Catálogo de publicaciones - revistas

<jats:p> In this article, we conduct a discourse analysis of 60 articles to reveal themes that describe how games journalism reflects and constitutes understandings of disability and accessibility in gaming. First, we map prior research on media’s relationship to disability, as well as approaches to disability in game studies, including the introduction of two primary paradigms for addressing issues of accessibility in gaming. Second, the project reveals six thematic categories that describe how game journalism reflects and constitutes understandings of disability and accessibility in gaming: gamers with disabilities, portraying disability, game design, game controllers, discussing accessibility, and advocacy. Further comparison of the categories reveals four additional themes of discourses, namely, self-congratulations, fetishization, awareness as advocacy, and problem-solving. The article concludes with implications for the games industry, for theory, and for how the field of game studies can investigate disability. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Toxicity in online multiplayer games has long been an issue, and game developers implement various strategies such as reputation systems to curb such behaviour. Although Foucault’s notion of discipline seems an ideal lens through which to analyse such reputation systems, as of yet there has been little work on the subject. This article addresses the reputation system implemented in 2018 by Blizzard, who created an endorsement system in the team-based multiplayer shooter Overwatch. This successfully encouraged positive player behaviour by implementing rewards, rather than only punishments. In this article, we examine the endorsement system as an example of Foucault’s discipline, one that is particularly relevant to game design because it uses incentives as well as deterrents. We argue that the endorsement system is particularly effective as a form of discipline because it includes players as part of the process, by actively constructing subjects (gamers) to fit a pre-defined mould. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Video games are hugely popular, generating more than twice the revenue of global movie and music industries combined. Whilst technically illegal and often carrying negative connotations, modding constitutes a moral grey area that is commonly accepted, often encouraged by proprietary owners and forum-centred gaming communities. Literature reflects a disparity between outsider and insider perceptions of modding, with a paucity of studies reflecting insider perspectives. Using Reddit forum data, this study contributes insight into perceptions of modding held by gamers and ‘modders’, as described in their words and their territory. Thematic analysis revealed four main themes relating to unfairness in the vendor community, modders as antagonists, differences between modders and modding as forms of self-defence. Conclusions include that modding appears to have both pro- and antisocial applications, but many people and organisations demonise modders as a homogeneous group, which may encourage antisocial behaviours. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Video games have long held a spotty history in their narratives regarding women. Most research has examined large budget games and identified issues of simplification, oversexualization, and a general lack of agency among female characters. The present study explores the gaming niche of “indie”—or independent game developer—video games in their representations of women in particular with Never Alone, Gone Home, and Her Story. These games were released around the time frame of the GamerGate controversy—a controversy which drew attention to the treatment of women in gaming culture—and hence, the games are used to reflect on a potential shift in games culture following the controversy. This article argues that these game narratives emphasized multilayered female characterizations, female-to-female interactions, and internal dramas as a way to potentially reach female gamers and present an alternative, humanizing narrative on women. </jats:p>

<jats:p> The goal of this article is to propose Game World Design and Analysis for Socio-Ecological Systems (GAS), a framework for the design and analysis of game worlds through socio-ecological systems lenses. Game World Design and Analysis for Socio-Ecological Systems invites designers to a structured reflection of their choices regarding game world correspondence with a real or fictional reference system (assessed through accuracy, comprehensiveness, and balance) and game world consistency. The framework spells out the main elements to be included in the game world for that to be a credible socio-ecological system. The GAS framework is demonstrated on Nusfjord (2017) as an exemplar of natural resource management–themed analog game. The framework is built using an interdisciplinary approach to game studies, history, media and literary studies, and natural resource management research. The application of the framework has the potential of making the design and analysis of game worlds more relevant to the sustainability discourse of the 21st Century. </jats:p>

<jats:p> This article provides a general overview of the theoretical foundations of formalism to assess their usefulness for the study of videogames and thereby establish grounds for a more robust approach. After determining that formalism has been used as a go-to term for a variety of ontological and methodological approaches in game studies, this article draws more specifically from Russian Formalism to use the label for a functionalist approach interested in how formal devices in videogames work to cue aesthetic responses. Through an exploration of three pillars of Russian Formalism, a videogame formalism emerges that focuses on the workings of the game as a machine while still taking the aesthetic player response as the methodological starting point and acknowledging the importance of synchronic and diachronic historical perspectives in establishing the functioning of game devices. </jats:p>

<jats:p> This paper considers J. L. Borges’ Book of Imaginary Beings as a vector for the cultural transfer of folkloric, mythological, religious, and literary motifs from foreign cultures to Japanese video games and collectible card games. My analysis relies upon Michel Espagne’s cultural transfer theories and discusses not only the Book of Imaginary Beings but also other vectors of transfer, such as the roleplaying game Dungeons &amp; Dragons. I focus on four specific motifs from different cultural spheres, whose introduction to Japanese video games can be retraced to Borges’ bestiary: The carbuncle, the catoblepas, the peryton, and Kujata. Thus, this paper presents a case study of the cross-cultural influence of literary works on games. Furthermore, it underscores the need for a deeper consideration of the cultural influences found in games and of games as agents of cultural transfers. </jats:p>

<jats:p> This paper offers a counterpoint to existing research that explores the associations between gacha games and gambling. Whilst existing research tends to advance a view that playing these games is equivalent to gambling, I contend that such assertions rest on analyses that focus almost exclusively on investing money in the game. Moreover, they tend to view the game as separate from the structuring forces of everyday life. Arguing that players are embedded within a double structural frame that moderates the extent of seemingly ‘irrational’ playing behaviours, I reinterpret grinding as a form of temporal investment that is motivated by more ‘rationalised’ engagements with the gacha mechanic. Drawing on qualitative data derived from Singapore-based players of gacha games, I explore how discipline, desire and deferred value can lead to resource maximising behaviours that are rooted in a time-money trade-off. In turn, these agentic patterns of play can be seen to ‘game-the-game’. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Widely played all over the world, video games have led to a thriving industry whose global boom owes much to the significant contributions of audiovisual translation and game localization. The current study sheds some light on the translation solutions employed in tailoring video games into Persian to evaluate the growing field of game localization in Iran. Accordingly, four video games localized by Darinoos, the most prominent Iranian game localization company, were selected; their textual materials were extracted and compiled into a corpus of 3068 source–target pairs. The results showed Copying Structure is the most frequently used solution indicating the prominence of word-for-word translation. Cultural Correspondence, on the other hand, was revealed to have received the lowest proportion suggesting the lack of creativity and failure to transfer culture-specific language. The findings revealed several inadequacies in video game localization into Persian, which are explored within the cultural and industrial settings of Iran. </jats:p>

<jats:p> The article explores Far Cry 5’scommentary on the rise of the radical right, domestic terrorism, and extremism in America. The game's two primary modes for this narrative critique involve its use of Christian symbolism and its exploration of doomsday prepper culture. What emerges from this analysis is that Far Cry 5 provides a harrowing reckoning in the rise of extremist thought in this country and its ramifications, one that is a timely reflection of current American culture. In Far Cry 5, America becomes the next great empire poised to fall throughout the game and finally, in its tense final sequences, succumbs to nuclear annihilation. </jats:p>