bestsellers to independent titles, this paper hopes to define the need for more than queer content or window dressing in games but for queer(er) design, practices, and play.

In the following, my focus will be to analyse narratives in video games and how the medium is able to spin a yarn. As a new medium, video games, depending on a game’s genre and by including narrative delivery into their design, are certainly able to convey stories to the players. They do so by means of own specific methods, some similar to traditional fiction some not, and others even going beyond the field of narratology. As such, narrative delivery in video games serves several purposes, the most important of which is letting a player become fully immersed into a game’s fictional world. In addition, by playing a video game each player will be able to experience his own, unique and vivid story sometimes being able to alter narrative delivery or even story itself.

This chapter, taken from my book "Playing Dystopia" describes a general theory of aesthetic response for video game narratives. It discusses in depth the concept of the implied player, a theoretical construct that describes the affordance and appeal structure of a game. The implied player is thereby viewed as a system of perspectives, the most prominent of which are: 1) sensorial 2) world 3) plot and 4) system perspective.

To formulate a theory of aesthetic response for VGNs (and games in general) I primarily make use of Kendall Walton's theory on the reception of representational art and Wolfgang Iser's concept of the implied reader, while regarding these in the context of previous work in game studies.

I repost this chapter, for I think it stands on its own as a paper on the implied player, both within and without the context of dystopian games.

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In Gēmuteki Riarizumu no Tanjō (The Birth of Gamelike Realism, 2007), the follow-up of Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals (Dōbutsuka Suru Posutomodan: Otaku Kara Mita Nihon Shakai, originally published in 2001), Hiroki Azuma points to the fact that light novels feature characters dying and coming back from death repeatedly, or getting stuck in time loops to live the same day or hour again and again in a way that brings to mind the experience of playing games. While Azuma is focusing on light novels, not surprisingly this motif of “replay” is very common in manga and anime too. More importantly, this motif connects to something deeper —to a change in the environment that surrounds these media. As a result of multiple developments in information storage and sharing technologies, a remarkably extensive pool of information has appeared. This “database” has arguably changed the face of narrative production and consumption: by revealing the most commonly used elements in the creation of narratives (from characters to settings), it presented making endless combinations with these elements, thus endless replays, as a desirable way of narrative production.

However, what Azuma proposes as a unifying quality for several media (that is to say, a gamelikeness that can be observed in anime, manga, and light novels) goes against what is commonly acclaimed as a unique quality that sets games apart from storytelling media. The distinguishing trait of games is argued to be the underlying rule-based system that enables repetitional interaction (as opposed to a developmental teleology in, for example, movies or novels) without necessarily having a narrative function. While Azuma does not aim to discuss medial differences, his discussion may actually provide a new entrance point to reconsider the media that are compared to games, specifically to reconsider anime, which shows similarity to video games especially in the semiotic sense. In contrast to manga and light novels, anime incorporates audio elements like most video games, and possesses both static and dynamic qualities.5 The question is, can we talk about an overarching similarity between contemporary media, that is, a gamelikeness, without disregarding media-specificities?

The concept of gamelikeness presents the opportunity to reconsider the similarities between media from a fresh angle. Instead of the storytelling potential of various media, it moves the focus to how narratives across media can be replayed repeatedly in the form of fan works or as official sequels, prequels, and so on. However, as mentioned above, as revealing as it may be concerning the similarities between media, Azuma’s discussion leaves media-specificities out of the picture. In order to talk about such an overarching similarity without disregarding media-specificities, we can ask how exactly the audience play each medium. Brian Upton’s definition of “play” as “free movement within a system of constraints” (The Aesthetic of Play 15) proves crucial to the discussion at this point. Upton argues that this concept is applicable to games as well as to narrative media, taking place within the mind in the case of latter, as interpretive/anticipatory play. The information that media provide in their own ways (be it regarding storyworlds populated by characters or interactive spaces with few narrative elements) sets the parameters for the audience’s interpretation of what is happening (the outcomes of their actions or the characters’) and what can possibly happen (the possible outcomes of future actions) as the process of play goes on. However, it can be argued that in this age of excessive information forming a clear understanding of causality in media products is complicated by several factors. Does the way we engage in narrative play today differ from how we handled narratives before? What kind of constraints specifically bind contemporary gamelike media? What kind of free movement do they offer? As two different forms of play, how do anime and video games differ? In terms of play, how does anime relate to manga and light novels with which it crosses paths all too often in media mix projects? This thesis adopts Upton’s concept, revises it, and puts it into use in addressing these questions.

Theorist Alexander Galloway has asserted that the subjective camera of First-Person Shooter games marks a distinct break from cinematic traditions. In this article, I suggest that the FPS camera might belong to a longer tradition of “searching” cameras that begins with another kind of First-Person camerawork, handheld cinematography for documentary films. The horror genre provides two notable analogues for the FPS camera: the “Killer POV” sequences that were an emblem of the slasher era, and the faux-documentary handheld cameras of the “found footage” cycle that came to prominence in the cinema alongside the rise of the FPS in video gaming. Found footage, unlike FPS, is predicated on looking within the film being a fundamentally vulnerable act, and on the helplessness of the viewer to intervene into the action onscreen. While the “shooter” in “First-Person Shooter” indicates a marriage of action and looking, games like Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Layers of Fear have, like found footage films, equated “horror” with a sense of helplessness and vulnerability by removing combat as an option, and by minimizing the player’s capacity for control. Thus, the contemporary horror genre is being defined across media through an emphasis on the vulnerability and impotence of the searching camera.

This dissertation addresses the intersections of queer and technology to rethink the posthuman as raced, gendered, and queered as co-constituted through and by technology. Given technoculture's appropriation of queerness as yet another identity category subject to individualist manipulation and the near invisibility or silence of technology in queer theory, this dissertation theorizes the "technoqueer," building on the pioneering work of Donna Haraway's cyborg, Roseanne Allucquere Stone definition of the technosocial subject, Nina Wakeford's cyberqueer, Lisa Nakamura's cybertype, and N. Katherine Hayles on the posthuman. This project looks at cyberspace and bodyhacking technologies-real or imagined-to show how technology is never neutral or simply a tool. On the one hand, the metaphor of cyberspace and the reality of online "synthetic worlds" rely on ideologies of configurable identities, disembodiment, and freedom of exploration and expression. On the other hand, bodyhacking or the ability to shape, manipulate, enhance, and transform the body offers similar promises of escaping biological destiny, of self-improvement and selffashioning, and possessive individuality. Given the popular narratives of technologies like the Internet, bionics, and gamification as liberating humanity from the prison of the "meat," v this dissertation deploys a comparative study of literature, video games, and body modification technologies in order to articulate alternative readings of technologicallymediated race, gender, and sexuality foreclosed or overlooked by contemporary posthumanism. Looking to figures like Alan Turing or the Bionic Woman and looking at texts like William Gibson's Neuromancer, George Schuyler's Black No More, Blizzard's World of Warcraft, Irrational Games's Bioshock, and Zynga's Facebook game Frontierville, this project demonstrates the ways technology is imbricated with race, gender, and sexuality and how liberation from one set of embodiments or identities often means the stabilization or policing of others. The technoqueer then reveals and challenges the structures of the near ubiquity of technological mediation and penetration into twenty-first century life-the technonormative matrix-in order to theorize alternative futurities and embrace technoqueer ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my dissertation chair, Thomas Foster, who gave me the right chemistry of guidance and freedom to help me find my voice and perspectives as a scholar and writer. I would like to thank my other committee members Kate Cummings and Eva Cherniavsky for their invaluable questions, advice, and insight. I would also like to thank the Department of English at the University of Washington for their support and belief in me, in particular Gary Handwerk, Brian Reed, and Kathy Mork. Moreover, thanks to the Department of Comparative History of Ideas and Phillip Thurtle for the opportunities to grow my scholarship and pedagogy. I would like to thank Kathleen Woodward and the Simpson Center for the Humanities for their sponsorship of my academic and professional pursuits. Thanks are due as well to the Department of English at the University of Maryland who started me on this heroic journey, specifically Michael Olmert, Jack Russell, Kandice Chuh, Verlyn Flieger, Linda Coleman, Marilee Lindemann, and Theresa DiPaolo. Finally and most importantly, thank you to my family, my partner, Greg, and my friends for their continued love, understanding, conviviality, and support. Special thanks to Tim Welsh, Jane Lee, grad pub at the College Inn, the Critical Gaming Project, the Keywords for Video Game Studies graduate interest group, my Tellings table past and present, and Archaea here and there. Again, thanks to all, without which none of this would have been possible.

This dissertation uses intersectional feminist theory and Autoethnography to develop the concept of "cultural inaccessibility". Cultural inaccessibility is a concept I've created to describe the ways that women are made to feel unwelcome in spaces of game play and games culture, both offline and online. Although there are few formal barriers preventing women from purchasing games, playing games, or acquiring jobs in the games industry, this dissertation explores the formidable cultural barriers which define women as "space invaders" and outsiders in games culture. Women are routinely subjected to gendered harassment while playing games, and in physical spaces of games culture, such as conventions, stores, and tournaments. This harassment and abuse is intensified toward female journalists, developers and academics who choose to speak publicly about sexism within the culture, particularly since the 2014 rise of Gamergate. This dissertation illustrates the parallel development of games culture and women's continued exclusion from it, from the exclusionary sexism of J. R. R. Tolkien's writing to the development of the "Gamer" as a fixed (and stereotypically cis-male) identity in the pages of video game magazines of the 1980s and '90s, to the online "Gamer activism" of today. At the same time, I also explore my own experiences as a female gamer and academic in the 2010s, using projects I have been a part of as a means of reflecting on developments in the broader culture. I first discuss a short machinima (a film made within a video game) that Elise Vist and I created within the 2007 Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game Lord of the Rings Online entitled Lady Hobbits. Lady Hobbits becomes an entry point to consider the historical cultural inaccessibility of women's representations in seminal male-dominated media such as The Lord of the Rings. I then discuss the gender and games advocacy group that I co-founded at the University of Waterloo, The Games Institute Janes (GI Janes), and the many gaming events that v we ran, comparing the experience of our gender-integrated and women-only game nights. The challenges I experienced organizing GI Janes fuels my analysis of the cultural inaccessibility of game play for girls and women, as demonstrated by the tangled gender dynamics at play in the eSports community and Super Smash Brothers fandom. Lastly, I discuss my experiences as a staff member, and eventual first female editor-in-chief, of game studies publication First Person Scholar (FPS). This chapter interrogates the cultural inaccessibility of writing and publishing about games for women in the academic field of game studies, and the ways in which game studies' links to gamer identity replicate games culture's troubling sexism. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of the more recent connections between games culture, Gamergate, and conservative political groups such as the Alt-right. The conclusion asks how women can study games culture and the politically-motivated violence with which it is has recently been linked if doing so puts us at risk of becoming a target of harassment and abuse. It underscores the importance of future social justice-oriented work in academia and at large. In summary this dissertation moves from examining the historical inaccessibility of representation and participation (chapter 2), to the inaccessibility of game play (chapter 3), to the inaccessibility of participation in the discourse of games culture (chapter 4), before finally moving to a conclusion about Gamergate and politics in 2018 and how cultural inaccessibility has become a problem that is much larger than just games culture (chapter 5).

Video games are increasingly becoming an important medium today, despite the light connota-tion of its initial categorization. Today they are an industry that produces billions of dollars and employs engineers and artists alike in an art form spanning interactive games, to virtual socie-ties where millions of people dwell. However, like all human products, our same fears, flaws and xenophobia show in the games, with the reflection of hatred, racism and stereotypes that are our everyday experience. Also, as a result of the influence of other media, like television, with misrepresentations of blacks, Latinos and other races, or the objectification of women are present in video games. The significant thing found researching for this assignment is that most of those who use these games are themselves part of minorities or races that are not exactly white Americans. Abuse of the frustrations and desires of the user, handling codes and the sys-tem answers of users to maintain the player engagement, has more resemblance to use of illegal drugs with art, but however, the complexity of the design, stories and global assessment, have led to other considerations by experts. Competing in the games could be considered as having more of escapism that the reality of engaging, but all human beings are expected in their tribes to compete and demonstrate their value as a member while complying with social norms or ex-pectations. Same as satisfying or surrender to corporate or group interests. Here are some ideas for the intent of this survey.

Recently published, abstract flash and browser games such as Love (2010), The Marriage (2006), My Divorce (2010) can be summarized as games about love. As opposed to simulation games such as The Sims 3 (2009) in which the topic love is more or less realistically depicted the given abstract games consist on the semiotics level mainly of geometrical forms like squares and circles which move through the gamespace in a certain manner according to in-game events and player inputs. Mainly the titles of the mentioned games reveal their topic as games about love or love relationships. This incongruity between the title and the dynamic system of geometrical shapes seems to be a paradox at first sight which provokes a reflection on the relationship of the topic of these games and their semiotic properties as well as their rules and represented mechanics (Aarseth 2003, Sicart 2008).
In terms of the ontological game love model by Jessica Enevold (2010) this paper contributes to the section “love in games” since it is especially interested in the way in which the theme of love is modeled in the examples or why it can be projected on them. To identify love in the described abstract games I will use the approach of cognitive linguistic metaphor theory according to which love in everyday western languages is to a large part understood in terms of space. The centrality of the love theme in the chosen examples as well as its graphical and mechanical minimalism will provide a rare counter perspective to games which usually operate with more naturalistic simulations of love phenomena like Heavy Rain, The Sims 3 or apply specific romance mechanics during the game like e.g. Dragon Age (c.f. Waern 2010) or Mass Effect. This paper makes the reader aware that there is a comparatively small and peripheral group of games which investigate the topic of love with very simple and abstract means which do consequently not result in a naturalistic simulation but in a playable concept of love. Thus, this contribution will focus on love as an abstract concept and its realization in games. It helps to understand game love as being influenced by an everyday understanding of love as it is always already pre-structured by the mostly conventional metaphors we use to talk about it as opposed to philosophical concepts of love.
The leading research questions to be answered in this article are: How can the mentioned games be understood as games about love? Are they love simulations, love metaphors or simulations of a metaphorically structured concept of love? Discussing the first two options, especially the last notion will be emphasized. To tackle these questions, this article will discuss and analyze the mentioned games. It will make use of different definitions of the term simulation from the field of game studies as well as from natural and social sciences such as Frasca (2001, 2003), Juul (2005), Bogost (2007), Begy (2010) and Hartmann (2005). Furthermore, it will apply a notion of metaphor derived from the cognitive linguistic metaphor theory by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (1980, 1999) which considers the human ability of metaphorical reasoning as a fundamental structure of thought and experience which results from our bodily being in the world. In doing so the article will in addition discuss earlier explicit approaches on metaphor in (abstract and non-abstract) computer games as there are Madsen and Johansen (2002), Rusch (2009) Begy (2010) and specifically on love metaphors in games like Rusch and Weise (2008). However, it will criticize especially earlier approaches by Rusch (2009) and Begy (2010) who consider the games to discuss not as metaphors but for instance as simulations of love relationships only. To strengthen the argument that the given games can be considered as simulations of our metaphorically structured concepts of love this article will refer to empirically grounded cognitive linguistic research on commonly used metaphors for love such as Kövesces (1988, 2003, 2010). According to Kövesces love is understood in terms of conceptual metaphors such as LOVE IS A UNITY OF PARTS, LOVE IS CLOSENESS, and LOVE IS A BOND. It will become apparent that especially metaphors which conceptualize love in a spatial manner are appropriate to describe the game states of the given games and make their theme comprehensible. As the distinguishing feature of computer games as opposed to other forms of media is their spatiality (Aarseth 2000, Wolf 2001, Nitsche 2008, Günzel 2010) one can conclude that games can implement an abstract topic like love especially through the implementation of its spatial characteristics.

This essay develops a method for the analysis of video game characters based on a theoretical understanding of their medium-specific representation and the mental processes involved in their intersubjective construction by video game players. We propose to distinguish, first, between narration, simulation, and communication as three modes of representation particularly salient for contemporary video games and the characters they represent, second, between narrative, ludic, and social experience as three ways in which players perceive video game characters and their representations, and, third, between three dimensions of video game characters as ‘intersubjective constructs’, which usually are to be analyzed not only as fictional beings with certain diegetic properties but also as game pieces with certain ludic properties and, in those cases in which they function as avatars in the social space of a multiplayer game, as representations of other players. Having established these basic distinctions, we proceed to analyze their realization and interrelation by reference to the character of Martin Walker from the third-person shooter Spec Ops: The Line (Yager Development 2012), the highly customizable player-controlled characters from the role-playing game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda 2011), and the complex multidimensional characters in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Star Wars: The Old Republic (BioWare 2011-2014).

A Au u--d de el là à d de e « « l l' 'e en nv vi ie e c ci in né ém ma at to og gr ra ap ph hi iq qu ue e » » : : l le e c co om mp pl le ex xe e t tr ra an ns sm mé éd di ia at ti iq qu ue e d d' 'A As ss sa as ss si in n' 's s C Cr re ee ed d DOMINIC ARSENAULT et VINCENT MAUGER Résumé Nous proposons d'aborder dans cet article la question des rapports entre le jeu vidéo et le cinéma à travers une étude de cas spécifique : la franchise Assassin's Creed, qui s'inscrit dans un contexte techno-historico-culturel bien précis : celui des technologies de l'image numérique au Québec. Plus particulièrement, nous nous questionnerons sur le rôle que joue la trilogie de courts métrages Assassin's Creed: Lineage, réalisés par Yves Simoneau et Hybride Technologies, et diffusés gratuitement sur YouTube dans le but d'attiser l'intérêt des joueurs avant la sortie du jeu Assassin's Creed II. De toutes les déclinaisons médiatiques de la franchise Assassin's Creed à ce jour, c'est elle qui incarne le mieux la convergence technologique entre le cinéma et le jeu vidéo, mais aussi notre modèle original de constellation transmédiatique. Loin d'agir comme de simples outils promotionnels, les films capitalisent sur les forces du cinéma et contribuent au déploiement de la franchise, mais non sans heurts. Du général au particulier, nous nous intéresserons d'abord à la relation entre ces deux arts, que l'on peut envisager sous deux paradigmes : celui de la remédiatisation et celui de la transmédialité; puis, nous traiterons du cas Assassin's Creed comme étant la plus récente incarnation des rapports de croisement et de tension entre le cinéma et le jeu vidéo. Nous montrerons comment le modèle transmédiatique s'inscrit dans le prolongement des questionnements portant sur la remédiatisation, puis comment il éclaire et met à contribution les spécificités qui distinguent le cinéma et le jeu vidéo comme les points communs qui les rassemblent.

This paper outlines the concept of agency in interactive narratives and focuses on the video game Silent Hill 2 as a successful example that defies the very concept. In what ways agency was deemed as an essential part in interactive narratives and narrative video games are summarized. Then the method of agency in Silent Hill 2 is proposed as an alternative to our familiar understanding of the concept agency and is entitled as invisible agency.

УРЕДНИШТВО / EDITORIAL BOARD: др Ксенија Радуловић, ванр. проф. (главна уредница); др Невена Даковић, ред. проф.; др Мирјана Николић, ред. проф.; др Милена Драгићевић Шешић, ред. проф.; др Иван Меденица, ред. проф.; др Ана Мартиноли, ванр. проф.; др Љиљана Рогач Мијатовић, виши научни сарадник; др Александра Миловановић, ванр. проф.; др Влатко Илић, ванр. проф.; др Бојан Јовић, научни савет ник, ИКУМ; др Предраг Цветичанин, доцент, Универзитет у Нишу

Du livre-jeu « dont vous êtes le héros » jusqu’aux jeux vidéo à grand déploiement, plus que jamais aujourd’hui, le récit est devenu une expérience impliquant directement le lecteur-spectateur-joueur. Les méthodes de narration changent, les approches d’écriture également. Comment rédige-t-on un récit interactif?
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From gamebooks where you "Choose Your Own Adventure" to large-scale video games, today more than ever, stories become experiences involving directly the reader/viewer/player. Methods of storytelling change, as approaches to writing. How does someone plan and write an interactive narrative?

This study aims to construct a systematical approach to classification of narrative usage in video games. The most recent dominant approaches of reading a video game text – narratology and ludology - are discussed. By inquiring the place of interactivity and autonomy inside the discourse of video game narrative, a classification is proposed. Consequently six groups of video games are determined, depending on the levels of combination of narration and ludic context. These Six Degrees are defined in detail and example video games are analysized for each. The conclusion composes a six degrees reference system that could be utilized in various fields such as video game design or video game studies.

Esta obra coletiva, intitulada Pesquisas comunicacionais em interface com a arte, tecnologia, religião, meio ambiente, celebra os 25 anos de funcionamento do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Comunicação da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (PPGCOM-UFRGS). Como parte da comemoração de aniversário, atuais discentes e docentes foram convidados a contribuir com coletâneas de livros do PPGCOM. Segmentado em 15 capítulos, o presente livro é resultado de produções acadêmicas dos discentes do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Comunicação da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul,

No presente artigo abordamos como o design de interfaces, aplicado ao campo dos jogos digitais, potencializa transmissão de sensações ao jogador. Iniciamos com uma discussão sobre a metáfora da interface e suas possibilidades de manifestação nos videogames no uso de recursos narrativos e regras para compor mundos ficcionais. Partiremos da relação entre o Dasein e os entes fundamentais de Heidegger (1927) e também das teorias sobre a presença virtual, discutindo suas características e aplicação na composição de mundos ficcionais que estimulem a percepção de presença no jogador. Em seguida, consideramos o conceito de meaningful play e exploramos as sensações possíveis ao jogador quando em processo de imersão em um espaço simulado. Por último, discutiremos a presença do outro e como tais relações se apresentam no jogo Death Stranding, partindo para uma análise estética.