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44 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Estallo
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1. Self-esteem: being good at something is awesome
2. Games have symbolic value 3. We create out own subjective rewards through the act of playing |
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Morris and Wright
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games offer a degree of authorship, creativity, and autonomy not found in other forms of recreation
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Other thoughts on why we play games
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it can both model and depart from the normal rules of social interaction, allowing players to escape alienation
EXCELLENT at teaching (show vs tell) |
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Flow
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"A state of concentration and absorption a person experiences when engaged in an activity"
becoming so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter To Achieve Flow, an Activity Should Be: 1. Challenging; requires skill (goal-oriented) 2. Have clear goals and rules: the player receives feedback from said goals and rules 3. Action and Awareness are merged (total absorption) 4. Deep concentration 5. "paradox of control" (exercising control in difficult situations) 6. Transformation of time (either compresses or expands) 7. Loss of self-consciousness/ loss of ego basically, ecstasy in which "the actor becomes the event" |
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Game Communities
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Game based relationships between players in game
1. Membership 2. Relationships (social relationships in and outside the game; clans/guilds) 3. Commitments and Generalized Reciprocity 3.a. Time commitment 3.b. Rules 3.c. Etiquitte 4. Shared values and practices (advancing character, exploring, learning) 5. Collective goods (trade) 6. Duration (world is persistent, illusion of a community) |
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Cooperation and Conflict in game communities
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Intra-mechanic (stems from game rules/mechanics)
Extra-mechanic (flaws, vulnerabilities, unfair advantages, hacks, cheats, unbalance) Three main types of offenses 1. cheating: violating the spirit of the game, unfair advantage, largely based on social norms 2. Grief Play: intentional harassment, deviation from regular game play 3. Violation of local norms: breaking player agreements or etiquette |
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Metaculture
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Relationships between players outside of the game: forums, fan sites, magazines, machinima, fan art, youtube mashups, mods, slang, conventions, cosplay, even friendships
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Mods
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a type of metaculture
early 90s developers separated program files from media files so players could modify graphics without touching the game engine id Sofware's 1993 DOOM was the first game to enable mods Counter-Strike, a Half-Life mod, became it's own proper game |
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Machinima
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a type of metaculture
Repurposing technology, to generate computer animated films by using in game footage |
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E-Sports
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a type of metaculture
skilled players with corporate sponsorship, professional gamers both act as advertising and product endorsement media coverage |
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Origin of Stories in Video Games
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Text based Adventure games
they were the first, and used to be the only |
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Transformation in Video Games
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Increased computational power: more sophisticated graphics and visuals
Better AI: more interesting NPC's, better simulations of reality vast and spectacular game worlds are now both common and seemingly integral to story telling |
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Narrative
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Has three basic components
Story Text Narration |
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Story
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a basic component of narrative
"The chronological order of events" Scripted successions of events that a player MUST perform in a SPECIFIC order to achieve goals |
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Text
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A component of narrative
"Their verbal and visual representation" Games lack static text => gameplay COMPLETES the story, generates a UNIQUE text each time |
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Narration
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"The act of telling or writing through description, settings, characters, and dialogue"
Certain aspects of game narration CAN be fixed, bt gameplay itself is ALWAYS UNIQUE |
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Fiction vs Non-fiction
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Fiction: make believe => not based on historical things
Non-fiction: based on reality, but often fictional in its telling => basically, the real events are cut, tailored, and presented in a manner reminiscent of fiction Reality TV is non-fiction, under this definition |
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Point of Minimal Departure
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"When a piece of information about the fictional world is not specified, we fill in the blanks using our understanding of the real world (or other fictitious worlds)
Basically, Troping |
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Fictional Worlds
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use:
Settings Characters Cut-scenes Narrative Mechanics |
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Settings
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Settings are restricted by the CPU's ability, and mimic and extend real world space
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Characters
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How they are Defined and Designed:
Description => what we see Actions => what we do Relationship to space => Agency(as in what the character can interact with or where they can go) POV Meaningful Names Two Types of Characters Player Characters Non Player Characters |
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Cut-scenes
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Cinematic sequences => explicity give the player story information
Argument against cut-scenes 1. the compensate for game design incompetence 2. they are a case of cinema envy 3.they disrupt play Argument for cut-scenes 1. as in cinema, a manifestation of the author's voice in the creation of a diegetic (narrative) world 2. forwards the narrative and strengthens the experience of events to come 3. becoming more integraated with actual game play |
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Narrative Mechanics
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how action is organized
how to get players to move through the game in a compelling way Narrative advances with teh player, as they move through the game ex: branching narratives => multiple paths of narration exponential, SAY WHAT?! |
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Model of Classical Linear Fiction
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Teaser => Elaboration => Point of no Return => Conflict Escalation => Climax => Resolution
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Bottle-necking
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There are section in which the player and explore and to other things, but when it comes down to it, they must complete action x to proceed to the next chapter
has the capacity for multiple endings |
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Progression Games
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Have a linear narrative
flow with PREDETERMINED sequence of actions => this gives a sense of achievement (also, variable endings are possible) |
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Emergence Games
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Keyword: Emergence
Emergence: unexpected player actions resulting in increased play or narrative capacity/freedom Unforeseen Interactions between the player and the worlds act as a NARRATIVE DEVICE |
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Narrative Fact
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In General, effective/successful narrative mechanics are those in which player action noticeably contributes to the plot
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Quests
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small missions players must perform
ties the world, rules and theme together in a meaningful way Types of Quests 1. Exchange 2. Breech of Contract 3. Discovery of a Traitor 4. Saving the Kingdom |
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Reception Theory
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Articulates how the act of Reading (is what) produces meaning
Player reception is shaped by 1. Previous experience (Point of Minimal Departure) 2. Player ability/difficulty arc 3. Trial and error through gameplay |
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The Act of Playing is Informed by
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1. Cognitive Ability/ Unconscious Troping (Point of Minimal Departure)
2. Our sense of what we think we have to do in the game 3. eye/hand coordination => player ability |
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Video Games are Unique in that...
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the player can both EXPERIENCE and ARTICULATE the narrative SIMULTANEOUSLY
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Everything in a game can be...
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"tools for crafting narrative experiences"
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Major Theoretical Narratology (Issues. It's supposed to be Issues)
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1. Ludology vs Narratology
2. Interaction vs narrative 3. the interactive storytelling paradigm in search of quality |
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Ludology vs Narratology
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Basically, the Juul article we read
Ludology: games are games, not traditional narratives, as such, they cannot be understood through standard literary theories |
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Games are/need
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1. Games = interactive
2. Games need storytelling 3.Show vs Tell maintains player immersion |
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The Idea that Narrative and Interactivity oppose each other...
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The Idea that Narrative and Interactivity oppose each other springs from a definition of narrative as "linear storytelling"
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Jenkins
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Game stories are spacial and environmental
Game designers are not storytellers, they are Architects of Narrative Space Fictional space solves the issue of "linear stories" |
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Narrative in Games
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Evoked Narratives: SWTOR
Enacted Narratives: Adventure games, portal Embedded Narratives: Amnesia, Silent Hill, Layton(?) Emergent Narratives: Minecraft (fan theory mentality) |
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Evoked Narratives
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An expansion of an Established Fictional Universe
Ex: Star Wars The Old Republic |
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Enacted Narratives
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Player experiences the story directly (as the main character)
Ex: Pretty much every adventure game ever, Portal |
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Embedded Narratives
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Player reconstructs the Narrative (presumably through notes and things left behind; it is not in the present)
Ex: Amnesia, Silent Hill, Layton(?) |
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Emergent Narrative
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Sandbox games => story potential, but none specifically given
Ex. Minecraft (fan theory mentality) |
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RPZ
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Racial Pedagodical Zones
refer to the way that video games teach not only entrenched ideologies of race and racism, but also how gameplay’s pleasure principles of mastery, winning, and skills development are often inextricably tied to and defined by familiar racial and ethnic stereotypes. |
