Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds - Volume 2, Issue 2, 2010

This article discusses the potential for using old approaches in new ways in order to understand the pleasure of virtual worlds, particularly game-worlds. Discussing the common explanations of why we like games, the article attempts to show how these are mostly reductive and too simplistic to open up a deeper understanding of not only the seductive power of games, but also the potential ethical philosophy of gaming. Viewing the player as a person who plays for pleasure is almost banal, but acknowledging that this makes the inhabitant of the game-world a person with a particular ethical viewpoint activates the philosophy of hedonism, and perhaps most particularly the second-order desire. The debates around this philosophy are re-vitalized by the way people participate in constructed worlds from desire and not necessity and from the discussions around cheating and exploits, at the same time as they bring to game-world research a wider understanding of the complexity of player pleasure.

In promotional literature advertising Media Molecule's LittleBIGplanet (Media Molecule 2008) we are told that imagination becomes reality, that if you can think of it, you can create it; if you can create it, you can share it; if you can share it, you can play it (Media Molecule 2009). We are told that by purchasing the game we will gain access to the tools required to create and share our own imaginative game content. This is an example of how Game 3.0 releases, such as LittleBIGplanet, commercialize and commodify the imagination of the player. However, when players intentionally or unintentionally engage in creative activities that fall outside of the scope of those sanctioned by the developer or other players, they rapidly become labelled as transgressives. Instead of presenting an environment of unbridled creativity, Game 3.0 releases have invariably been tarnished as the result of the ambiguous nature of boundaries of acceptable behaviour and appropriate imaginative creation. This article explores the notion of imagination as it relates to creativity and transgression within Game 3.0 (Harrison 2007a, b). It explores the ways in which imagination has been conceptualized as a marketable commodity in modern networked console videogames, and how as a result some players have engaged with a process of consumption and generation of subversive, transgressive content. In addition, this article offers a theoretical framework to begin to understand the differences in imaginative transgressive play and its motivations.

This article analyses the concept of agency in Computer Role-Playing Game narratives, with a focus on the characters ostensibly not under player control that populate these fictions. Specifically, there is a tendency for players to attribute agency to such characters, and this attribution is core to the imaginative process that brings such games to life.

Within videogame culture there are many references to famous breaks of the fourth wall: Psycho Mantis' reading of the memory card in Metal Gear Solid, X-Men's use of the Sega Megadrive's reset button, Startropics' use of the letter packaged with the game, and so on. This article concerns a new conception of the fourth wall in game-relevant terms, being conceived as expansions and contractions of the magic circle. Expansions of the magic circle occur when the synthetic world of the game expands beyond the screen, encompassing the technological apparatus of the console/PC or the paratexts packaged with the game. Contractions occur when the magic circle shrinks behind the display, e.g. Sonic tapping his knuckles upon the screen or the game crashing. In unpacking and re-conceiving the notion of the fourth wall in gaming terms, this article hopes to provide a valuable analytical perspective concerning the use of these expansions and contractions by developers and players, and their impact on wider media culture.

This article describes work by contemporary artists taking advantage of the possibilities for new forms of art creation in the realm of online virtual worlds. The virtual world most conducive to artistic creation is Linden Lab's Second Life (2003-present), which is based primarily on player-created content. Because of this, Second Life has become a virtual crucible for new concepts and forms of artistic work. Moving swiftly beyond conventional art forms, artists in Second Life are redefining the jurisdictional sphere of art, and creating things not possible in the physically circumscribed world, from preternatural objects to the creation of one's own self within the virtual space.

Subtle Archaeology: The Complex Infrastructures of Fallout 3Fallout 3, Game of the Year Edition, Bethesda Game Studios (2008), Rockville, MD: Bethesda Softworks, $49.99 (USD)

Creed, Code and Culture: Assassin's Creed as Videogame LegendAssassin's Creed, Ubisoft Montreal (2008), Montreuil: Ubisoft, $19.99 (USD)

A World of PossibilitiesDigital Culture, Play and Identity: A World of Warcraft ^Reader, Hilde G. Corneliussen and Jill Walker Rettberg (eds) (2008), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 304 pp. ISBN 978-0-262-03370-1, Softcover, $31.95 (USD)

Space and Video Games: A Relation Led by the PlayerVideo Game Spaces: Image, Play, and Structure in 3D Worlds, Michael Nitsche (2008), Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press, 312 pp. ISBN: 978-0-262-14101-7, Paperback, $35.00 (USD)