Catálogo de publicaciones - revistas

<jats:p> This essay examines the aesthetic construction of nostalgia in the cover art of the Advanced Adventures, a series of tabletop fantasy role-playing modules published by Expeditious Retreat Press between 2006 and 2011. The art of these modules reveals a genre and period-specific set of aesthetic codes with distinct subcultural rules of application. In order to construct a sense of nostalgia, the cover art highlights the representation of adventurers, monsters, and dungeon environments within a unique visual style reminiscent of the early Dungeons and Dragons (D&amp;D) aesthetic from the late 1970s and the early 1980s. The Advanced Adventures use nostalgia ideologically as a form of homage to early D&amp;D, to assert the values of old-school gaming, and to chart a new direction for classic fantasy role-playing that challenges the style of play espoused by the current fourth edition of D&amp;D (4E) published by Wizards of the Coast. </jats:p>

<jats:p> As a hobby and as an industry, gaming is growing. The impetus for this growth is convergence, specifically technological, content, and market convergence. But gamers might contest this convergence, insofar as it blends “genres of participation.” Gaming has long been dominated by the “hardcore” who “geek out” over their favorite titles. However, a recent influx of “casual” games, which encourage “hanging out” means a split in resources. In order to investigate the contestation this might inspire, I analyzed discussions on the site GameTrailers.com. The site features both producer and fan discourse on the state of the videogame industry. On GameTrailers, the debate over convergence comes down to its driving focus: audience convergence. The industry’s goal is to create products that bring together a wider range of consumers. Differing perspectives on the worth and outcome of this audience convergence lead to political contestation. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Gamers spend as many as 2.5 billion hours per week playing games. The gaming literature has relied on the field of positive psychology and the concept of flow to explain why gamers are willing to work so hard in order to have fun. However, many games are played within a social context and hence produce explicit rewards capable of generating status and self-esteem for the individual player. The importance of relative position and the invidious comparisons that naturally take place within a social group can be traced back to Thorstein Veblen’s Theory of the Leisure Class. Applying Veblen’s framework to the modern world of games enables us to develop new insights into why video games have become an important part of life for many in modern society. </jats:p>

<jats:p> This article uses a case study of the multiple arcade machine emulator (MAME) to insist that emulation is an important aspect of digital game culture that should not be dismissed due to copyright concerns. The author argues that emulators should be understood as ludic technologies produced by hacking practices that helped spawn and continue to permeate video game culture. Furthermore, while it may be tempting to describe the MAME as a “counter archive” that challenges institutional models of preservation, by drawing on the work of Coleman the author insists the project is better understood as a hacking practice committed to reordering “technologies and infrastructures” (p. 515). From this perspective, instead of rejecting institutional archival perspectives that view documents as truth-telling entities, the project hacks the traditional notion of the archive by treating platforms as contingent entities and game code as authentic artifacts. </jats:p>

<jats:p> With the extensive use of military force by the U.S. government over the past decade, more scholarly attention has been directed at how mass culture is mobilized to support military objectives. Video games designed by the military or by civilians collaborating with military advisers are one of the major causes for concern, as these may provide ways of training players for military service or of building support for wars. This essay organizes prominent critiques of military gaming into structural/institutional, instrumental, and ideological perspectives and examines some of the most common arguments made from each. It argues that while critics of America’s Army and other military games are right to be cautious about military influence on gaming, critics tend to judge military games more harshly than the evidence warrants. </jats:p>

<jats:p> In 2008, ten million people were playing the massive multiplayer role-playing game World of Warcraft (WoW); a fantasy-based virtual landscape where players bridge real-life personas with digital identity. However, the construction of sexuality within this gaming environment has created an oppressive atmosphere for individuals who do not adhere to a heteronormative lifestyle. In this essay, I undress the bottom-up and top-down structures that are regulating an environment that has no use for a constructed sexual binary and yet has one strictly imbedded in it. This analysis utilizes discourse analysis to analyze 400 messages posted to a WoW discussion board regarding the topic of “LGBTQ players and the WOW Community” in order to queer the sexuality presented in this space. This essay is further supplemented with my own experience playing the game and with an analysis of the games structural elements. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Tens of millions of Internet users inhabit virtual worlds. Being inworld is a unique experience, shaped differently from other activities. This research examines the factors that allowed virtual worlds to develop into what they are. Drawing from personal experience in Second Life and a review of literature, this article maps out an interconnected web of developments across fields that influenced the formation of virtual worlds such as Second Life. The advancements identified in the fields of science fiction, video and computer games, media, role-playing traditions, and communication technologies are analyzed as precursors of the qualities of the contemporary inworld experience. Previous studies have examined the development of the individual fields separately. By undertaking an analysis on a macro level and across fields, this article offers a new insight into the development of the complex phenomenon of virtual worlds in the 21st century, whereby the evolution adopts the structure of a genealogy tree. </jats:p>

<jats:p> The original Adventure by Crowther and Woods (1977) has an important place in computer game history. It is not only considered the first adventure game but also the ancestor of interactive fiction, point-and-click games, action adventures, and even massively multiplayer online role-playing games. Adventure often defined in terms of categories that did not exist at the time of its making. The concept of video games as the cultural institution we know today was alien to its authors. This article reframes Adventure in its historical context. If it is not yet an adventure game, what is it? The proposed methodology is inspired by the work of early cinema historians and consists of identifying the cultural practices within which an early piece was developed. Adventure is analyzed as a program, a hack, fantasy role-playing, a cave survey, and a game. This approach delivers a new perspective on Adventure, freed to some degree of teleological preconceptions. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Commercial video game studios erect boundaries through the organization of work that tends to discourage the production of a diverse range of games. This article adds to the scholarship on the production of video games by examining gender and other boundaries in the way work is organized at a U.S. commercial studio. Video games are a result of social conditions in a distinct organizational culture. Changing these conditions to allow for gender and other types of diverse organizational structures can impact the role of video games for the broader culture. The organization of work was analyzed through teamwork and the physical layout of the office space in relation to external customer relations and internal departmental organization. Additionally, the article examines how gender is engaged within these organizational dynamics. These factors contribute to an environment that enables game employees with a certain disposition to affectively invest in boundary maintenance. </jats:p>

<jats:p> This article examines the role that game development tools have in the design and creation of video games. It does so through the lens of a series of patents by Nintendo that outlined the technological foundations for a truly (co)creative production platform for games. Game development tools shape and are shaped by the kinds of games they are used to produce as well as the underlying technologies of game consoles. The roles, sites, and means by which users are allowed to or encouraged to engage with (co)creative tools significantly impacts the kinds of interventions users may make. The article makes the argument that tools, like Mario Factory, form a technological foundation for (co)creation, participatory design, and convergence at a level that differs significantly from the current forms. </jats:p>