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: In this paper, a conceptual update of the extended self was proposed to revitalize the concept, incorporate the impacts of digitization, and provide an understanding of consumer sense of self in today's technological environment.
Abstract: The extended self was proposed in 1988. Since it was formulated, many technological changes have dramatically affected the way we consume, present ourselves, and communicate. This conceptual update seeks to revitalize the concept, incorporate the impacts of digitization, and provide an understanding of consumer sense of self in today’s technological environment. It is necessarily a work in progress, for the digital environment and our behavior within it continue to evolve. But some important changes are already clear. Five changes with digital consumption are considered that impact the nature of self and the nature of possessions. Needed modifications and additions to the extended self are outlined, and directions for future research are suggested. The digital world opens a host of new means for self-extension, using many new consumption objects to reach a vastly broader audience. Even though this calls for certain reformulations, the basic concept of the extended self remains vital.
1,135 citations
Cites background from "Unit Operations: An Approach to Vid..."
...In The Sims, consumption is the raison d’être for playing the game and includes buying a house and filling it with consumer goods (Bogost 2006; Molesworth 2006)....
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01 Jan 2011
TL;DR: Bryant as mentioned in this paper proposes that objects are dynamic systems that relate to the world under conditions of operational closure and develops a realist ontology, called -onticology-, which argues that being is composed entirely of objects, properties, and relations.
Abstract: In The Democracy of Objects Bryant proposes that we break with the epistemological tradition and once again initiate the project of ontology as first philosophy. Bryant develops a realist ontology, called -onticology-, which argues that being is composed entirely of objects, properties, and relations. Bryant proposes that objects are dynamic systems that relate to the world under conditions of operational closure.
503 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that games are domains of contrived contingency, capable of generating emergent practices and interpretations, and are intimately connected with everyday life to a degree heretofore poorly understood.
Abstract: Games have intruded into popular, academic, and policy-maker awareness to an unprecedented level, and this creates new opportunities for advancing our understanding of the relationship of games to society. The author offers a new approach to games that stresses them as characterized by process. Games, the author argues, are domains of contrived contingency, capable of generating emergent practices and interpretations, and are intimately connected with everyday life to a degree heretofore poorly understood. This approach is both consistent with a range of existing social theory and avoids many of the limitations that have characterized much games scholarship to date, in particular its tendency toward unsustainable formalism and exceptionalism. Rather than seeing gaming as a subset of play, and therefore as an activity that is inherently separable, safe, and pleasurable, the author offers a pragmatic rethinking of games as social artifacts in their own right that are always in the process of becoming. This ...
343 citations
Cites background from "Unit Operations: An Approach to Vid..."
...…in Janet Murray’s (1997) term, its procedurality—this kind of unpredictability becomes a powerful and implicit aspect of computer games, as Ian Bogost (2006) has discussed.8 Another source of contingency is social contingency (MacIntyre, 1984, pp. 97-99, called this “game-theoretic”…...
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Book•
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01 Jan 2011
TL;DR: This book gives Graham Harman's most forceful critique to date of philosophies that reject objects as a primary reality and introduces the term ontography as the study of the different possible permutations of objects and qualities.
Abstract: "Harman's style often evokes that of a William James merged with the spirit of H.P. Lovecraft." Olivier Surel in Actu Philosophia In this book the metaphysical system of Graham Harman is presented in lucid form, aided by helpful diagrams. In Chapter 1, Harman gives his most forceful critique to date of philosophies that reject objects as a primary reality. All such rejections are tainted by either an "undermining" or "overmining" approach to objects. In Chapters 2 and 3, he reviews his concepts of sensual and real objects. In the process, he attacks the prestige normally granted to philosophies of human access, which Harman links for the first time to the already discredited "Menos Paradox." In Chapters 4 through 7, Harman brings the reader up to speed on his interpretation of Heidegger, which culminates in a fourfold structure of objects linked by indirect causation. In Chapter 8, he speculates on the implications of this theory for the debate over panpsychism, which Harman both embraces and rejects. In Chapters 9 and 10, he introduces the term "ontography" as the study of the different possible permutations of objects and qualities, which he simplifies with easily remembered terminology drawn from standard playing cards.
339 citations
Book•
18 Jun 2012
TL;DR: This in-depth resource teaches you to craft mechanics that generate challenging, enjoyable, and well-balanced gameplay in games and learns how to visualize and simulate game mechanics in order to design better games.
Abstract: This in-depth resource teaches you to craft mechanics that generate challenging, enjoyable, and well-balanced gameplay. Youll discover at what stages to prototype, test, and implement mechanics in games and learn how to visualize and simulate game mechanics in order to design better games. Along the way, youll practice what youve learned with hands-on lessons. A free downloadable simulation tool developed by Joris Dormans is also available in order to follow along with exercises in the book in an easy-to-use graphical environment. In Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design, youll learn how to: * Design and balance game mechanics to create emergent gameplay before you write a single line of code. * Visualize the internal economy so that you can immediately see what goes on in a complex game. * Use novel prototyping techniques that let you simulate games and collect vast quantities of gameplay data on the first day of development. * Apply design patterns for game mechanicsfrom a library in this bookto improve your game designs. * Explore the delicate balance between game mechanics and level design to create compelling, long-lasting game experiences. * Replace fixed, scripted events in your game with dynamic progression systems to give your players a new experience every time they play. "I've been waiting for a book like this for ten years: packed with game design goodness that tackles the science without undermining the art." --Richard Bartle, University of Essex, co-author of the first MMORPG Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design by Joris Dormans & Ernest Adams formalizes game grammar quite well. Not sure I need to write a next book now! -- Raph Koster, author of A Theory of Fun for Game Design.
192 citations
References
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Book•
01 Jan 2002
TL;DR: In this article, the author explains Heidegger's famous tool-analysis and then extends it beyond the narrow theory of human practical activity to create an ontology of objects themselves, a welcome alternative to the linguistic turn that has dominated recent analytic and Continental philosophy.
Abstract: In this groundbreaking work, the author explains Heidegger's famous tool-analysis and then extends it beyond Heidegger's narrower theory of human practical activity to create an ontology of objects themselves. A welcome alternative to the linguistic turn that has dominated recent analytic and Continental philosophy, Tool-Being urges a fresh and concrete exploration into the secret contours of objects. Written in a lively and colorful style, it will be of interest to anyone open to new trends in contemporary philosophy.
492 citations
Book•
20 Dec 1995
TL;DR: Schank argues that artificial intelligence must be based on real human intelligence, which consists largely of applying old situations - and our narratives of them - to new situations in less than obvious ways as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: From the Publisher:
How are our memories, our narratives, and our intelligence interrelated? What can artificial intelligence and narratology say to each other? In this pathbreaking study by an expert on learning and computers, Roger C Schank argues that artificial intelligence must be based on real human intelligence, which consists largely of applying old situations - and our narratives of them - to new situations in less than obvious ways To design smart machines, Schank therefore investigated how people use narratives and stories, the nature and function of those narratives, and the connection of intelligence to both telling and listening As Schank explains, "We need to tell someone else a story that describes our experiences because the process of creating the story also creates the memory structure that will contain the gist of the story for the rest of our lives Talking is remembering" This first paperback edition includes an illuminating foreword by Gary Saul Morson
482 citations
Book•
19 Aug 1998
TL;DR: The Phantoms in the Brain this paper is a collection of patients suffering from a range of neurological afflictions that have been investigated using a variety of tools such as Q-Tips, glasses of water, and mirrors.
Abstract: Neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran, M.D., Ph.D., is internationally renowned not just for his bold insights about the human brain but also for the stunning simplicity of the experiments he devises to solve neurology cases that have baffled his peers (using such tools as Q-Tips, glasses of water, and mirrors). Phantoms in the Brain is a fascinating journey into the deep architecture of the mind. In the bestselling tradition of Oliver Sacks, Dr. Ramachandran and his co-author, noted New York Times science writer Sandra Blakeslee, introduce us to a range of patients suffering from strange neurological afflictions, explain how Dr. Ramachandran's evaluations reveal what actually occurs in the brain, and explore what these findings reveal about our dreams, laughter, memory, depression, body image, and language -- in short, the very things that make us human. These mesmerizing cases illuminate elusive aspects of the brain: why we think the way we do, how we reason, how we deceive ourselves, and perhaps even why we are so clever at philosophy, music, and art. Some examples: -- A blind woman unerringly reaches out to grasp a pen -- and challenges us to find the true seat of vision. -- A woman who believes that her paralyzed arm is lifting a tray of drinks offers a look at the neurology of delusion -- and a unique opportunity to test Freud's theories of denial. -- A young man who insists that his parents are impostors reveals how the brain weaves meaning from the millions of incidents that compose a life. -- A woman who hallucinates cartoon characters suffers from a disorder that may have spawned James Thurber's famed flights of visual fancy -- and illustrates how in a sense we are all hallucinating, all the time. These are stories of inspired medical detective work that push the boundaries of medicine's last great frontier -- human mind -- and bring us face-to-face with new and provocative ideas about the "big questions" of the self.
475 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1968
TL;DR: Deleuze's brilliant text shows how current definitions of philosophy do not apply to Spinoza: a solitary thinker (yet scandalous and hated), he conceived of philosophy as an enterprise of liberation and radical demystification much as did Leibniz or, later, later Nietzsche.
Abstract: In this extraordinary work Gilles Deleuze, the most renowned living philosopher in France, reflects on one of the figures of the past who has most influenced his own sweeping reconfiguration of the tasks of philosophy.Deleuze's brilliant text shows how current definitions of philosophy do not apply to Spinoza: a solitary thinker (yet scandalous and hated), he conceived of philosophy as an enterprise of liberation and radical demystification much as did Leibniz or, later Nietzsche. Spinoza confronts the grand philosophical problems that are still current today: the comparative role of ontology (the theory of substance), of epistemology (the theory of ideas), and of political anthropology (the theory of modes, passions, and actions).The goal of this book is to determine the rapport among the univocity of Being in the theory of substance; the production of truth and the genesis of sense in the theory of ideas; and practical joy (or the elimination of the sad passions) and the selective organization of the passions in the theory of modes.
430 citations
DOI•
23 Jun 2006
TL;DR: Baudelaire does not appear to have been a devotee of gambling, although he had words of friendly understanding, even homage, for those addicted to it as mentioned in this paper, and the motif which he treated in his night piece “Le Jeu” was part of his view of modern times.
Abstract: Baudelaire does not appear to have been a devotee of gambling, although
he had words of friendly understanding, even homage, for those addicted
to it. e motif which he treated in his night piece “Le Jeu” was part of his
view of modern times, and he considered it as part of his mission to write
this poem. e image of the gambler became in Baudelaire the characteristically modern complement to the archaic image of the fencer; both are
heroic gures to him. Ludwig Borne looked at things through Baudelaire’s
eyes when he wrote: “If all the energy and passion … that are expended
every year at Europe’s gambling tables … were saved, they would suce
to fashion a Roman people and a Roman history from them. But that is
just it. Because every man is born a Roman, bourgeois society seeks to
de-Romanize him, and that is why there are games of chance and parlor games, novels, Italian operas, and fashionable newspapers.” Gambling
became a stock diversion of the bourgeoisie only in the nineteenth century; in the eighteenth, only the aristocracy gambled. Games of chance
were disseminated by the Napoleonic armies, and they now became part
of “fashionable living and the thousands of unsettled lives that are lived
in the basements of a large city,” part of the spectacle in which Baudelaire
claimed he saw the heroic-“as it is characteristic of our epoch.”
425 citations