Catálogo de publicaciones - revistas

<jats:p> While there is an abundance of research concerning the gendered dimensions of video gaming and online communities, there is a limited focus on gameplay competence. This study examined the relationship between sexism and gendered perceptions of competence in gaming. Three hundred and 85 participants volunteered to take part. Participants were randomly allocated to one of three gendered conditions (female, male or neutral). Participants watched two video game clips within each condition (novice and expert playthroughs). Participants rated the competence and warmth of the players, estimated the number of errors made and completed the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory. The findings indicated that female and neutral clips were perceived as less competent than male clips in both skill levels. This difference was more pronounced in the expert level. Warmth ratings varied significantly across conditions. Hostile sexism predicted lower perceptions of warmth. The study demonstrates the need for inclusive and safe online gaming environments. </jats:p>

<jats:p> This article examines the experience of the sublime engendered by video games and the function of immersion and interactivity in producing this effect. A close inspection of the history of the sublime as an aesthetic principle and related cultural practices reveals that the elements of immersion, interactivity, and virtuality were already integral to Burke’s seminal conceptualization, as well as in architecture and visual media, before the emergence of digital media. The techniques and technologies of the immersive sublime deployed by preexisting spatial and visual art forms are inherited, revised, and enhanced in video games, as demonstrated by the analysis of the undersea exploration game ABZÛ. In this sense, the video game simultaneously marks the continuation of and new developments in the interlinked histories of the sublime and technology. </jats:p>

<jats:p> This article aims to illuminate how game analytics have discursively shaped the mainstream perception of Southeast Asia as a regional games market through a qualitative analysis of the data and discourses in three market reports by Newzoo, an influential game analytics company that played a pivotal role in pioneering market research about the region. By reconceiving the futurity of Southeast Asia in terms of capitalist temporality, these reports envision the region as a games market of perpetual capitalist growth through data-led approaches. Despite its limitations, the compelling conception of Southeast Asia as “the world’s fastest growing games market” has become a powerful myth that exerts profound influence on how the public conceive the region as a gaming space. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Jeremy Blaustein’s liberal translation of Metal Gear Solid (1998) was a critical creative intercession which helped facilitate the successful localization and positive reception – in the west – of a crucial early project in the development of 3d games. It can also be seen as an unacceptable liberty taken with a carefully produced script, one which too often puts the needs of a western ear ahead of faithfulness to the original. Walter Benjamin’s essay ‘The Task of the Translator’ and its inheritors in translation studies offer a definition of translation and its utility with which one can justify such a creative intervention as a necessary continuation in the life cycle of the original work and an honest interpretation of the game’s paratextual environment; in the localization of Metal Gear Solid Blaustein performed the task of the translator as Benjamin conceived it. </jats:p>

<jats:p> The developers of Red Hook Studios’ 2016 gothic horror “Darkest Dungeon” said that they wanted to “capture the human response to stress.” This paper analyzes how the game does this with its “stress,” “affliction,” and “virtue” mechanics. With reference to research literature on stress, I show how these mechanics, which could easily have been cheap gimmicks, approach the topic of stress with admirable detail, offering a complex reflection on the various aspects, positive and negative, of several possible human responses to stress. They show how different responses include similar symptoms, how stress impacts the people around the stressed person, and make the case that stress can break people, but also fuel heroism. It is a fantastic example of how video game mechanics can be used to educate people about complex subjects without explicitly saying this is what they are doing. </jats:p>

<jats:p> While million-dollar prize-pools and mega-events dominate esports news, the somewhat elusive entities of national esports associations continue to develop as a critical underbelly. Associations prop up player mobility across all scales of modernisation and play an integral advocacy role for regional esports, providing situated responses to esports governance in society. However, national associations provide sector representation that is often polemic and unwelcome by grassroots, commercial and even state-level representatives. With the continued growth in everyday esports participation and calls for better regulatory frameworks, this article explores the emerging forms and challenges within esports associationalism under the four modes of public, industry, substitute, and early adopter associations. Through qualitative, mixed methods research, these modes are outlined as distinct associational forms with local mobilities, stakeholder pressures and infrastructural challenges involved for associational development and locally tailored esports governance. </jats:p>

<jats:p> This article examines the prominent role of Patreon in the rapidly growing sector of crowdfunded pornographic games. Recent research has indicated that, on average, more people (patrons) are funding pornographic digital games on Patreon than other (non-adult) digital games ( Lankoski &amp; Dymek, 2020 ). Graphtreon’s ‘Top Patreon Creators’ list from 9 June 2021 includes six NSFW game projects among the top 50 projects (ranked by number of Patrons).<jats:sup> 1 </jats:sup> For example, Summertime Saga (Dark Cookie), the highest-ranked pornographic game, is third in terms of the number of funders, with 27,791 patrons funding $74,657 per month. While Wild Life – An Adult RPG (Adeptus Steve), which reportedly only had 9417 patrons as of 9 June 2021, receives a monthly income of $94,129 from those pledges.<jats:sup> 2 </jats:sup> The current funding levels for both Patreon projects are considerably higher than when we began our sampling: since January 2020, the funding level for Summertime Saga has risen by 27.86%, while for Wild Life – An Adult RPG it has risen by 21.45%. </jats:p>

<jats:p> This article is a reflection on the development of Torres Strait Virtual Reality (TSVR), a virtual reality game created to raise awareness of one of Australia’s First Nations people, Torres Strait Islanders. Through the development of TSVR, the author discovered that the processes of cultural protocols, game design and research, intersected and enriched each other to produce a culturally sound and culturally centred game. This article explores project examples of these intersections, such as the converging practices of community engagement and playtesting, and the role of Indigenous cultural influences in game design choices. The cultural focus of TSVR is best represented through the Torres Strait Cultural Tree as a conceptual framework. The Torres Strait Cultural Tree exemplifies how cultural traditions and knowledge can be used to anchor cultural reproductions in new mediums and offers an Indigenous cultural framework for developing cultural-centred games. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Video games can be dynamic sovereign spaces for Indigenous representation and expression when the self-determination of Indigenous people is supported. Where games are concerned, self-determination involves the autonomy and right of Indigenous people to make key decisions regarding the process of how a game is developed as well as what that game entails. A game is sovereign when self-determination is a respected practice throughout all phases of development from conceptualization to distribution. In what ways can games be sovereign and what challenges may be faced? Utilizing comparative case studies of the self-determined games Lost Memories, Terra Nova, and When Rivers Were Trails, this research identifies possible approaches and challenges for sovereign games looking at development as well as the resulting designs. </jats:p>

<jats:p> In this response article, I revisit the idea of paratext in video games. I start, however, with the example of a book by Tolstoy, and the textual studies work of McKenzie and McGann, in order to make the point that paratextuality has never been limited to Genette’s rigid definition, even in the case of print texts. Video games foreground what has always been the case: the dynamic, volatile, multidirectional nature of paratexts, which can take you into but also out of the enclosure of the main text (or “game itself”) in unexpected ways. Illustrations include Animal Crossing: New Horizons and a mobile sneakerhead game, Aglet. </jats:p>