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
More filters
01 Jan 2015
1 citations
07 Sep 2016
TL;DR: Sewerin et al. as mentioned in this paper analyzed the overt ideological message and the internal system for structuring gameplay in Fallout 3 (2008) from a socio-anthropological perspective developed by sociologist Anthony Giddens and concluded that the enjoyability of digital RPGs derives in part from the way their gameplay provides escapism from modern society's socially alienating qualities, and indulgence in its socioeconomic motivational basis.
Abstract: Title: Why Do We Game?: A Socio-Anthropological Analysis of Fallout 3 and the Role of Role-Playing Video Games in Society Author: Mikael Sewerin Supervisor: Marcus Nordlund Abstract: In this essay, the overt ideological message and the internal system for structuring gameplay in Fallout 3 (2008) have been analyzed from a socio-anthropological perspective developed by sociologist Anthony Giddens. The analysis concludes that the enjoyability of digital RPGs derives in part from the way their gameplay provides escapism from modern society’s socially alienating qualities, and indulgence in its socioeconomic motivational basis. This offers a new approach to both the study of game addiction and the broader question of why we play games. Furthermore, these conclusions contradict the socio-ideological predisposition expressed in Fallout 3’s storyline, giving support to the critical claims of several Marxist and cultural study theorists who view games and the video game industry as having a negative effect on both the critical capacity of the individual and that of society as a whole. In this essay, the overt ideological message and the internal system for structuring gameplay in Fallout 3 (2008) have been analyzed from a socio-anthropological perspective developed by sociologist Anthony Giddens. The analysis concludes that the enjoyability of digital RPGs derives in part from the way their gameplay provides escapism from modern society’s socially alienating qualities, and indulgence in its socioeconomic motivational basis. This offers a new approach to both the study of game addiction and the broader question of why we play games. Furthermore, these conclusions contradict the socio-ideological predisposition expressed in Fallout 3’s storyline, giving support to the critical claims of several Marxist and cultural study theorists who view games and the video game industry as having a negative effect on both the critical capacity of the individual and that of society as a whole.
1 citations
01 Oct 2013
TL;DR: This chapter offers a multifaceted reflection on persuasive gaming divided into three pillars: persuasiveness, design, and validation.
Abstract: This chapter offers a multifaceted reflection on persuasive gaming divided
into three pillars: persuasiveness, design, and validation. The first section
on persuasiveness is a critical review of previous and current persuasive
gaming theory and analysis. It argues that the contemporary gaming
landscape needs to expand theoretically and presents a multidimensional
persuasive approach as one way in which this can be done. The following
section on the design of persuasive games looks at research on design
principles, which are the defining characteristics of persuasive games.
The final section on validation discusses existing studies on the effects
of persuasive games and the case-based assessment of the impact of new
games.
1 citations
20 Jun 2016
TL;DR: The authors explored the ways in which the field of game studies helps shape popular understandings of p_layer, play, and game, and specifically how the field alters the conceptual, linguistic, and discursive apparatuses that gamers use to contextualize, describe, and make sense of their experiences.
Abstract: · :.):,.:::1,. (:S,,_ This chapter,,explores the ways in which the.field of Game Studies helps shape popular understandings of p_lay_er, play, and game, and specifically how the.field alters the conceptual, linguistic, and discursive apparatuses that gamers use to contextualize, describe, and make sense of their experiences. The chapter deploys the concept of apportioned commodity fetishism to analyze the phenomena of discourse as practice, persona, the vagaries of game design, recursion, lexical formation, institutionalization, systems of self-effectiveness, theory as anti-theory, and commodification. DOI: .10.4018/978-1-5225-0261-6.ch00S Copyright© 2016, JG! Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of JG! Global is prohibited. Ap~ortioned Commodity Fetishism and the Transformative Power of Game Studies
1 citations
Cites background from "Unit Operations: An Approach to Vid..."
...Consider Ian Bogost's (2007) i wo~it,·on procedurality, or Miguel Sicart's (2011) response, ''Against Procedurality."...
[...]
...For example, in a "Blogs of the Round Table" post from April 2015, Mark Filipowich highlights a seri~~ of posts"th,'at question the utility or purpose of people in games, linking to Ian Bogost's deliberate provocation, ;-;you~ Games Are Better Without Characters" (Bogost, 2015) and presenting John Osborne's "Video Garrie~·wlthout Characters" (Osborne, 2015) as a counterpoint....
[...]
...Consider Ian Bogost's (2007) i wo~it,·on procedurality, or Miguel Sicart's (2011) response, ''Against Procedurality." In an attempt to ~ for1!1'4iite ruling principles, both scholars distill games to what Kenneth Burke (1969) would describe i as God-terms-either rules or play-around which almost every other aspect of the medium is subori din~ted'.''As a resul(they diminish what L. S. Vygotsky (1966) understands as the fundamentally dial lecti~al.relationship•~mong play, games, and rules. For Vygotsky, the rules of a game are the outward i m~ife;tations of an i~aginary situation that is constructed around unsatisfied desires (and vice versa). ~ As 6l6'xplains, "evely game with rules contains an imaginary situation in a concealed form. The det ,"1'lr,:•:) '~ ~ velop01ent from an overt imaginary situation and covert rules to games with overt rules and a covert i imagfri.~y situation outlines the evolution of children's play from one pole to the other" (Vygotsky, 1966, I np.): More significantly, the antithetical God-terms that Bogost and Sicart privilege function to define I the ~tit~i limits, the extremes of the arena within which the quotidian discourse of Game Studies plays i out. 'As 1 with the so-called ludology and narratology debates, the result is something like what Bruno i· .,. ' ' ,., i Latour (1993) understands as a "Middle Kingdom" (p....
[...]
...Consider Ian Bogost's (2007) i wo~it,·on procedurality, or Miguel Sicart's (2011) response, ''Against Procedurality." In an attempt to ~ for1!1'4iite ruling principles, both scholars distill games to what Kenneth Burke (1969) would describe i as God-terms-either rules or play-around which almost every other aspect of the medium is subori din~ted'.''As a resul(they diminish what L. S. Vygotsky (1966) understands as the fundamentally dial lecti~al....
[...]
...Consider Ian Bogost's (2007) i wo~it,·on procedurality, or Miguel Sicart's (2011) response, ''Against Procedurality." In an attempt to ~ for1!1'4iite ruling principles, both scholars distill games to what Kenneth Burke (1969) would describe i as God-terms-either rules or play-around which almost every other aspect of the medium is subori din~ted'....
[...]
28 Jun 2016
TL;DR: In this paper, the algorithmic city is introduced as a framework for understanding urban space in terms of its underlying code and systems and is connected to urban codemaking, a playful approach to public art that asks players to engage with codes of urban space.
Abstract: In this paper, the algorithmic city is introduced as a framework for understanding urban space in terms of its underlying code and systems. It is connected to urban codemaking, a playful approach to public art that asks players to engage with codes of urban space. To connect these two concepts in a framework for pervasive game design, players are framed as sensors and actuators within the algorithmic city to make it more playable.
1 citations
References
More filters
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