Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #gamestudies
Most recents (19)
Der letzte #GameStudies 🧵heute: Feministische Kritik in Pentiment vor dem Hintergrund mittelalterlicher Literatur. 
CN: Gewaltdarstellungen, Frauenfeindlichkeit, dubious consent, Suizid
Im Gegensatz zu vielen anderen Mittelalterspielen sticht Pentiment durch seinen kritischen Umgang mit Frauenfiguren im Mittelalter und der Frühen Neuzeit hervor.
Jetzt gerade #GameStudies
Das Projekt Pixelvetica ist schon ziemlich beeindruckend und sollte gleich Vorbild für gewisse Nachbarländer werden. #winkwinknudgenudge
Oh! Ein neues Spiel für die DACH-Spieldatenbank.
Warum jetzt aber eigentlich #Brettspiele?!🧐
Viele wissen es nicht, aber Deutschland ist eine Brettspielnation. Hier findet jährlich die @SPIEL_Messe, die größte Publikumsmesse für analoge Spiele weltweit statt. 2019 besuchten über 200.000 Brettspielbegeisterte das Event. (1/8)
Viele wissen es nicht, aber Deutschland ist eine Brettspielnation. Hier findet jährlich die @SPIEL_Messe, die größte Publikumsmesse für analoge Spiele weltweit statt. 2019 besuchten über 200.000 Brettspielbegeisterte das Event. (1/8)
Anlässlich der @SPIEL_Messe erscheinen zudem jedes Jahr eine ganze Reihe an Neuheiten, aktuell sind es ca. 1500 pro Jahr. Also wirklich eine ganze Menge. Wir selbst haben mittlerweile über 600 in der Wohnung. Selbstverständlich aus rein wissenschaftlichen Gründen! (2/8)
Außerdem wird in Deutschland der Kritikerpreis @SpieldesJahres verliehen, der "Oskar" der internationalen Brettspielwelt. Brettspielautor:innen sind in der @SAZ_Presse organisiert und es gibt einen Verein, in dem sich die deutschen Spieleverlage organisieren. (3/8)
Game research, design, #gamestudies peers: I haven't been as intellectually excited about anything like this in a decade (maybe since SDT). In this paper, we propose a new theory for why we enjoy uncertainty in games, drawing on predictive processing. A 🧵
frontiersin.org/articles/10.33…
frontiersin.org/articles/10.33…
The paper fuses games research with cognitive science and philosophy of mind thanks to my wonderful collaborators @Marc_M_Andersen, @JulianKiverste1, and @PredictiveLife. And humbly-not-humbly, I think it could help transform how we understand gaming motivation and 'fun'.
Games are weird. In most of life, we try to get rid of uncertainty. But when we play games, we lean into it – especially uncertain success. We think a good game balances success odds, when it's maximally open who will win. Why is that any fun?
mitpress.mit.edu/books/uncertai…
mitpress.mit.edu/books/uncertai…
1/12 Hello! This is a paper for the #MAMG21 medieval #gamestudies conference! To start off: my research is in games’ relationship with the arts and older forms of media. I'm interested in how to use games as a means to explore and dissect a work, and allow players to do the same.
2/12 This of course has led me to explore intersections of games and literature. Among the most popular books in the high medieval and early modern periods in Europe were chivalric romances – stories of knights errant performing great feats and pining for their lady loves #MAMG21
3/12 As literature is a mirror that recontextualizes art, history, or even our world, so are games. To explore this parallel, I decided to create a game based on a famous (and personal favorite) piece of literature, Miguel de Cervantes’ seminal novel, Don Quixote. #MAMG21
Day 10/10 of the anti-racist #gamestudies thread series
Thus ends my journey with a hot take on coloniality in game-based learning.
"I don’t think you’re going to have any aborigines in your world" by Ligia López López, @LarsdeWildt and @nikkimoodie_
tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…
Thus ends my journey with a hot take on coloniality in game-based learning.
"I don’t think you’re going to have any aborigines in your world" by Ligia López López, @LarsdeWildt and @nikkimoodie_
tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…
How is Minecraft used in Australian schools to reproduce colonial myths and erase Indigenous presence?
Using Indigenous observation methods, the authors “enter the classroom with suspicion” and in solidarity with youth potentially resisting against top-down curricular goals.
Using Indigenous observation methods, the authors “enter the classroom with suspicion” and in solidarity with youth potentially resisting against top-down curricular goals.
Geography matters when putting findings in the context of colonisation:
The observed classroom is located on Wurundjeri land/east Melbourne, invaded in 1856 by the British. Now the school teaches ‘21st century skills’, using innovative tools like Minecraft.
The observed classroom is located on Wurundjeri land/east Melbourne, invaded in 1856 by the British. Now the school teaches ‘21st century skills’, using innovative tools like Minecraft.
Day 9/10 of the anti-racist #gamestudies thread series
Today, I want to discuss a text which helped me start to think about global nuances of racism & sexism in hardware production.
It's from the brilliant book Gaming Globally by Nina Huntemann.
link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9…
Today, I want to discuss a text which helped me start to think about global nuances of racism & sexism in hardware production.
It's from the brilliant book Gaming Globally by Nina Huntemann.
link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9…
This is chapter 2 entitled 'Women in Video Games: The Case of Hardware Production and Promotion'. Before I read this I thought 'women in games' are underrepresented. Turns out there are plenty of WIG but they are where we don't wanna see them: In hardware factories, on showfloors
And there is a reason we don't see them. Because we think of the games industry as a ‘weightless’ economy. Dynamic, knowledge-based, a laptop in the home office.
But there is much more weighty, material stuff going on for a significant portion of the games industry.
But there is much more weighty, material stuff going on for a significant portion of the games industry.
Day 8/10 of my anti-racist #gamestudies thread series.
Today: 'The Work of Postcolonial Game Studies in the Play of Culture’ by @sorayamurray
olh.openlibhums.org/articles/10.16…
It’s one of the most thorough surveys of what postcolonial game scholarship actually does and why it matters.
Today: 'The Work of Postcolonial Game Studies in the Play of Culture’ by @sorayamurray
olh.openlibhums.org/articles/10.16…
It’s one of the most thorough surveys of what postcolonial game scholarship actually does and why it matters.
Why should we believe any theoretical analysis of games matters? Murray points to a ‘mock formula’ by @molleindustria in 2016:
“You think [pop culture artifact] is cool and progressive but here’s how it reinforces [capitalism/sexism/militarism]’.
Mic drop. Critical work done.
“You think [pop culture artifact] is cool and progressive but here’s how it reinforces [capitalism/sexism/militarism]’.
Mic drop. Critical work done.
The subtext of this formula is a bit like: Those who can do, those who can’t theorise. It’s probably designers, not scholars who make the *real* difference, the real interventions.
Instead of rejecting this view Murray uses this provocation as a starting point for her article.
Instead of rejecting this view Murray uses this provocation as a starting point for her article.
Day 7/10 of my anti-racist #gamestudies thread series.
Today: Playing Subaltern: Video Games and Postcolonialism by @Prosperoscell.
It takes us to postcolonial game studies. How does colonialism infiltrate games? And how does it affect Indian players?
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.117…
Today: Playing Subaltern: Video Games and Postcolonialism by @Prosperoscell.
It takes us to postcolonial game studies. How does colonialism infiltrate games? And how does it affect Indian players?
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.117…
First, it would be strange to believe that (post)colonial ideas don’t affect how we play and perceive games in general. But Indian players in particular are directly confronted with their colonial history when playing stuff like Empire: Total War or East India Company.
Videogames feature spaces, political systems, and ethics deeply imbued with colonial values. How to unpack them? Mukherjee introduces 2 key concepts:
1) Postcolonialism: this refers to the interaction between imperial culture and the complex of indigenous cultural practices.
1) Postcolonialism: this refers to the interaction between imperial culture and the complex of indigenous cultural practices.
Day 6/10 of my anti-racist #gamestudies thread series.
Today: @odaminowin's Self-determination in Indigenous games
taylorfrancis.com/books/e/978131…
It's an important text on ongoing efforts in Indigenous digital game dev in North America. How does it resist racist-colonial legacies?
Today: @odaminowin's Self-determination in Indigenous games
taylorfrancis.com/books/e/978131…
It's an important text on ongoing efforts in Indigenous digital game dev in North America. How does it resist racist-colonial legacies?
LaPensée positions herself as an Indigenous game dev with ties to Anishinabee and Metis communities. Her work on games is based on personal interactions, community gatherings, ceremonies, and learning and speaking Anishinaabemowin. Games become a tool for self-determination.
So what’s self-determiniation? It is “the right of a people (nation) to exercise sovereignty or self- rule and to determine its own political, economic, and cultural arrangements.”
This includes efforts of Indigenous peoples to regain sovereignty after centuries of colonisation
This includes efforts of Indigenous peoples to regain sovereignty after centuries of colonisation
Day 5/10 of my anti-racist #gamestudies thread series.
It's half time, folks ♥️😊
Time to continue talking about Indie games & our hopes that they will solve racism.
Today: "Precarity and Why Indie Game Developers Can’t Save Us from Racism" by @ssrauy journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…
It's half time, folks ♥️😊
Time to continue talking about Indie games & our hopes that they will solve racism.
Today: "Precarity and Why Indie Game Developers Can’t Save Us from Racism" by @ssrauy journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…
This is an interview study in which Sam Srauy asks AAA devs from US and Canada about their views on racism.
Note: The data is different from yesterday: No industry statistics but a qualitative, narrative look at North American game dev culture. What do devs think, hope, expect?
Note: The data is different from yesterday: No industry statistics but a qualitative, narrative look at North American game dev culture. What do devs think, hope, expect?
They think that the games industry does have a racism problem but that it can be solved (you guessed it) by throwing Indies at the problem.
We already encountered this hope yesterday, it's quite common:
We already encountered this hope yesterday, it's quite common:
It's already Day 4/10 of my anti-racist #gamestudies thread series.
This is to highlight research for game devs who are interested in what's going in race, social justice & games research.
I discuss texts in random order, using my words. Feel free to share & discuss ideas 🌈🙏
This is to highlight research for game devs who are interested in what's going in race, social justice & games research.
I discuss texts in random order, using my words. Feel free to share & discuss ideas 🌈🙏
Today, I'm introducing the text "Racial Diversity in Indie Games: Patterns, Challenges, and Opportunities" by @CalePassmore, Max Birk, Rowan Yates & Regan Mandryk. It gives a statistical foundation which proves our idea wrong that “indie games are more diverse” than AAA.
The authors start by looking at data from other media industries. There’s better diversity in streaming than in traditional broadcasting corporations w/ more PoC on screen & holding market shares. Is this also true for games?
Do indie studios do better at putting PoC on screen?
Do indie studios do better at putting PoC on screen?
Day 3/10 of the anti-racist #gamestudies thread series
I’m looking at @lnakamur s text “Racism, Sexism and Gaming’s Cruel Optimism”, the afterword of the book Gaming Representation.
It's a great reminder to check what we mean when we say inclusion:
👇✨
lnakamur.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/nakamu…
I’m looking at @lnakamur s text “Racism, Sexism and Gaming’s Cruel Optimism”, the afterword of the book Gaming Representation.
It's a great reminder to check what we mean when we say inclusion:
👇✨
lnakamur.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/nakamu…
Nakamura starts by exploring common ways to think about sexism and racism in gaming, drawing on her experience teaching racially diverse games classes.
Minority students generally agree that there is sexism and racism in gaming. But they also have 2 solutions to fix this.
Minority students generally agree that there is sexism and racism in gaming. But they also have 2 solutions to fix this.
solution 1: just hire more diverse creators!
This assumes that games themselves produce racism and sexism, and that throwing different people at the problem can solve it. In Nakamura’s words, the “presence of more female and racialized bodies will immunize the media products”.
This assumes that games themselves produce racism and sexism, and that throwing different people at the problem can solve it. In Nakamura’s words, the “presence of more female and racialized bodies will immunize the media products”.
Day 2/10 of the anti-racist #gamestudies thread series.
Today I take a look at a fantastic study by @KishonnaGray on the way Black gamers get harassed in online gaming (XboX Live) based on the sound of their voice.
link to article 👇✨ tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…
Today I take a look at a fantastic study by @KishonnaGray on the way Black gamers get harassed in online gaming (XboX Live) based on the sound of their voice.
link to article 👇✨ tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…
The study method was an 8 months ethnography of XboX live games, including Halo Reach, Gears of War 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and Call of Duty: Black Ops. Being present at these sites allowed the researcher to interact as observer and participant in the community.
Gray observes a process that leads to racism which is recognised and expected by Black gamers:
”The act of racism emerges through a process involving questioning, provoking, instigating, and ultimately racism.”
It starts with trash talk and ends with the n-word.
”The act of racism emerges through a process involving questioning, provoking, instigating, and ultimately racism.”
It starts with trash talk and ends with the n-word.
Day 1/10 of my anti-racist #gamestudies thread series.
My aim is to highlight research in the intersection of race, social justice & games. No hierarchies, I discuss them in random order, using my own words
It's all stuff that I blew my mind and I find worthwhile discussing ✨
My aim is to highlight research in the intersection of race, social justice & games. No hierarchies, I discuss them in random order, using my own words
It's all stuff that I blew my mind and I find worthwhile discussing ✨
today: 'Habits of whiteness’ by @heyouonline. I focus on chapter 2, in which Young explains how fantasy role playing games create ‘habits of whiteness’ & why they do that.
Spoilers: racism in fantasy isn’t just ‘the way things are’. It is constructed over time. How?
Spoilers: racism in fantasy isn’t just ‘the way things are’. It is constructed over time. How?
Young calls this ‘genrefication’. In the 1960s both Earthsea and Conan are popular fantasy novels. Earthsea, which features a brown hero and sidelines white people, is one of the most acclaimed fantasy book of its time. But it’s Conan that gets picked up, imitated, recycled. Why?
Hier - über den Tag verteilt - ein #Thread zu meinem gestrigen Vortrag auf der OeNB-Tagung "NS-Digital" #GameStudies
Warum das Thema gerade heute so wichtig ist? Nun, zum einen hatten wir zuletzt in Ö, D aber auch in den USA erschreckende Umfrageergebnisse zum Wissensstand über den Holocaust
Dass nicht jedeR ÖsterreicherIn auf den Punkt genau sagen kann wieviele Juden im Holocaust starben ist klar, aber wenn 42% der Bevölkerung sich nicht an den Tod von 4 Millionen erinnern klingt das schon verunsichernd.
Just submitted for review an article on "Understanding the Appeal and Success of Fortnite: Temporality, Paratexts and Gaming Capital (not ‘Addiction’)" w/ @janemavoa @kylejmoore & luke gaspard, based our study into the digital play of 24 9-14 yr olds. V. excited about it! (1/10)
We wanted to provide an account of why Fortnite was popular with kids that didn’t fall into the “dopamine hits” and “addiction” media panic. Obviously its impossible to pinpoint exactly why Fortnite has been SO successful, but three things really stood out to us … (2/10)
Firstly, playing-Fortnite and watching-Fortnite are just so deeply interwoven there isn’t any point in talking about them separately! Fortnite is a phenomenon of YouTube culture, and how important YouTube is in understanding children’s (and adults, TBH) play (3/10)
Ok, one last post about the history of the term "game mechanics", just because I find this stuff super interesting. #gamedev #gamedesign #gamestudies thread incoming :) 1/
The use of game "mechanics" and "dynamics" date back at least to the cold-war-era research communities that built games as research and education tools (rather than entertainment experiences). Materials from that era already use these terms in ways that we'd recognize today: 2/
- "mechanics" as combinations of game rules plus additional "pieces" that those rules interact with, e.g.: archive.org/details/busine…
The earliest mentions of "mechanics" in game design that I could find come from 1962, "Business Simulation in Industrial and University Education":
archive.org/details/busine…
Amusingly, the term is taken as granted and used without a definition, just like today. ;)
See below:
archive.org/details/busine…
Amusingly, the term is taken as granted and used without a definition, just like today. ;)
See below:
But due to the topic discussed (math-heavy business sim games) that usage of "mechanic" seems more akin to "rules" or "implementation".
A more modern usage seems to show up in the early 80s with the advent of arcade games, e.g. this review in Electronic Games, V 1 No 11, 1983:
A more modern usage seems to show up in the early 80s with the advent of arcade games, e.g. this review in Electronic Games, V 1 No 11, 1983:
