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Kristine Jørgensen

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PROBLEM SOLVING: THE ESSENCE OF PLAYER ACTION IN COMPUTER GAMES

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Volume: 2 ISBN / ISNN: ISSN 2342-9666
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This paper will present the major findings of the author’s hovedfag (M.A.) thesis [1], which investigates how the player engages in the structuring of courses of action in computer games. Since the player’s engagement may be said to be a problem solving process, this paper presents a scheme of problem solving in modern computer games that proposes the concept of computer game agency. The scheme will be illustrated by examples from the computer role-playing game Baldur’s Gate II, and the turn-based strategy game Heroes of Might & Magic IV.

 

Laust Juul Christensen, Thomas Tae-Yang Jørgensen, and Anker Helms Jørgensen

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DEVELOPING A HYBRID OF MMORPG AND LARP USING USABILITY METHODS: THE CASE OF TAKKAR

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Volume: 2 ISBN / ISNN: ISSN 2342-9666
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This paper examines the idea of combining Live Action Role-Playing (LARP) and MMORPG into a hybrid game named Takkar. We developed three versions of Takkar in an iterative fashion. In each iteration we constructed and tested game play and features using principles and ideas drawn from game development theory and usability/Participatory Design such as user interviews and expert reviews. Between iterations we made use of LARP-theory and theories of virtual environments to further develop the concept. Considerations of embodiment, concurrency in actions and rich communication emerge as central factors for the successful transfer between the two parts of the hybrid. Usability methods proved effective during game development giving a better and faster understanding of the needs of the players.

 

A. Fleming Seay, William J. Jerome, Kevin Sang Lee, Robert Kraut

J, K, S, W , , , , , , , ,

PROJECT MASSIVE 1.0: ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT, SOCIABILITY AND EXTRAVERSION IN MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER ONLINE GAMES

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Volume: 2 ISBN / ISNN: ISSN 2342-9666

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Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMPs) continue to be a popular and lucrative sector of the gaming market. Project Massive was created to survey MMP players about their play experience, social experience, and communication tool usage both inside and outside of their gaming environments. 1852 MMP players have completed the online Project Massive survey, reporting on their play patterns, commitment to their player organizations, and personality traits like sociability and extraversion. The primary focus of Project Massive has been on the player groups that form in MMPs. Most MMPs support and attempt to foster group formation of some kind or another among their players. These formal player groups, often called guilds, can be as persistent as the digital worlds in which they exist. We have found that players who are highly committed to their guilds spend significantly more time in-game than do moderately committed guild members and solo (non-guild) players. Enhancing a player’s commitment to their guild can translate into extending their commitment to the game world. In turn, this may result in longer subscriptions and increased revenue for the game’s creators. This research is important because there has not been substantial research into the traits and practices of the more successful player organizations that are able to sustain committed bodies of members. Project Massive has investigated how these groups develop, organize, communicate, and operate across a number of independent game worlds. Here we report on our findings and describe our future longitudinal work as we track players and their organizations across the evolving landscape of the MMP product space.

 

Aki Järvinen

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MAKING AND BREAKING GAMES: A TYPOLOGY OF RULES
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Järvinen Aki

Volume: 2 ISBN / ISNN: ISSN 2342-9666

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The paper introduces a particular approach to the study of rules. Different aspects of rules are studied: what are their functions, what do rules govern, what is a ruleset, and what are the elements in a game that rules govern. Five elements are discussed: components (pieces/ player characters/etc.), procedures associated with components (moving them or manipulating them in other ways), environments that define the physical boundaries of a game, theme that gives the game a subject matter, and interface which is used to access the game. The author introduces five types of rules, each type relating to a game element. The typology provides a better understanding of rules as a fundamental structure of games, and it can also be applied as a tool for analysing individual games’ structure and ruleset.

 

Jesper Juul

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THE GAME, THE PLAYER, THE WORLD: LOOKING FOR A HEART OF GAMENESS
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Juul Jesper

Volume: 2 ISBN / ISNN: ISSN 2342-9666

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This paper attempts a definition of games. I describe the classic game model, a list of six features that are necessary and sufficient for something to be a game. The definition shows games to be transmedial: There is no single game medium, but rather a number of game media, each with their own strengths. The computer is simply the latest game medium to emerge. While computer games are therefore part of the broader area of games, they have in many cases evolved beyond the classic game model.

Jeroen Janz & G. Raynel Martis

J, M , ,

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The actual content of games is an understudied area in social scientific research about digital interactive games (DIGs). This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of game content, in particular with respect to the portrayal of men, women, and people of different ethnic origin. Earlier studies by Provenzo [14], Gailey [8], and Dietz [6] concluded that games were dominated by stereotypic male characters with a few stereotypic females in minor roles. Nowadays, quite a few DIGs have women in leading parts. We want to establish if this change resulted in a multiplicity of meaning in the representation of gender and ethnicity [10]. This paper reports a content analysis about the ways in which gender and ethnicity are represented in the game. We concentrate on the portrayal of the leading character, and supporting role in the introductory film of the DIG. Our sample consists of 12 games that run on ‘Next Generation Consoles’ (PS2, X Box, Game Cube). Among the titles studied are games with a female leading character (for example, Tomb Raider, Parasite Eve), and with a male leading character (for example, GTA ViceCity, Splinter Cell). Characters in supporting roles are diverse: colored, and non-colored men, as well as colored and non-colored women

Degn Johansson Troels

J, T ,

VERTIGO AND VERTICALITY IN SUPER MONKEY BALL
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The vertical dimension is crucial to Super Monkey Ball on all levels1, and invites us to meditate on vertigo and verticality, falling and failing in the construction of space and game-play in this game and in computer- games as such. In Super Monkey Ball, the vertical dimension should be mastered (landing on tiny islands with the ball glider), avoided (off golf courses, off race tracks, or off fight arenas elevated almost astronomically above the ground), although it may also invite to dangerous downslide acceleration or short-cuts that will give your baby monkey ball a lead in the race (descending tilting planes, falling from one level to another while staying on the course). But most notably, verticality is emphasized by falling and failing. Slipping off the race-track or shooting oneself off the golf course by mistake always means dropping into a spectacular free fall; losing the poor baby monkey in dark swamps, sparkling oceans, or void, endless desertlike spaces. Meditating on this aesthetization of falling and failing in Super Monkey Ball, this brief study outlines the peculiar allegorical, albeit funny and social character of this game, which seems just as important as the playing of the game as such.