Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds - Volume 7, Issue 3, 2015

This article looks at Bioshock and Bioshock 2 as games through which to explore the construction of the ‘gamer’ as a particular subjectivity within political discourse. In thinking about the historical moment when an understanding of gaming as an act performed by male adolescents emerged, the 1980s and its ‘myth of individualism’, it is possible to use and go beyond previous studies of Bioshock, which look primarily at dystopia and Objectivism, to offer a critique of the gamer as an ambivalent category in conversation with but divergent from libertarian politics. Discussing Bioshock and Bioshock 2 at the same time exposes the complex space beyond revolutionary and left/right politics offered to gamers. Broadening these concerns out into the larger history of gaming and to the formation of paranoid political styles, this article is invested in critically engaging with the myths and tropes of white male victimization that circulate through video games.

This article expands on the use of self-determination theory (SDT) as an explanation for enjoyment in video games. Two different types of players with contrasting gameplay styles were examined and compared using the theory: griefers, who enjoy engaging in activities meant to disrupt other players’ game experience, and more community-focused players. A two-condition experiment (randomly assigning respondents to complete different survey prompts) was used to examine griefers’ satisfaction of SDT needs compared to their levels of enjoyment when griefing others and if their gameplay style hinders their enjoyment or not when compared to community players. Results support the relationship between SDT need satisfaction and enjoyment, and indicate that griefers enjoy their gameplay style as much as community-based players, despite the antisocial nature of the gameplay style resulting in differing levels of need satisfaction. The results show the relationship between the three SDT needs and enjoyment based on an emphasis on the importance players place on individual needs.

This empirical study investigates social digital gaming habits through a national survey of Swedes aged 12–100. The enquiry concerns patterns of gaming and compares playing with different co-players in order to map out this growing practice among the general population. Logistic regression models are used to analyse the data. Results show support for the importance of separating different social gaming contexts according to the relational status of co-players: whom people play games with – family, friends or strangers – affects how players engage with games. Social gamers were younger, had higher achieved education, were more dedicated and spent more time on gaming. Furthermore, contrary to expectations, male gamers are more social than female gamers. Results show how digital gaming adapts to life rather than the other way around. Finally, digital gaming is shown to be situated in a complex weave of interactions and structures that go over and beyond the gaming itself.

Storytelling in games in the early years of game studies was seen as being in conflict with gameplay. Departing from that debate, I argue that it is productive to see video games as a composite form supporting different frames for involvement. Against this backdrop the article reports an interview study with game developers, asking what it means to author stories for a composite form. The main results show that the developers do not see storytelling as the defining trait of video games, but as a component in a whole product. The developers display a specific gaze for how players shift their attention between frames. An important skill for the developers is to try to control these shifts in order to enforce the emotions they want the player to have. This specific skill is labelled framework orchestration. Stories are here but one of the tools the developers have at their disposal.

As in historical accounts, empire in video games too is concerned with the acquisition of geographical space. Like the splash of red marking the stretch of the British Empire on Victorian world maps, video games that let one play at empire are also obsessed with stamping the imperialist authority of ‘your’ nation on their in-game maps. Video game empires too work on the necessary logic of spatial expansion connected with which is the necessity to remove the ‘fog’ which prevents the player’s ‘line of sight’ from accessing information about surrounding areas. The focus on cartography and surveying in British Raj India is a useful comparison. Although much scholarship exists around the representations of the spatiality of Empire in more traditional media, there is little that addresses the video game representations of Empire. This article is about the representation and experience of space in conceptions of Empire vis-à-vis in empire-building video games, as understood in terms of both cartography and the lived experience of space. It argues that although empirebuilding video games are largely framed within the western imperialist discourses, the very nature of gameplay itself challenges these set notions – in a way remediating the ambiguity and anxieties of the representations of empire and its spatial constructs in earlier media.

In the summer of 2011, Bioware held a Facebook vote to determine the ‘official’ face of Mass Effect 3’s female Commander Shepard, who was then to be featured in a game trailer and on the box art. It was presumably a feminist step forward for the Mass Effect franchise, which, although it allows gamers to play as either male or female, had always showcased a male Shepard in its advertisements and other marketing materials. The resulting ‘FemShep’ vote, however, created controversy in the gamer community. This article considers how FemShep’s distaff status affects her gender positioning, and further incorporates online articles and fan comments in arguing that Bioware’s vote positioned Shepard primarily (and predictably) as a sexual object for the pleasure of a straight male audience, thus corrupting Shepard’s already fragile status as a feminist lead.