Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds - Volume 6, Issue 3, 2014

The notion of the cyborg is a useful tool for examining the relations between gamers and gaming environments, and the construction of narrative in gaming contexts. I will discuss the idea of the gamer’s sense of self, projected into the game-world exploring the extended mind theory and proprioception. Following that I will address the construction of narrative with algorithmic (computational) interaction with the database and procedural narrative in the sense of how the gamer relates to both the real and virtual world. According to Donna Haraway in her book, Simians, Cyborgs, and Women, ‘a cyborg is a hybrid creature, composed of organism and machine’ (1991: 1). Gabriella Giannachi embellishes Haraway’s definition in that the cyborg is ‘able to bridge the gap between the real and representation, between social reality and fiction’ (2004: 47). I intend to demonstrate that the material gamer interfaces with the database/game/internet and the projected identity/presence/proprioception of the gamer becomes part of the virtual world. The narrative is virtual and interaction with the algorithms (rules) provides a sense of agency within the game world. Procedural narrative is created through an algorithmic interface with a database. The human is subsumed into the technological. Human interaction becomes algorithmic. The pleasure of augmentation is seductive.

This article introduces a theoretical framework for the analysis of the player character (PC) in offline computer role-playing games (cRPGs). It derives from the assumption that the character constitutes the focal point of the game, around which all the other elements revolve. This underlying observation became the foundation of the Player Character Grid and its constituent Pivot Player Character (PPC) Model, a conceptual framework illustrating the experience of gameplay as perceived through the PC’s eyes. Although video game characters have been scrutinized from many different perspectives, a systematic framework has not yet been introduced. This study aims to fill that void by proposing a model replicable across the cRPG genre. It has been largely inspired by Anne Ubersfeld’s semiological dramatic character research implemented in Reading Theatre I (1999) and is demonstrated with reference to The Witcher (2007).

Theories of play assemblages and technological agency have met popular acceptance in game studies. However, current approaches to empirically examining these notions are limited to resource-intensive ethnographies not suitable for many types of enquiries, particularly those focusing on micro-level analyses and the lived experiences of play. This article proposes an analytical method called ‘object-relation mapping’ (ORM). ORM incorporates techniques from Actor–Network Theory, social network analysis, phenomenology and Grounded Theory to examine phenomenal assemblages of play at micro-, meso- and macro-levels. In particular, ORM provides a systematic framework for collecting, deconstructing, restructuring and coding data gleaned from players’ subjective experience of play. This article outlines ORM’s theoretical underpinnings, techniques, benefits, challenges and extensions.

This formalist enquiry concerns the implementation of structures that abstractly approximate real-world systems in computer games. It is an attempt to develop a methodological framework for a computer game design based on a form of computer semiotics. I use the code of dress in social interaction as my semiotic system of choice for this case study, a system incredibly rich in semiotic content. To this end, I construct a game prototype named DressCode, whose main purpose is to explore dress as social performance within a computer game. The prime focus of the game is on visual performance, i.e. how the self is presented in social interaction. The bodies and attires of the characters contribute the signs communicated in this social performance, which is strategic and expressive. It involves the selective exchange of signs between the participants. The player elaborates and negotiates the character’s appearance within the game’s model of society. As such, DressCode is a simulation of an abstract semiotic system of fashion.

Crowds of people form in both civilian and military contexts, often in emergency or dangerous situations. Consequently, modelling crowd behaviour and movement has consistently been a subject of research, and such models have been used to study, for example, evacuation scenarios and the effect of crowds on military operations. Recreating realistic crowd behaviour and crowd movement within game engines is of growing interest for both gaming and non-gaming applications. A physically realistic mathematical model of crowd movement that considers the physical pressures the crowd members exert on each other was implemented using computer games technology, specifically the Unreal Engine and the Unreal Development Kit. The model and its implementation were used to simulate two typical evacuation scenarios, orderly and panicked, and the simulations exhibited specific known characteristics of such scenarios. Detailed explanations and examples of the implementation mechanics are provided to facilitate future game technology-based crowd modelling.

The aim of this study is to explore user experiences in virtual worlds (VWs), patterns of interaction and exchanges of meanings and symbols by using the symbolic interaction theory (SIT) as a theoretical lens. The SIT is built on the assumption that symbolic meaning which users develop and rely upon in the process of social interaction affects the users’ perceptions, in this case of VWs. The study presents an exploratory qualitative analysis of data collected from in-depth interviews and focus group sessions conducted with 25 students from South Africa and Nigeria. The study finds that subjective meanings are given primacy because of the beliefs that people hold about VWs that are crucial, and perhaps not people’s beliefs of what is objectively true of VWs. Users’ adaptation of VWs is thought to be socially constructed through human interpretation of the VW objects and experiences. The results show that user interpretations of each other’s behaviour help to form social bonds that exist in VWs. The results show reflection on social interaction theory and improve current understanding of human behaviour in VWs.

Go tell it on the digital mountain: How Journey transcends religious boundaries to communicate the kinship of faith Journey, thatgamecompany (2012), Los Angeles, CA (USA): thatgamecompany/Santa Monica, CA: SCE Santa Monica Studio, $14.99 (USD)

Social media and machinima: Featuring social Machinimist Kara Trapdoor

Machinima use in social media