Catálogo de publicaciones - revistas

<jats:p>Active video games (AVG) take the form of motor play (MP) and resemble active practices. In this article, both types of games (AVG and MP) were analyzed, in an effort to find categorical structural criteria shared by both. The main objective of this research is to analyze and propose valid and viable categorical shared criteria to guide the enhancement of AVG analysis. To this end, a comparative analysis that encompasses a description of shared elements, analysis of the ludic structures, description of the motor requirements, and analysis of across-the-board categorization criteria was conducted. After the analyzing related research literature and developing a study with experts in MP and video game designers and developers, an academic framework for AVG based on knowledge of MP was proposed. The authors hope that this framework will aid designers, developers, and researchers in the categorization and analysis of AVG.</jats:p>

<jats:p> This study investigates the effects of media frames on attitudes toward video games, perceptions of their users, and consequences. Prior research has shown that gaming is a controversial issue, with media coverage focusing on either risks or opportunities. To examine the effects of these portrayals, the present study used a 2 × 2 experimental design and exposed participants ( N = 360) to a news article that framed gaming in terms of risk or opportunity on the journalistic level and on the level of a corresponding expert statement. By examining the perceived negative effects of games, this study extends previous research by combining framing and third-person research. Results showed that framing gaming indeed had an effect on participants’ attitudes. This framing effect was moderated by individual video game use. Despite identifying a traditional third-person perception regarding negative video game effects, we found framing to have no significant influence on third-person perceptions. </jats:p>

<jats:p> The Last of Us plunges gamers into a decimated world, one in which the majority of the human population has succumbed to the Cordyceps fungal infection. Against the crumbling monoliths of human culture, social constructions of morality and culture are explored through the game’s protagonist Joel and the various survivors he encounters. As the narrative unfolds, it asks compelling questions about the nature of morality, the antagonism between the human and natural worlds, and whether or not humanity is worth saving. To this end, the narrative utilizes elements of naturalism and its more modern form, environmental fiction. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Metroid: Other M, the latest game in the Metroid series, was heavily criticized for the contradictory portrayal of its avatar protagonist, Samus Aran. This article analyzes these critiques within the 25-year history of the Metroid series, noting intersections with literary theory, cognitive science, geography, and cinema. “Mapping Metroid” argues that player dissatisfaction is a result of Other M’s inconsistency in balancing gameplay constraints with player agency, and the game’s failure at “imperative” storytelling. The maps in Other M and its predecessors are treated in depth, since the relationship between cartographic and gameworld spaces must be “read” dynamically by players to progress; these maps reflect the affordances of each game, and how those affordances contribute to player enjoyment or frustration. The article concludes with the suggestion that paying attention to signifying spaces may help design better games and help situate video games within a wider discussion of theories of postmodern subjectivity. </jats:p>

<jats:p>Few studies examine how massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) players react when they are faced with constraints that prevent them from continuing to play the game or to play as much as they desire. This study used the concept of leisure constraint negotiation process and social capital construct to understand how players deal with the above situation by initiating negotiation strategies to mitigate the constraints. Using partial least squares method as the analytical tool, this empirical study showed that the social interaction element of MMORPG plays a major role in influencing the outcomes of the negotiation process. Social capital plays a role in propelling negotiation strategies, and different types of social capitals are needed to trigger different negotiation strategies. This study further demonstrates: which negotiation strategy is triggered depends on which constraints and negotiation strategies matter most to the leisure seekers. There is also a need for congruence between motivation and negotiation strategy.</jats:p>

<jats:p> Research interest has increasingly focused on the psychosocial factors related to online game addiction. This study examines the relationship of various psychosocial variables to online game addiction, and the mediation effect of avatar identification on the relationship. Questionnaires assessing self-esteem, depression, social skills, game addiction, and avatar identification were completed by 163 third-year middle school students. Correlation and structural equation modeling analyses were conducted. Results indicated (a) that self-esteem and social skills had significant negative correlations with game addiction, while depression had a significant positive correlation with game addiction, (b) that depression had an indirect effect on game addiction via avatar identification, and (c) that social skills had both indirect (via avatar identification) and direct effects on game addiction. Implications and future directions are discussed. </jats:p>

<jats:p> The rapid advancement of digital games has not only brought entertainment to consumers but also triggered gamers’ motivation to play. This study attempts to examine the structure of “attribute–consequence–value” chains of digital games based on the theoretical framework of means-end chains (MECs) and soft laddering interview technique. Results of the study reveal that players pay attention to game attributes including connection system, popular, graphic design, and diverse game genres. From these attributes, players expect consequences such as improve interactivity, cultivate logic and reflex, gain authentic experience, enhance pleasure of senses, and utilize imagination in pursuit of terminal values such as fun and enjoyment of life, sense of accomplishment, warm relationship with others and excitement. The study also covers the differences in the chains for different platforms of digital games and players of different gender. The results showed that different groups have different needs. </jats:p>

<jats:p>We challenge the idea of the paradoxical nature of the concept serious games and ask how researchers and designers need to conceive of serious games so that they at all appear paradoxical. To develop and answer this question, we draw on a theory–method that considers all forms of observation as paradoxical. We then use the tetralemma, a structure from traditional Indian logics, to resolve the paradox of serious games into this larger paradox of observation. Consequently, serious games may only be considered a paradox if we presume realities and define games as deviations therefrom. The increasing gamification of society, however, does not allow realities to be defined in contrast to games anymore. We therefore conclude that serious games do not represent particularly paradoxical forms of games, but rather next levels of reflexivity in communication design and in the self-definitions of next societies.</jats:p>

<jats:p>This article explores the semiotics of the “roguelike” genre. Most roguelikes reject contemporary advances in graphical technology and instead present their worlds, items, and creatures as American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) characters. This article first considers why this unusual graphical style has endured over time and argues that it is an aesthetic construction of nostalgia that positions roguelikes within a clear history of gameplay philosophies that challenge the prevailing contemporary assumptions of role-playing games. It second notes that the semantic code for understanding the ASCII characters in each and every roguelike is different and explores the construction of these codes, how players decode them, and the potential difficulties in such decodings. The article then combines these to explore how such visuals represent potential new ground in the study of game semiotics.</jats:p>