Book•
Unit Operations: An Approach to Videogame Criticism
01 Jan 2006-
TL;DR: In Unit Operations, Ian Bogost argues that similar principles underlie both literary theory and computation, proposing a literary-technical theory that can be used to analyze particular videogames and argues for the possibility of real collaboration between the humanities and information technology.
Abstract: In Unit Operations, Ian Bogost argues that similar principles underlie both literary theory and computation, proposing a literary-technical theory that can be used to analyze particular videogames. Moreover, this approach can be applied beyond videogames: Bogost suggests that any medium -- from videogames to poetry, literature, cinema, or art -- can be read as a configurative system of discrete, interlocking units of meaning, and he illustrates this method of analysis with examples from all these fields. The marriage of literary theory and information technology, he argues, will help humanists take technology more seriously and hep technologists better understand software and videogames as cultural artifacts. This approach is especially useful for the comparative analysis of digital and nondigital artifacts and allows scholars from other fields who are interested in studying videogames to avoid the esoteric isolation of "game studies." The richness of Bogost's comparative approach can be seen in his discussions of works by such philosophers and theorists as Plato, Badiou, Zizek, and McLuhan, and in his analysis of numerous videogames including Pong, Half-Life, and Star Wars Galaxies. Bogost draws on object technology and complex adaptive systems theory for his method of unit analysis, underscoring the configurative aspects of a wide variety of human processes. His extended analysis of freedom in large virtual spaces examines Grand Theft Auto 3, The Legend of Zelda, Flaubert's Madame Bovary, and Joyce's Ulysses. In Unit Operations, Bogost not only offers a new methodology for videogame criticism but argues for the possibility of real collaboration between the humanities and information technology.
Citations
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TL;DR: Nusantara Online as mentioned in this paper is an Indonesian-made massively multiplayer online role-playing game that imaginatively reconstructs the history of the archipelago and suggests a distinct model of digital nationalism, here dubbed "playable" nationalism.
Abstract: Nusantara Online is an Indonesian-made massively multiplayer online role-playing game that imaginatively reconstructs the history of the archipelago. As an “allegorithm” for the Indonesian nation, the game suggests a distinct model of digital nationalism, here dubbed “playable” nationalism. This concept captures the formulation of “Nusantara” as the idealized yet playful version of the Indonesian archipelago, a version emphasizing the principles of digital collaboration. The promotion of this model of “digital nationalism” as an egalitarian model of Indonesian popular nationalism has certain limitations.
13 citations
TL;DR: Ian Bogost’s concept of unit operations is used to evaluate the concept that ‘‘hard work is rewarded’’ as it relates to various media, including films and videogames, and to analyze the historical and theoretical implications of the concept.
Abstract: Every massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) begins new players at Level 1. The player must grind his or her way through many early levels to reach any kind of decent reward for the hours investe...
12 citations
Cites background or methods from "Unit Operations: An Approach to Vid..."
...To address these questions, we use Ian Bogost’s (2006a) concept of unit operations to evaluate the concept that ‘‘hard work is rewarded’’ as it relates to various media, including films and videogames, and to analyze the historical and theoretical implications of the concept....
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...Bogost believes units are a worthy level of analysis for two reasons: units describe and influence the systems in which they function, and units chart the progress of a particular concept across media history. We established that, in film and television, the ‘‘hard work’’ unit manifests itself typically as montage. However, in digital gaming, the montage is not an option, and this is the key quality of games that analyzing the hard work unit makes apparent. Consider a situation drawn from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (MGS2), which Newman (2002) has spoken about in the context of human–game interactivity....
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...delight? To address these questions, we use Ian Bogost’s (2006a) concept of unit operations to evaluate the concept that ‘‘hard work is rewarded’’ as it relates to various media, including films and videogames, and to analyze the historical and theoretical implications of the concept....
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...Bogost believes units are a worthy level of analysis for two reasons: units describe and influence the systems in which they function, and units chart the progress of a particular concept across media history. We established that, in film and television, the ‘‘hard work’’ unit manifests itself typically as montage. However, in digital gaming, the montage is not an option, and this is the key quality of games that analyzing the hard work unit makes apparent. Consider a situation drawn from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (MGS2), which Newman (2002) has spoken about in the context of human–game interactivity. One major task the game asks players to perform is the disarming of six strategically placed blocks of C4 explosive around an offshore ocean cleanup facility. Each block of C4 is on a different ‘‘strut’’ with six in total, arranged like a hexagon and connected one to another so that access between them involves moving around the perimeter. For the traditional media use of ‘‘hard work,’’ imagine that MGS2 is an action/ espionage film, since the combat and stealth action of the game map reasonably well to that cinematic genre. Watching the player character (in this case, MGS2 protagonist Raiden) move slowly between struts, hunting down, and then disarming all six blocks of C4 would be ridiculously boring. Thus, montage comes into play. Our theoretical action film would show this activity as a series of edited scenes, perhaps, in the rapid style, Bordwell (2002) lays out as ‘‘intensified continuity....
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Dissertation•
01 Oct 2018
TL;DR: For artists working especially with computer simulated artworks, this thesis provides a set of practical and theoretical examples of the contexts that real-time computer simulations, specifically with ecological and environmental concerns, can be discussed within.
Abstract: Computer simulations (CS) profoundly alter many aspects of our lives yet exhibit an ontological recalcitrance that impede our understanding of what they are and how they function. The dominant theoretical framework for understanding computer simulation (CS) related artworks is rooted in postmodern ideas that proliferate ‘immaterial readings, consequently hiding the making processes of the artwork, and making it difficult to discuss the material points of contact between the physical and virtual world. There is limited literature that focuses specifically on CS-related contemporary art. This thesis draws together the most pertinent history, theory and practice for artists and curators working with CS-related artworks. This study employs a reflective practice methodology to explore the changing modes of materiality ascribed to computer simulation-related artworks. The research consists of three phases of practice, theoretical analysis and reflection. Five artworks were created for three exhibitions, that elucidated how space, time and behaviour are constructed within game engines, and how this can inform the understanding of existing and future CS artworks. A parametric time system was developed: a new visual scripting logic for real-time artworks that allows them to be exhibited for different durations without altering the content or recompiling code. Characteristics of CS were established in relation to existing art practices. Postmodern and new materialist theories were analysed and discussed with a view to better understanding CS within art contexts. In relation to my own practice, assemblage theory, media ecology and media geology were found to be the most appropriate theoretical frameworks in which to understand CS artworks. The final chapter expands on these ideas in relation to the recalcitrant temporal aspects of the CS assemblage. For artists working especially with computer simulated artworks, this thesis provides a set of practical and theoretical examples of the contexts that real-time computer simulations, specifically with ecological and environmental concerns, can be discussed within. The comparison and analysis of postmodernist and new materialist theories provides a way of considering computer simulations within a contemporary philosophical context.
12 citations
Cites background from "Unit Operations: An Approach to Vid..."
...This formed a surprising point of contact between games studies literature (Bogost, 2008) and physics literature (Roundtree, 2014), (Winsberg, 2010)....
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...In this sense, the artwork becomes a “configurative system” (Bogost, 2008, p.ix) and unit operations are the interlocking components of meaning within any artwork or medium....
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TL;DR: In the cultural controversy surrounding “violent video games,” the manufacturers and players of games often insist that computer games are a form of harmless entertainment that is unlikely to influence the real-world activities of players as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In the cultural controversy surrounding “violent video games,” the manufacturers and players of games often insist that computer games are a form of harmless entertainment that is unlikely to influence the real-world activities of players. Yet games and military simulations are used by military organizations across the world to teach the modern arts of war, from how to shoot a gun to teamwork, leadership skills, military values, and cultural sensitivity. We survey a number of ways of reconciling these apparently contradictory claims and argue that none of them are ultimately successful. Thus, either military organizations are wrong to think that games and simulations have a useful role to play in training anything other than the most narrowly circumscribed physical skills or some recreational digital games do, in fact, have the power to influence the real-world behavior and dispositions of players in morally significant ways.
12 citations
Cites background from "Unit Operations: An Approach to Vid..."
...Advocates of video gaming often insist that games constitute a new artistic medium: It would be very strange indeed if they were almost uniquely incapable of transforming people’s character (Bogost, 2006)....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the reasons why the discipline of game studies requires a shift toward player analysis, without leaving an object-oriented approach, thanks to the efforts of social ontology, a recent philosophical discipline that investigates social facts.
Abstract: The article aims to explore the reasons why the discipline of game studies requires a shift toward player analysis. This can be done without leaving an object-oriented approach, thanks to the efforts of social ontology, a recent philosophical discipline that investigates social facts. The integration of social ontology into the research on games will be displayed through some mind experiments on the nature of the paradigmatic example of rules. The result of this integration leads to give up the reductionism shared by the majority of game scholars.
12 citations
Cites background from "Unit Operations: An Approach to Vid..."
...According to Ian Bogost (2006), games are transmedial systems, but this does not solve the problem....
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References
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TL;DR: In this paper, it is argued that the degree of overlap of two individuals' friendship networks varies directly with the strength of their tie to one another, and the impact of this principle on diffusion of influence and information, mobility opportunity, and community organization is explored.
Abstract: Analysis of social networks is suggested as a tool for linking micro and macro levels of sociological theory. The procedure is illustrated by elaboration of the macro implications of one aspect of small-scale interaction: the strength of dyadic ties. It is argued that the degree of overlap of two individuals' friendship networks varies directly with the strength of their tie to one another. The impact of this principle on diffusion of influence and information, mobility opportunity, and community organization is explored. Stress is laid on the cohesive power of weak ties. Most network models deal, implicitly, with strong ties, thus confining their applicability to small, well-defined groups. Emphasis on weak ties lends itself to discussion of relations between groups and to analysis of segments of social structure not easily defined in terms of primary groups.
37,560 citations
TL;DR: The discipline and practice of qualitative research have been extensively studied in the literature as discussed by the authors, including the work of Denzin and Denzin, and their history in sociology and anthropology, as well as the role of women in qualitative research.
Abstract: Introduction - Norman K Denzin and Yvonna S Lincoln The Discipline and Practice of Qualitative Research PART ONE: LOCATING THE FIELD Qualitative Methods - Arthur J Vidich and Stanford M Lyman Their History in Sociology and Anthropology Reconstructing the Relationships between Universities and Society through Action Research - Davydd J Greenwood and Morten Levin For Whom? Qualitative Research, Representations and Social Responsibilities - Michelle Fine et al Ethics and Politics in Qualitative Research - Clifford G Christians PART TWO: PARADIGMS AND PERSPECTIVES IN TRANSITION Paradigmatic Controversies, Contradictions and Emerging Confluences - Yvonna S Lincoln and Egon G Guba Three Epistemological Stances for Qualitative Inquiry - Thomas A Schwandt Interpretivism, Hermeneutics and Social Constructionism Feminisms and Qualitative Research at and into the Millennium - Virginia L Olesen Racialized Discourses and Ethnic Epistemologies - Gloria Ladson-Billings Rethinking Critical Theory and Qualitative Research - Joe L Kincheloe and Peter McLaren Cultural Studies - John Frow and Meaghan Morris Sexualities, Queer Theory and Qualitative Research - Joshua Gamson PART THREE: STRATEGIES OF INQUIRY The Choreography of Qualitative Research Design - Valerie J Janesick Minuets, Improvisations and Crystallization An Untold Story? Doing Funded Qualitative Research - Julianne Cheek Performance Ethnography - Michal M McCall A Brief History and Some Advice Case Studies - Robert E Stake Ethnography and Ethnographic Representation - Barbara Tedlock Analyzing Interpretive Practice - Jaber F Gubrium and James A Holstein Grounded Theory - Kathy Charmaz Objectivist and Constructivist Methods Undaunted Courage - William G Tierney Life History and the Postmodern Challenge Testimonio, Subalternity and Narrative Authority - John Beverley Participatory Action Research - Stephen Kemmis and Robin McTaggart Clinical Research - William L Miller and Benjamin F Crabtree PART FOUR: METHODS OF COLLECTING AND ANALYZING EMPIRICAL MATERIALS The Interview - Andrea Fontana and James H Frey From Structured Questions to Negotiated Text Rethinking Observation - Michael V Angrosino and Kimberly A Mays de Perez From Method to Context The Interpretation of Documents and Material Culture - Ian Hodder Re-Imagining Visual Methods - Douglas Harper Galileo to Neuromancer Auto-Ethnography, Personal Narrative, Reflexivity - Carolyn Ellis and Arthur P Bochner Researcher as Subject Data Management and Analysis Methods - Gery W Ryan and H Russell Bernard Software and Qualitative Research - Eben A Weitzman Analyzing Talk and Text - David Silverman Focus Groups in Feminist Research - Esther Madriz Applied Ethnography - Erve Chambers PART FIVE: THE ART AND PRACTICES OF INTERPRETATION, EVALUATION AND REPRESENTATION The Problem of Criteria in the Age of Relativism - John K Smith and Deborah K Deemer The Practices and Politics of Interpretation - Norman K Denzin Writing - Laurel Richardson A Method of Inquiry Anthropological Poetics - Ivan Brady Understanding Social Programs through Evaluation - Jennifer C Greene Influencing the Policy Process with Qualitative Research - Ray C Rist PART SIX: THE FUTURE OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH Qualitative Inquiry - Mary M Gergen and Kenneth J Gergen Tensions and Transformations The Seventh Moment - Yvonna S Lincoln and Norman K Denzin Out of the Past
26,318 citations
Book•
[...]
01 Jan 1927
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present an interpretation of Dasein in terms of temporality, and the Explication of Time as the Transcendental Horizon for the Question of Being.
Abstract: Translators' Preface. Author's Preface to the Seventh German Edition. Introduction. Exposition of the Question of the Meaning of Being. 1. The Necessity, Structure, and Priority of the Question of Being. 2. The Twofold Task of Working out the Question of Being. Method and Design of our Investigation. Part I:. The Interpretation of Dasein in Terms of Temporality, and the Explication of Time as the Transcendental Horizon for the Question of Being. 3. Preparatory Fundamental Analysis of Dasein. Exposition of the Task of a Preparatory Analysis of Dasein. Being-in-the-World in General as the Basic State of Dasein. The Worldhood of the World. Being-in-the-World as Being-with and Being-One's-Self. The 'they'. Being-in as Such. Care as the Being of Dasein. 4. Dasein and Temporality. Dasein's Possibility of Being-a-Whole, and Being-Towards-Death. Dasein's Attestation of an Authentic Potentiality-for-Being, and Resoluteness. Dasein's Authentic Potentiality-for-Being-a-Whole, and Temporality as the Ontological Meaning of Care. Temporality and Everydayness. Temporality and Historicality. Temporality and Within-Time-Ness as the Source of the Ordinary Conception of Time. Author's Notes. Glossary of German Terms. Index.
16,708 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1988
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a very different view of the arts of practice in a very diverse culture, focusing on the use of ordinary language and making do in the art of practice.
Abstract: Preface General Introduction PART I: A VERY ORDINARY CULTURE I. A Common Place: Ordinary Language II. Popular Cultures: Ordinary Language III. Making Do: Uses and Tactics PART II: THEORIES OF THE ART OF PRACTICE IV. Foucault and Bourdieu V. The Arts of Theory VI. Story Time PART III: SPATIAL PRACTICES VII. Walking in the City VIII. Railway Navigation and Incarceration IX. Spatial Stories PART IV: Uses of Language X. The Scriptural Economy XI. Quotations of Voices XII. Reading as Poaching PART V: WAYS OF BELIEVING XIII. Believing and Making People Believe XIV. The Unnamable Indeterminate Notes
10,978 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1984
TL;DR: In this article, the status of science, technology, and the arts, the significance of technocracy, and how the flow of information is controlled in the Western world are discussed.
Abstract: Many definitions of postmodernism focus on its nature as the aftermath of the modern industrial age when technology developed. This book extends that analysis to postmodernism by looking at the status of science, technology, and the arts, the significance of technocracy, and the way the flow of information is controlled in the Western world.
10,912 citations