Catálogo de publicaciones - revistas

<jats:p> Digital games are often viewed as being inherently escapist on two counts. First, they are the shining proponents of cutting edge virtuality, embodying the alluring unreality of something erroneously conceived of existing on the other side of a screen. A second reason for associating games with escapism relates to a common perception of play and games as opposite of seriousness and work and somehow set apart from the ordinary, everyday life. The paper discusses the nature of escapism and relates it to the above theoretical issues which contribute to a view of digital games as inherently escapist. The paper proposes a renewed view on digital games and escapism that takes into account their distinctive qualities and their role in everyday life. </jats:p>

<jats:p>Various forms of play emerge around computer games. These types of play, known as out-of-game play or extrinsic play, take place beyond the original game context. Despite their significant contribution to the overall play experience, they are often neglected by the game research community. Conventional game theories such as ludology and narratology do not provide an insightful account of the sociocultural aspects of game play. Therefore, in this article, we report our observations and investigations into different forms of extrinsic play activities in an online virtual setting. Founded on activity theory, we articulate theoretical models that explicate game play in a sociocultural context. Our findings reveal that extrinsic play constitutes reflective play and expansive play, which transform the play activity and transport the players beyond the original boundary of play.</jats:p>

<jats:p> Every massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) begins new players at Level 1. The player must grind his or her way through many early levels to reach any kind of decent reward for the hours invested. Compared to films going back to Rocky and television shows such as Crime Scene Investigation (CSI), there is no montage to fast-forward through the work involved in reaching the game’s reward. What is it about online games or the player that makes such work so compelling? Why would hard work, something that is often avoided in the daily grind of an 8—5 job, be forced upon the videogame player—often to his or her delight? To address these questions, we use Ian Bogost’s concept of unit operations to evaluate the concept that ‘‘hard work is rewarded’’ as it relates to various media, including films and videogames, and to analyze the historical and theoretical implications of the concept. </jats:p>

<jats:p> What is video game culture, however? What does it mean to have a culture defined by the consumption of a particular medium? Moreover, what are the implications of defining this culture in a particular way? While there has been a great deal of ink split on video game culture, the actual definition of the term is often treated as common sense. Unpacking the discourses surrounding ‘‘video game culture’’ allows us to see the power dynamics involved in attributing certain characteristics to it, as well as naming it ‘‘video game culture’’ as such. This has implications for how video games are studied and is connected with how culture is studied more broadly. By critically examining how video game culture has been defined in both press and academic articles, this paper illuminates how this definition has limited the study of video games and where it can move. </jats:p>

<jats:p> This introduction is a short survey of social science literature on video games. It is not meant as a comprehensive review. Instead its goal is to present some of the themes and questions that prompted us to bring the articles in this issue together. The essay begins by outlining some of the recent contributions from the social sciences to video game studies—with a particular emphasis on distinct forms of video game interactivity—and concludes with suggestions for possible future directions for this research. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Games have received increased scholarly attention due to the economic value they generate. Yet, some studies still conceptualize games as ‘‘virtual’’ realms that are theoretically distinct from ‘‘real world’’ experiences. Based on an ethnographic investigation of two online, text-based gaming environments, this study analyzes dynamics such as technical acculturation, access to technical knowledge, and opportunities for self-expression by studying social interaction that occurred in non-revenue-generating games. Frameworks that focus on dynamics such as in-game conversation in broader game-centric domains or ecologies should be considered to accommodate a wider variety of gaming forms and related interdisciplinary research questions. Different games have different consequences, and it is important to understand the varying consequential contexts that games afford. Whether or not the consequences may be measured economically, it is nevertheless important to consider how social interactions may complicate forms of self-expression in ways that impact the human spirit. </jats:p>

<jats:p> This paper explores the characterizations of enemies in military-themed video games, with special attention given to the games Conflict: Desert Storm and America’s Army. I demonstrate how the public enemy of America’s Army is one not confined to any nationality, ethnicity, or political agenda. This marks a significant departure from games such as Conflict: Desert Storm. I argue that the production of this abstract enemy—what I call the ‘‘unreal enemy’’—is significantly shaped by a biopolitical system that intertwines the military and electronic entertainment industries. This arrangement delocalizes power, distributing it through a network of institutions and subjects. Throughout, I use ethnographic examples that explore how this abstract enemy has been constructed and juxtaposed against more concrete and personal figures, such as the America’s Army Real Heroes, individuals upheld as the embodiment of personal achievement in the U.S. Army. I conclude by asserting that the unreal enemy of America’s Army is, ultimately, an enemy that is not exclusive to a video game, but one that exists as an anonymous specter, ever present in the militarized American cultural imaginary. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Broadly interested in the agents and institutions that structure social imaginations and subjectivities by mediating which images are available to what audiences to imagine through, this paper specifically considers the power at play when intermediaries—in this case, video game localizers—filter the images and narratives that are sold and marketed to global consumers, and the way these mediating processes in turn are both produced by, and productive of, (cultural) imaginings. This paper also discusses the way that localization practices—while often framed by a discourse that positions cultural differences as both incommensurable and easily and discretely bounded by the borders of nation-states—typically involve a nuanced negotiation of contradictions, dilemmas and interests. </jats:p>

<jats:p> This essay makes the argument that the numerous ‘‘networks’’ or ‘‘inter/intranetworks’’ that structure the video game industry have lived local effects for those involved in the production of video games. In particular, this is most visible in the realm of console video game development but is visible in many other contexts as well. It uses the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) as an index into this complex and highly structured world that frequently disappears from developers perception. The essay uses largely historical data drawn from patent filings, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, and court cases to analyze these networks. The essay argues that these inter/intranetworks, as constructed, have been instrumental in the way that the game industry now finds itself structured and that as the industry has ‘‘matured,’’ the networks have become less accessible and less interoperable. </jats:p>

<jats:p> This essay is the first of a two-part article examining the use of narrative in computer and video games, which provides an overview and discussion of the definitions and representation of stories, plots, and narratives. A range of traditional and emerging narrative techniques are considered, including The Hero’s Journey, three-act structure, the portrayal of human emotions, and character archetypes, from where an in-depth examination of interactive narrative is performed on a range of old and modern games. Initial results pertaining to the time allocated to narrative, the use of back stories, cut scenes, on-screen text, prompts, and game structure are also presented, which reveal a distinct level of uniformity of how interactive narrative is depicted in games spanning over two decades of industry development. The analysis is concluded in the second article, where further results are revealed to help uncover the precise nature of game narratives. </jats:p>