A Formative Approach Towards the Classification of Commercial Digital Games (original) (raw)

Computer games: a proposal for a structured classification

T. Velders (org.), 1996

This work proposes a classification of electronic entertainment artefacts as an instrument for the study of computer-based games. The subject of this study is limited to games designed for multipurpose home computers. A distinction between types of entertainment artefacts in general was the starting point of the classificatory effort. The classification of desktop computer games appropriates some of the nomenclature already established and broadly accepted by gamers, but also includes new terms and categories.

Media Literacy in Digital Games

Media Literacy and Academic Research, 2022

The article focuses on aspects of media literacy in digital games and seeks to answer the question whether digital games can develop players' media competences and, if so, in which areas. The article points out the positive aspects of the player's immersion in digital games as a way to develop competencies without the player realizing it. Through a qualitative content analysis with a focus on media competences, it offers an extensive list of games and the competences found in them. The research included 32 digital games from 1997 to 2022. The decisive criterion was the presence of any media in the game (print, radio, television, internet, advertising, music, etc.) with which the player can interact-i.e. use them (read, listen, watch) or create other media products through them. At the same time it distinguishes between the use of media as a supplementary or entertainment element in games and media work as a direct determinant of the further development of the story or gameplay. The article concludes that digital games can indeed teach media competence without the player realising it, but that this has its limits.

Digital Games as Media for Teaching and Learning: A Template for Critical Evaluation

Simulation & Gaming, 2023

Background: Videogames can be useful tools for teaching and learning. To plan educational uses, potential benefits and possible problematic aspects of specific titles need to be critically assessed by teachers and school leaders prior to implementation. Theory and Method: Based on game ontological models, we identify salient areas of inquiry in games research and use these to structure a template for evaluation. This way we operationalize foundational games research and put key insights to practical use in the planning and preparation of videogame- based teaching sessions. Aims: We develop a template for the evaluation of videogames as tools for and objects of teaching and learning to facilitate critical uses of these technologies in schools and other educational settings. Results: We present a template for critical evaluation to facilitate the use of videogames for educational endeavors. The template distinguishes between videogames as tools for and objects of teaching and learning and is structured along the game ontological dimensions of 1) sign system, 2) rules and mechanics, 3) materiality and 4) players, and includes aspects of both repre- sentation and simulation. This way, we disentangle a complex phenomenon and make its components amendable for critical analysis and constructive intervention. Discussion and Conclusion: We offer illustrating examples for how the template can be used to assess the usability of specific titles in education and discuss advantages and disadvantages. Finally, we suggest steps for implementation and further improvement.

Game Literacy

Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications

Game playing is made possible by players' engagement in configurative practices that work in conjunction with interpretive practices, referring to how a viewer's semiotic work on the text (when reading and interpreting it) is taken directly from the semiotic resources that are put to use and made available by the text itself. That is, games are dynamic entities that remain 'in potentia' until actualised by the player. In doing so, the player is involved in recursive actions that produce polysemic performances and readings. The literacy demands of games support the argument that it is a 'mistake' to consider that [they] offer only one type of experience and foster one type of engagement (Newman, 2002). Yet, when applied to the processes of media regulation and classifying game content (which guides the general publics' understanding of games), the competencies required to engage successfully with interactive texts fail to receive accurate representation or acknowledgment. This chapter addresses how the rise of new forms of literacy, has created a discrepancy between the literacy employed by digital natives when playing games and the way digital immigrants classify games by attributing greater meaning to the 'screen' as the major carrier of information. The central thesis of this chapter is to present an argument for classification processes to account for the contributions to knowledge from theory and research examining game based learning.

Game as text as game: the communicative experience of digital games

Comunicação e Sociedade, 2015

We propose to regard video game as text, but not by literally understanding it as a verbal expression, and instead recognizing that many assumptions of literary theory are relevant to its analysis. This option seems to put us in sync with the narratologists, who exalt games as new manifestations of narrative, but cling to a conception of text as world that values illusionist effects. Instead, we are interested in experiences that, against this perspective, recognize the possibility of regarding game as a text that is a game - an incomplete object that is to be updated by the reader in a self-reflective relationship with the signs that compose it, a central notion to theories such as Iser’s and Dewey’s. Then, instead of focusing on strategies of immersion on large virtual worlds, we favor small independent casual games (such as Small Worlds, Grey, The Beggar, and Dys4ia) analyzing how, in these, take place experiences that allow us to re-examine the aesthetic potential of the medium.

Video Game Design and Interactivity: The Semiotics of Multimedia in Instructional Design

With this dissertation, I developed the first creation-as-research thesis accepted in the Department of Education at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. This research methodology recognizes an interconnected process of creation and research as part of the development of artifacts that aim to directly enhance the discourse of a specified discipline. My work examines the semiotics & cultural nuances of multimedia and interactivity within the context of instruction, focusing on theoretical and practical representations in video game design. There are 4 parts to this thesis: 1) A traditional written document 2) A 15-module online course in video game design entitled Gaming, Interactive, and Multiplatform Media LINK: https://youtu.be/wS8o0w4cB-g 3) 15 summary videos of the online course in video game design LINK: https://youtu.be/gYEEP5GVam0 4) The performative creation-as-research dissertation presentation. LINK: https://youtu.be/XQL\_7tRUlps This thesis highlights the teaching practices surrounding video game design principles, while emulating those design principles as part of the instructional design, and submitted materials. The 4 parts of this thesis, collectively, are a manifestation of the findings in the written component, which suggests that video games, through their innate interactivity via the inclusion of multimedia as part of their design, hold critical implementation frameworks for course-based instructional design, when multimedia is used as part of the instructional process.

Applying Digital Games as an Educational Tool into the School Curriculum

Modern technologies such as information technology and educational technology have become an integral part of modern society. With this technological development, teaching styles have changed. Modern educational technology has had a substantial impact on the process, techniques, etc. used by educators. In order to incorporate game-based learning into student education, a better understanding of the advantages and methods for application are required for both teachers and researchers. This paper is intended to provide guidance on how to properly develop a digital game for educational purposes, and focuses on how to determine the appropriate structure for the game itself as well as the appropriate techniques for incorporating digital games into school syllabi. In this paper we will measure the effectiveness of digital games that are already in use with the intention of justifying a collaboration between the education system and digital games, while at the same time acknowledging that the education provided by digital games is not as holistic as it may be considered, and it must be carefully integrated into school curriculum in order to be effective. In addition, this paper considers which factors can increase both student engagement and the level of their educational knowledge.

Narratives in Digital Games: Their Place and Function in the Study of Digital Games

Expanding Practices in Audiovisual Narrative, 2014

Broadly speaking, digital games can be studied in three ways: the social sciences perspective focuses on the social context of games and their players; the humanities perspective takes games as cultural artifacts, and concentrates on their meaning as well as ways of meaning-making; and the design perspective views games as a set of design and programming problems. What distinguishes digital games from traditional ones like chess is their greater emphasis on representational and narrative elements. From the humanities perspective this raises a number of questions. What is the scope of literary theory and narratology in the game scholar's methodological toolbox? How should computer games as objects of study be defined? In the early years of game studies these questions were at the heart of the so-called "ludology versus narratology" debate. I believe that revisiting the debate could be edifying for humanities scholars working in adjacent areas. Additionally, while contemporary research tends toward more holistic approaches, as far as I know extant accounts of how narratives and game rules are intertwined have either reduced games to non-trivial cybernetic machines or interactive semiotic matrices, restricted themselves mostly to the expressive aspects of games, or left the interrelation between rules and narratives ultimately somewhat vague. After reviewing the ludology vs. narratology debate and some of its central points of contention, I will propose a holistic account of the relationship between games and narratives. Narrative will be treated as a cognitive strategy for making sense of the game's fictional world that is created by the rules of the game via semiotic means. Instead of reducing games to other kinds of entities, it will be shown that games qua games are the source of the semiotic processes which ultimately create fictional worlds and direct the player toward a narrative interpretation of the game's signs.