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  5. Volume 14, Issue 3, 2022

Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds - Volume 14, Issue 3, 2022

Volume 14, Issue 3

Volume 14, Issue 3, 2022

Language: English
  • Articles

      • The visual and narrative rhetoric of mental health in

        https://doi.org/10.1386/jgvw_00061_1

        Interdisciplinary game studies have long been fascinated by video games and their potential to improve mental health. Despite this interest, there is not yet a cohesive rhetorical framework to connect conversations about mental health with specific types of games. Following Waszkiewicz and Bakun’s (2020) call to adopt the term ‘cosy’ for games which inspire feelings of safety in players, encourage self-actualization and utilize soft aesthetics helps clarify discussions of the games suited to help improve mental health and allow players to process complex emotions. This article uses a close reading of the Nomada Studios game to argue that considering cosiness when studying the connection between games, emotion and mental health will help researchers find a connection between game aesthetics and the types of psychological issues that a game can address effectively.

    • Financial playthings: Interrogating gamification in retail trading interfaces

      https://doi.org/10.1386/jgvw_00062_1

      This paper critically interrogates the claims of game-like elements in online brokerages through an interface analysis of three platforms, eToro, Plus500 and DeGiro. The 2021 GameStop Short Squeeze, where coordinated Redditors influenced financial markets through the mass purchase by individuals of ‘meme stock’, was made possible through the availability of retail trading platforms. One popular reading of the events saw it as ‘gamification’ of trading, without necessarily defining how the term is applicable. While we do not find evidence of direct gamification, we offer an explanation of why the gamification discourse persists. The platforms subtly deploying affective grammars linked to playfulness, thus creating a feeling of play without explicit game-like elements. In so doing, they are not just encouraging users to trade extensively, but are calling into question the epistemic distinction between investment and play, which has underpinned the development of finance since the eighteenth century.

    • Analysing ancient cuneiform inscriptions in the video game 1

      https://doi.org/10.1386/jgvw_00063_1

      The textured ancient inscriptions that can be found in the video game are central to this study. There are currently no publications that analyse the ancient cuneiform inscriptions in detail. Most sources of information briefly discuss general ‘game studies’ aspects and do not comment on or criticize historical accuracy. There are limited sources that discuss video games using an Assyriological perspective. This article is, therefore, an interdisciplinary study between archaeogaming and Assyriology, which falls within the broader game studies field. The intent is also to address the ongoing downward trend currently experienced in the field of Ancient Studies by bringing more attention to the study of Assyriology, cuneiform studies and philology in gaming (Assyriogaming) using as a reference. The main focus is to decipher, translate and consider how accurate and immersive the in-game cuneiform textures are in relation to the diegetic time period the game is theoretically set in. The analysis will include a storyline synopsis which will briefly discuss the architectural settings and characters. The purpose of this is to expand upon the already existing game studies literature associated with the game to show how additional background information can be used to frame and construct an implied historical context. This historical context can then be used to translate the in-game cuneiform inscriptions demonstrating why the game can be used as an effective Assyriology teaching tool.

  • Essays

      • Walking simulators and an ethics of care: An essay

        https://doi.org/10.1386/jgvw_00064_3

        The emergence of the genre of ‘walking simulators’ problematized the way by which a ‘game’ is defined. As walking simulators were relegated to the realm of being a non-game or an anti-game in a post-GamerGate world, it became increasingly important to evaluate the relationship that they had with masculinity and femininity. Moreover, it became crucial to articulate the interventions that the genre was offering and to review the definition of a ‘game’ in order to account for greater inclusivity. This essay examines walking simulators through a multidisciplinary lens, bringing in fields such as sociology, queer theory and communication to name a few. By tying together multidisciplinary perspectives on walking simulators, I reveal the genre’s engagements with care-oriented labour and an ‘ethics of care’. The essay concludes with a discussion on the games and , where the implications of their respective entanglements with an ethics of care are foregrounded.

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