Games and CulturePub Date : 2024-09-14DOI: 10.1177/15554120241278851
Hollie Wistow
{"title":"The Stupid, the Ridiculous, the Camp: How Goat Simulator's “Messy” Design Facilitates Queer Play","authors":"Hollie Wistow","doi":"10.1177/15554120241278851","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120241278851","url":null,"abstract":"This article identifies the queer potentialities of Goat Simulator by exploring how the gameplay mechanics can be understood as “stupid” and “Camp.” Moving away from representational notions of queerness, I argue that queering a game requires an alternative way to create and play. Often, the normative method of designing a videogame prioritizes technological precision and purposeful gameplay experiences. However, Goat Simulator does not fix its errors, nor does it have a cohesive narrative, instead it incorporates brokenness and goallessness as core gameplay mechanics. Goat Simulator embraces messiness as an alternative—and arguably queer—way to design and play a videogame. I conclude by arguing the importance of brokenness and stupidity as a useful pushback against normative game design and gameplay values of precision, perfection, and seriousness.","PeriodicalId":12634,"journal":{"name":"Games and Culture","volume":"102 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142265174","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Games and CulturePub Date : 2024-09-10DOI: 10.1177/15554120241276931
Alex Gagné
{"title":"In Defense of Imagination: Canadian Youth Culture and the Dungeons & Dragons Panic in Canada, 1980–1995","authors":"Alex Gagné","doi":"10.1177/15554120241276931","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120241276931","url":null,"abstract":"Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), the iconic tabletop role-playing game released in 1974, sparked controversy from its early inception. This article examines the emergence of moral panic around D&D, particularly in the United States and Canada during the early 1980s. It explores how concerned groups, such as Bothered Against Dungeons & Dragons, portrayed the game as a corrupting influence on American youth. Focusing on the spread of panic into Canada, this article investigates the role of American media in shaping Canadian perceptions. This study highlights questions about transnational cultural influence and the impact of media on societal norms. Was the moral panic primarily a result of American cultural influence, or was there tangible evidence linking D&D to real-world violence in Canada? Through analysis of media representation and cultural discourse, this article seeks to shed light on these complex dynamics and to highlight moments of youth resistance to narratives of moral panic.","PeriodicalId":12634,"journal":{"name":"Games and Culture","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142184692","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Games and CulturePub Date : 2024-08-30DOI: 10.1177/15554120241277629
Daniel Nielsen
{"title":"The Inverted Cryptoeconomy: The Search for Endogenous Value in No Man’s Sky","authors":"Daniel Nielsen","doi":"10.1177/15554120241277629","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120241277629","url":null,"abstract":"The Galactic Hub Project is a player response to a dehumanizing trend in video game culture. Players adopt blockchain technology to capture and retain the value of player labor, which suggests that players do not necessarily take issue with the reproducibility and aesthetics of procedurally generated content in No Man’ s Sky. This research identifies attempts to safeguard against alienation of play in virtual economies by using HubCoin as an inverted cryptoeconomy antithetical to cryptocurrency’s volatility and risk. While Hello Games managed to make resources free and infinite, players had to tokenize their time spent to create endogenous value and protect themselves from the procedurally generated environment where everything exists in abundance. Here, appropriation—or tokenization—of gameplay is less a player strategy of financialization of play and more about preserving the value of player labor. As a result, the HubCoin token is an inverted cryptocurrency with no value.","PeriodicalId":12634,"journal":{"name":"Games and Culture","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142184703","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Games and CulturePub Date : 2024-08-29DOI: 10.1177/15554120241273329
Sonia Fizek
{"title":"Nature Playing: On the Experience of Contemplating Technologically Mediated Nature within the Game World of Riders Republic","authors":"Sonia Fizek","doi":"10.1177/15554120241273329","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120241273329","url":null,"abstract":"This contribution explores the practice of contemplative play or what the author proposes to call “nature playing”. This concept marks a continuity between the literary genre of “nature writing” and the way nature may be contemplatively experienced in video games, especially those with open-world natural landscapes. The author will discuss modes of nature playing within the mediated environments of the sports simulation game Riders Republic (Ubisoft, 2022). Nature playing will be analyzed as an aesthetic practice which may be fostered by purposeful design, or it may emerge from the player's own nature-driven sensibilities triggered by the aesthetic qualities of the game world. The author frames contemplative nature playing within a variety of concepts such as in-game wandering, slow play as well as ludic boredom. The article culminates in three autoethnographic ludic interventions, in which nature playing is captured in three contemplative pieces of nature writing.","PeriodicalId":12634,"journal":{"name":"Games and Culture","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142184697","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Games and CulturePub Date : 2024-08-23DOI: 10.1177/15554120241273358
Heather Crothers, Kenneth C. Scott-Brown, Sheila J. Cunningham
{"title":"‘It's Just Not Safe’: Gender-Based Harassment and Toxicity Experiences of Women in Esports","authors":"Heather Crothers, Kenneth C. Scott-Brown, Sheila J. Cunningham","doi":"10.1177/15554120241273358","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120241273358","url":null,"abstract":"Women remain underrepresented across most roles in the esports industry, which has long been associated with gender-based harassment and toxicity. While research has tended to focus on the experiences of women in professional esports careers, the current study investigated the nature and impact of harassment and toxicity on amateur players. Through interviews with eight women experienced in esports participation, experiences and costs of gender-based exclusion were documented. Stereotyped roles were common, with women facing gender stereotypes of both ability and character appropriateness, as well as sexual objectification. The women reported resignation about systemic misogyny, juxtaposed with hope that specific industry-level changes could elicit improvements. While the women often avoided revealing their gender, there was a strong sense that visible role models and solidarity among the female community in esports can provide an effective protection against gender-based harassment, potentially combatting low rates of women participating in esports in the longer term.","PeriodicalId":12634,"journal":{"name":"Games and Culture","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142184693","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Games and CulturePub Date : 2024-08-22DOI: 10.1177/15554120241271981
Ahu Yolac, Laura J. Hetrick
{"title":"Streamers as Arts Educators: Exploring Their Streaming Approaches as Pedagogical Practices","authors":"Ahu Yolac, Laura J. Hetrick","doi":"10.1177/15554120241271981","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120241271981","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, we focus on video game streaming and content creation as educationist or pedagogical practices where viewers can learn through the streamers’ unintentional approaches of constructivism, the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), and emergent curriculum. We posit that online gaming streaming services create and support informal learning spaces within virtual communities as communities of practice and that they need to be considered more closely from a scholarly perspective. We begin with a cursory overview of online content creation and streaming in general, then transition to brief backgrounds on two specific sites, before exploring gaming streamers’ various actions and approaches. We then delineate three pedagogical concepts that we as educators immediately recognize when viewing streamers’ actions from an educationist lens. We conclude with suggestions that arts educators can learn from streamers’ unintentional approaches as well as what streamers could learn from arts educators’ intentional and purposeful pedagogical practices.","PeriodicalId":12634,"journal":{"name":"Games and Culture","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142184598","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Games and CulturePub Date : 2024-08-21DOI: 10.1177/15554120241273415
Carlos Ramírez-Moreno, Luis Navarrete-Cardero
{"title":"Transculturation in Latin American Video Game Production: Between Regionalism and Cosmopolitanism","authors":"Carlos Ramírez-Moreno, Luis Navarrete-Cardero","doi":"10.1177/15554120241273415","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120241273415","url":null,"abstract":"This research explores the manifestation of transculturation, a literary paradigm designed to situate Latin American production in the context of globalization, in video game production, evaluating its applicability to the study of cultural representation. Embracing a documentary research and content analysis methodology, the study analyzes 29 video games from nine Latin American countries, classifying them as “regionalist” or “cosmopolitan” based on settings, themes, audiovisual elements, and intertextual references. The regionalist category exhibits a preference for realism, natural settings, representation of myths, and an emphasis on cultural preservation. Conversely, the cosmopolitan category favors the fantastic, urban settings, reinterpretation of myths, and an emphasis on cultural exchange. By scrutinizing video games through the lens of transculturation, the study revalidates this theory as a relevant paradigm for understanding cultural representation in the digital age, offering new insights into the interplay between local and global influences in Latin American video game narratives.","PeriodicalId":12634,"journal":{"name":"Games and Culture","volume":"69 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142184694","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Games and CulturePub Date : 2024-08-21DOI: 10.1177/15554120241273873
Caitlin Veal, Matt Coward-Gibbs, Jack Denham, Matthew Spokes
{"title":"“You Feel Like You’ve Found a Place Where You Belong”: Symbolic Interactionism and Online Social Video Games in the Age of COVID-19","authors":"Caitlin Veal, Matt Coward-Gibbs, Jack Denham, Matthew Spokes","doi":"10.1177/15554120241273873","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120241273873","url":null,"abstract":"This paper investigates how players perceive and understand the sociality afforded by online social video games (OSGs), framed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Utilizing data from semi-structured interviews ( n = 20), we apply Blumer’s concept of symbolic interactionism to explore the ways in which video games take on new meanings in co-constructed, collaborative and contributory digital spaces. We argue (a) that games offer a meaningful social experience, (b) that this sociality flourishes due to the perceived lack of social risk particularly due to OSG characteristics of perceived or real anonymity, (c) that this works to facilitate social development, and (d) that these characteristics were valuable in the context of a pandemic at a time of reduced social interaction. Our contribution shows that online video game spaces alter the risk profile of forming and maintaining connections by reframing interaction as the cooperation toward shared goals.","PeriodicalId":12634,"journal":{"name":"Games and Culture","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142184701","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Games and CulturePub Date : 2024-08-21DOI: 10.1177/15554120241273332
Ryan Stanton, Mark R Johnson
{"title":"“You Can’t Work for Somebody Who Doesn’t Exist”: The Decline of Games Journalism and the Rise of Independent Gaming News","authors":"Ryan Stanton, Mark R Johnson","doi":"10.1177/15554120241273332","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120241273332","url":null,"abstract":"Despite the continued growth of the gaming sector, media conglomerates have recently begun a disturbing trend of downsizing their gaming-oriented publications, leading many journalists to pivot towards independence. This paper analyses the current moment in games journalism, highlighting how search engine optimization (SEO), artificial intelligence (AI), and guide-based content have motivated this pivot. Following this we show that some creators have used gaming podcasts as an opportunity to provide independent games coverage. To examine these issues, we draw on interviews with eleven gaming podcast creators which highlight their perspectives on the medium and why gaming podcasts have become a viable alternative. We conclude by contrasting the differences between influencer-focused games coverage and games journalism. This paper therefore emphasizes the importance of continued analysis of gaming journalism to studies of games media—illustrating how the issues that these journalists face are relevant to the broader online media sphere.","PeriodicalId":12634,"journal":{"name":"Games and Culture","volume":"7 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142184695","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Games and CulturePub Date : 2024-08-19DOI: 10.1177/15554120241273428
Leonardo Synmbios
{"title":"The Rise of Gaming Nations","authors":"Leonardo Synmbios","doi":"10.1177/15554120241273428","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120241273428","url":null,"abstract":"The article illuminates a paradigm shift in the digital landscape, where blockchain technology, Web 3.0, and gaming communities converge to redefine socio-economic dynamics. By examining the emergence of “Gaming Nations,” this article explores how virtual environments have transcended mere leisure, evolving into thriving economic ecosystems. Through case studies, including the transformative impact of Yield Guild Games during the COVID-19 crisis, the article demonstrates how guilds, traditionally formed for gameplay, are becoming veritable businesses. The integration of blockchain assets, particularly Non-Fungible Tokens, as essential elements of gameplay, blurs the boundaries between digital recreation and traditional economic activities. By envisioning a future where digital homes hold equivalent significance to physical residences, the article provokes contemplation on the changing landscape of human interaction and productivity. This comprehensive analysis offers a forward-looking perspective on the potential socio-cultural and economic impacts of this burgeoning phenomenon at the intersection of gaming, blockchain, and Web 3.0 technologies.","PeriodicalId":12634,"journal":{"name":"Games and Culture","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142184702","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}