Catálogo de publicaciones - revistas

<jats:p> This study introduces the ludic ethics approach for understanding the moral deliberations of players of online multiplayer games. Informed by a constructivist paradigm that places players’ everyday ethical negotiations at the forefront of the analysis, this study utilises a novel set of game-related moral vignettes in a series of 20 in-depth interviews with players. Reflexive thematic analysis of these interviews produced four key themes by which participants considered the ethics of in-game actions: (1) game boundaries, (2) consequences for play, (3) player sensibilities, and (4) virtuality. These results support the conceptualisation of games as complex ethical sites in which players negotiate in-game ethics by referring extensively – although not exclusively – to a framework of ‘ludomorality’ that draws from the interpreted meanings associated with the ludic digital context. </jats:p>

<jats:p> The differences between categories of play in English and spiel in German (or jeu in French and so on) are essential because any complex ludic category includes games that are organized and restricted by roles and rules. My choice to deal with Wittgensteinian views of spiel (which is translated by default as ‘play’) is influenced by the fact that his argument in German about the impossibility and futility of a philosophical definition of spiel embodies the quintessence of the problem: the linguistic obstacle that prevents correct interpretation of human play. Methodologically, I make the philosophical question of dependence a linguistic one. The article concludes by defending the position that game is only one of the diverse activities realizing human play, which is a basic existential phenomenon that can be considered philosophically through the category of ‘other being’. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Game engines have largely become synonymous with the production of certain game genres, and creating games outside those genres is at the least cumbersome if not outright impossible to do. This study demonstrates how the affordances and constraints of particular engines, working in consort with the creative community around a particular engine, shape both game engine use as well as the game engine thinking that determines what is and is not possible. It does so by looking at a game project developed using the Ren’py engine. Using Fiadotau and Bogost as conceptual springboards, we focus on our decision to use Ren’py and how that decision shaped the game and our production processes. In addition to discussing the engine itself, we also look at how the practices and discourse of the Ren’py community—most notably represented on the engine’s official forums—also shaped our work. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Edwin Sutherland’s concept of white-collar crime remains incredibly influential in contemporary criminological research and thought. Sutherland’s work was critical of several of the most influential industries in the United States, highlighting both their criminal and unethical conduct. Today, the video game industry has garnered tremendous influence over society and until recently, has seemed to escape criminological critique (other than for that of the potential negative effects of violent games) and white-collar crime theoretical inquiry. This study aims to change that, as we analyze the video game industry for its involvement in many traditional (and some more contemporary) forms of white-collar crime. More specifically, we discuss overpromising, broken games, and price gouging. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Games shape our understanding of culture. As market figures demonstrate, video games as digital successors of traditional games are now the economic drivers of the media and entertainment industry and form a part of our daily media habits. Since the mid-1970s, journalistic coverage has presented video games as a controversial issue, an image that has crucially shaped public opinion to this day. In the case of Germany, the Interstate Broadcasting Treaty (Rundfunkstaatsvertrag) demands that public broadcast services provide balanced reporting. However, to date, there has been no comprehensive investigation into the media’s coverage of video games. With this in mind, the study at hand seeks to conduct the first explorative and quantitative content analysis of how the German public broadcast channels report on video games. The findings of the study support the assumption of generally biased reporting. </jats:p>

<jats:p> This article addresses the political dimensions of Johan Huizinga’s seminal work Homo Ludens: A study of the play element in culture (1938). More than just a foundational text in academic ludology, this text positioned itself as a polemic against the right-wing political discourse going on in contemporaneous Nazi Germany, represented chiefly by Carl Schmitt. Through his concept of play, Huizinga hoped to resolve what he perceived to be the confusion of play and seriousness among a group of reactionary theorists narrowly focused on the Schmittian Ernstfall, the “serious case” of inimical violence. This article analyzes the usage of the concepts of “play” and “seriousness” in Huizinga’s and Schmitt’s respective corpuses and, finally, places their work in dialogue in order to understand the difficulties involved in defining play as unserious and unpolitical. </jats:p>

<jats:p> By analyzing and contextualizing different aspects of the Finnish game development scene, this article provides concrete examples of why we need cultural studies of game development and how game development cultures can be studied. The article follows a three-layer approach, first exploring some of the historical and political developments that have shaped forms of local game production. Second, a focus is placed on working cultures within the industry and attitudes toward crunch time, work–life balance, and workplace regulation. Third, everyday strategies of organizing creative work are analyzed to better understand game studio cultures. The lessons from this empirical study directly contribute to the larger scholarly discussions around game production and creative labor. </jats:p>

<jats:p> This article presents the tools, methods, and findings of an archaeological survey, excavation, and ethnography of abandoned human settlements within a digital built environment. In 2016, Hello Games (Guildford, UK) released the game No Man’s Sky, set in a procedurally generated universe approximating the size of our own. Future game updates disrupted planetary climate and topography, forcing human players to abandon their homes and farms and relocate elsewhere. As an archaeologist, I was able to apply archaeological principles within a digital/human habitation while also investigating what became of the players and their constructions as well as their in-game community. This approach may well lend itself to efforts in the preservation of these digital environments, and especially for player-created content. </jats:p>

<jats:p> This article explores the representation of monstrous-feminine agency through the character of Kerrigan in the StarCraft series with emphasis on StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm. Kerrigan’s subjectivity as a player-character complicates her in ways that require a different application of the monstrous-feminine from those characters from literature, film, and video games that position them as enemies to overcome. The article begins examining Kerrigan through the lens of the monstrous-feminine and the abject before discussing how her hypersexualization ostensibly contradicts her monstrosity as an empowering force. The author then explores the obstacles Kerrigan must overcome and how this struggle reifies her disruption of and resistance against the symbolic order. The discussion concludes that Kerrigan’s connection between the player and monstrous-feminine character is a significant paradigm shift for the female monster and how agency and empathy allow players to understand the monstrous-feminine in a new perspective. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Gaming is an increasingly acceptable outlet for recreation, social engagement, and professional practice. Despite this acceptance, perceptions of “gamers” have been slower to evolve. The traditional stereotype associated with the “gamer” label has persisted in popular culture and acts to perpetuate and reinforce the negative elements associated with gaming. The stereotype’s persistence begs the question of whether current gamers see themselves as having stereotypical traits and whether non-gamers would attribute these traits to game players. This study uses an established model of social perception to explore differences in perceptions of the gamer stereotype and game players among both self-identified gamers and non-gamers in the United States. The results show differences in perceptions between the stereotype and game players, reflecting persistence of the stereotype and recognition that it is not universally applicable to players themselves. Self-identified gamers also perceived themselves as exhibiting more positive and less stereotypical traits than “gamer” implies. </jats:p>