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Masters Thesis by Peter Christiansen

The aim of this thesis is to examine the way that the videogame industry has evolved as a complex... more The aim of this thesis is to examine the way that the videogame industry has evolved as a complex sociotechnological system and how the discourse surrounding the industry, as well as videogames as a medium of expression, has shaped that development. This shift in the nature of videogame creation from individual authors and small studios to the monolithic entity known as "the Industry" was accompanied by the creation of an ideology that defines the identity of a community and places constraints on videogames as a medium. This is the ideology of the "hardcore" gamer. In order to understand this ideology, its impact and its significance, I will focus on the discourse surrounding the videogame industry and particularly on the limits of this discourse. One such area of discourse where antagonisms arise is in the growing community of independent game developers.

Book Chapters by Peter Christiansen

The ASPIRE Program is a science outreach program that was designed with the goal of teaching basi... more The ASPIRE Program is a science outreach program that was designed with the goal of teaching basic physics and math to middle school students and encouraging them to take an early interest in science. Our main tool in achieving this goal is a series of online games and activities that are designed to supplement classroom learning. The use of videogames as a teaching tool has enabled ASPIRE to reach thousands of students per day, while maintaining an average staff of only two or three employees. Although the games themselves are online, much of the success of ASPIRE can be attributed to connections with educators made through more traditional outreach activities. These connections serve as both a source of feedback for improving pro-learning behavioral effects in players and as a means of raising awareness for the games themselves.

Game Mods: Design, Theory, and Criticism

Papers by Peter Christiansen

Cases on the Societal Effects of Persuasive Games

Depictions of scientific development in popular media carry significant influence over the way th... more Depictions of scientific development in popular media carry significant influence over the way that the public envisions science as a process and as an institution. One such popular depiction of science is the “Tech Tree,” a common game mechanic in strategy videogames. This mechanic is often problematic, as in its most common form, the tech tree depicts a technologically deterministic view of science.

Just as rhetorical arguments can be embedded within the structure of a game's logic, so too c... more Just as rhetorical arguments can be embedded within the structure of a game's logic, so too can heuristic cues. In this paper, I argue for persuasive game design based upon using the technological affordances of videogames as a medium to trigger specific heuristic cues, thereby allowing game designers to create games that are able to evoke the necessary amount of systematic cognitive processing to promote long-term attitude change among players of the game. This approach is based upon the HeuristicSystematic Model (HSM) of cognition, as well as the MAIN (Modality, Agency, Interactivity, and Navigability) model of technological effects.

In response to the rise of the biopolitical state, which derives power from its ability to “make ... more In response to the rise of the biopolitical state, which derives power from its ability to “make live” and “let die,” some scholars have argued that death itself can serve as a form of resistance to biopower. As virtual worlds become increasingly intertwined with the physical world, the concept of in-game death can have rhetorical force to resist both physical and virtual biopower. This paper draws on examples of death as resistance with in the virtual worlds of America's Army and World of Warcraft.

In response to the rise of the biopolitical state, which derives power from its ability to “make ... more In response to the rise of the biopolitical state, which derives power from its ability to “make live” and “let die,” some scholars have argued that death itself can serve as a form of resistance to biopower. As virtual worlds become increasingly intertwined with the physical world, the concept of in-game death can have rhetorical force to resist both physical and virtual biopower. This paper draws on examples of death as resistance within the virtual worlds of America's Army and World of Warcraft.

Just as rhetorical arguments can be embedded within the structure of a game's logic, so too can h... more Just as rhetorical arguments can be embedded within the structure of a game's logic, so too can heuristic cues. In this paper, I argue for persuasive game design based upon using the technological affordances of videogames as a medium to trigger specific heuristic cues, thereby allowing game designers to create games that are able to evoke the necessary amount of systematic cognitive processing to promote long-term attitude change among players of the game. This approach is based upon the Heuristic-Systematic Model (HSM) of cognition, as well as the MAIN (Modality, Agency, Interactivity, and Navigability) model of technological effects.

Conference Presentations by Peter Christiansen

Videogames have the potential to promote ethical reasoning and reflection in players, however, de... more Videogames have the potential to promote ethical reasoning and reflection in players, however, designing games with this goal poses unique challenges. One way developers have attempted to introduce ethical choices into their games is by creating game systems that evaluate the players' moral actions, often representing them through a linear scale such as a " karma meter. " At the same time, these ethical systems often work contrary to the design goals of the game by taking player choices that are framed as ethical and reducing them to strategic decisions. The aim of this paper is to build off the work that has already been done in game design and ethics in order to evaluate effective and ineffective approaches to creating engaging ethical systems in games. In particular, this paper will look at the use of intentional ambiguity as a method of encouraging ethical decision making while deterring purely instrumental player choices.

Game Mods: Design, Theory, and Criticism

Cases on the Societal Effects of Persuasive Games

In response to the rise of the biopolitical state, which derives power from its ability to “make ... more In response to the rise of the biopolitical state, which derives power from its ability to “make live” and “let die,” some scholars have argued that death itself can serve as a form of resistance to biopower. As virtual worlds become increasingly intertwined with the physical world, the concept of in-game death can have rhetorical force to resist both physical and virtual biopower. This paper draws on examples of death as resistance within the virtual worlds of America's Army and World of Warcraft.