Games and CulturePub Date : 2023-08-02DOI: 10.1177/15554120231192080
Daniel M. Dooghan
{"title":"Fantasies of Adequacy: Mythologies of Capital in Dark Souls","authors":"Daniel M. Dooghan","doi":"10.1177/15554120231192080","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120231192080","url":null,"abstract":"Dark Souls, FromSoftware's 2011 action-RPG, has become synonymous with extreme difficulty. The game's success and influence despite its ostensibly niche appeal make it an outlier in an era of increasingly accessible gaming. Yet in eschewing accessibility Dark Souls offers a different, compensatory appeal. Through an analysis of the game's aesthetics from philological, economic, and postcolonial perspectives, this research argues that Dark Souls’ gameplay constitutes an economic fantasy. The game's difficulty can be overcome in the manner celebrated by capital: hard work. Moreover, this fantasy offers a level playing field, a quantitative accounting of progress, and the opportunity to be better than one's neighbors. Dark Souls offers a fantastic economic simulation in which all of capital's demands are justly and predictably rewarded. It both legitimizes the mythologies of capital and invites players to content themselves with the precarious labor of the loyal employee rather than the power of the owners.","PeriodicalId":12634,"journal":{"name":"Games and Culture","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2023-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90310077","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 : 2023-08-01DOI: 10.1177/15554120231177600
Senya Wong, R. Ratan
{"title":"How Does Exposure to General and Sexual Harassment Relate to Female Gamers’ Coping Strategies and Mental Health?","authors":"Senya Wong, R. Ratan","doi":"10.1177/15554120231177600","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120231177600","url":null,"abstract":"Female gamers are often exposed to not only general harassment but also sexual harassment during online multiplayer games. Although studies have investigated the effects of harassment and associated coping strategies on the mental health of females within the workplace, comparable studies have not been conducted within online gaming environments. This study surveyed adult female gamers to assess the relationship between female gamers’ exposure to general and sexual harassment, coping strategies (i.e., self-blame, seeking help), and mental health (i.e., distress, anxiety). General and sexual harassment were positively associated with distress and anxiety. Self-blame and seeking help moderated the association of general harassment with distress and anxiety, respectively. Findings highlight the importance of considering the type and level of harassment when examining how coping strategies may moderate the effects of harassment on female gamers’ mental health.","PeriodicalId":12634,"journal":{"name":"Games and Culture","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74337848","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 : 2023-08-01DOI: 10.1177/15554120231187758
J. Kahila, Teemu Valtonen, Sonsoles López-Pernas, Mohammed Saqr, Henriikka Vartiainen, Sanni Kahila, M. Tedre
{"title":"A Typology of Metagamers: Identifying Player Types Based on Beyond the Game Activities","authors":"J. Kahila, Teemu Valtonen, Sonsoles López-Pernas, Mohammed Saqr, Henriikka Vartiainen, Sanni Kahila, M. Tedre","doi":"10.1177/15554120231187758","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120231187758","url":null,"abstract":"Previous research on player profiles or types is based on players’ in-game behaviors and their motivations to play games. However, there are many other activities related to digital games beyond playing the games properly. Using learning analytics methods, the study investigates the prevalence and interconnections between these different metagame activities and classifies gamers based on their use thereof into distinct profiles. The results show that digital game–related information-seeking activities are key metagame activities with connections to other metagame activities. Three distinct profiles of players were identified based on their metagame activities: versatile metagamers, strategizers, and casual metagamers. The results contribute to the existing literature on metagaming and provide insights for game studies, game design and marketing, and digital games and learning.","PeriodicalId":12634,"journal":{"name":"Games and Culture","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74296529","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 : 2023-07-25DOI: 10.1177/15554120231187794
S. Radchenko
{"title":"Metamodern Nature of Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding Synopsis and Gameplay","authors":"S. Radchenko","doi":"10.1177/15554120231187794","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120231187794","url":null,"abstract":"Games are valuable cultural phenomena — they might indicate social, cultural, and even political trends and agendas. Moreover, they might bare an accurate representation of a common structure of a feeling. Conversely, video games might be studied and understood based on up-to-date cultural trends, one of which is metamodernism. This paper contributes to determining what metamodern games in terms of synopsis and gameplay are. After considering the methodological features of studying video games from a metamodern perspective, it presents a metamodern study case of Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding. Examining oscillation, empathy, constructionism, and object-oriented relations in Kojima's game, the paper proves it to be a shining example of metamodern gaming. Furthermore, analyzing Death Stranding gameplay features from a metamodern perspective determines metamodern-related gameplay elements and strategies.","PeriodicalId":12634,"journal":{"name":"Games and Culture","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2023-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74401289","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 : 2023-07-25DOI: 10.1177/15554120231186476
M. Hines
{"title":"“A Crown is Warranted With Strength”: Bosses, Fantasy, and Democracy in Elden Ring","authors":"M. Hines","doi":"10.1177/15554120231186476","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120231186476","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the symbolic and discursive effects of the “final boss” trope in speculative and fantasy games. In contrast to our own world, the rulers, kings, and presidents of speculative games are often the most powerful individuals personally or physically, not just systemically. I employ political theorists Claude Lefort and Eric Santner to argue that the utilization of this trope allows audiences to safely engage with tensions and uncomfortable affects which are inherent to life in a democracy. Fighting bosses which are both monarch and the most powerful of their faction allows audiences to smooth frustrations with the symbolic and discursive chaos which often pervades democratic life. I examine one boss, Godrick the Grafted of Elden Ring, as a particularly fascinating example of this dynamic. I employ close readings of character dialogue and design to argue that such games serve a more concretized political function than scholars have identified.","PeriodicalId":12634,"journal":{"name":"Games and Culture","volume":"46 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2023-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75031916","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 : 2023-07-24DOI: 10.1177/15554120231188241
Natalie J. Swain
{"title":"Machina ex Dea, Dea ex Machina: Gaia/GAIA/All-Mother and Lugones’ “World”—Traveling in Horizon Zero Dawn (2017)","authors":"Natalie J. Swain","doi":"10.1177/15554120231188241","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120231188241","url":null,"abstract":"This paper demonstrates that through video game mechanics and internal narrative elements, Horizon Zero Dawn employs Greek mythology to encourage a perspective shift in the player who comes to inhabit the protagonist, Aloy's, worldview. While inhabiting Aloy, an outcast within her own storyworld, Horizon Zero Dawn subtly subscribes to the tenets of standpoint theory which privilege the perspective of the marginalized, and encourages the player to employ Lugones’ “world”-traveling, a skill in which marginalized knowers particularly excel. Horizon Zero Dawn thus engages with Greek mythology and uses the connection that is built between player and avatar to encourage the transcendence of the player situation and to employ Lugones’ “world”-travel in order to respectfully and lovingly engage with others, both within and without the game's storyworld.","PeriodicalId":12634,"journal":{"name":"Games and Culture","volume":"72 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2023-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73606218","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 : 2023-07-24DOI: 10.1177/15554120231187753
Zlatko Bukač, Mario Katić
{"title":"“A Legend From Before You Were Born”: Final Fantasy VII, Folklore, and Popular Culture","authors":"Zlatko Bukač, Mario Katić","doi":"10.1177/15554120231187753","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120231187753","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, we focus on the folklore created by the players and communities of the critically acclaimed and popular Japanese role-playing game Final Fantasy VII (Square Enix, 1997). The formation of what we call Final Fantasy VII fan folklore is presented here as a mixture of the game's transmediality (with official walkthroughs and guidebooks) and elements of the game kept secret by the developers (as well as several false rumors), which were carefully discovered and circulated by the players through an oral tradition (offline and later online) that circulate to this day. By conducting a narrative analysis of the official commercial for Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix, 2020), we argue that the creation of Final Fantasy VII fan folklore has become an important contemporary experiential feature of a nostalgic turn in the gaming industry, and we show that remakes and new editions of older popular products rely heavily on the specific new form of folklore that goes beyond one game.","PeriodicalId":12634,"journal":{"name":"Games and Culture","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2023-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91206288","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 : 2023-07-20DOI: 10.1177/15554120231187793
Orrin Eric Lincoln Mackay, Catherine Anne Roberts
{"title":"Peace in the Valley: A Media and Discourse Analysis of Eric Barone's Stardew Valley Through Utopian Theory","authors":"Orrin Eric Lincoln Mackay, Catherine Anne Roberts","doi":"10.1177/15554120231187793","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120231187793","url":null,"abstract":"Eric Barone's successful Stardew Valley game epitomizes the genre of farming role-play gaming. This article uses utopian theory to explore how the game economically and socially presents a liberal utopia that reimagines the 1990s with progressive values of the 2010s. Within the game, expenditure is encouraged to be communal, assigning value to socialist economics. Support for recreational cannabis usage is symbolically constructed through the character of Caroline, while queer love is established as both widely accepted and societally beneficial through dialogue with a local drunkard named Shane. Similar constructs of acceptance and acknowledgment are observable in the game's presentation of interracial relationships and mental health issues. In all cases, we concluded that this liberal utopia is reminiscent of Barone's home state of Washington, as the socioeconomic values promoted through the game tend to align with left-wing developments within the state.","PeriodicalId":12634,"journal":{"name":"Games and Culture","volume":"37 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2023-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73504788","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 : 2023-07-17DOI: 10.1177/15554120231186634
Ryan Banfi
{"title":"Gaming I, II, and III: Arcades, Video Game Systems, and Modern Game Streaming Services","authors":"Ryan Banfi","doi":"10.1177/15554120231186634","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120231186634","url":null,"abstract":"This paper aims to create a shorthand for video game history – from video games’ infancy to the current subscription model that is dominating gaming. In this essay, I will apply the practices of historical media scholarship that have helped parse out television history (e.g., TV I, TV II, TV III, and TV IV) and film history (e.g., Cinema 1, 2, and 3.0) to define the various shifts in video game history. Gaming I represents the arcade and home system boom up until the 1983 video game Crash, Gaming II describes the post-Crash console period, and finally, Gaming III materializes due to the arrival of modern video game subscriptions. Rather than constructing an exhaustive account of video game history, this essay means to generate more studies on what video game history can mean in the context of the established academic studies on visual media.","PeriodicalId":12634,"journal":{"name":"Games and Culture","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2023-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89646062","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 : 2023-07-10DOI: 10.1177/15554120231186265
Laureline Chiapello
{"title":"Experience, Rationality, Situation and Fallibilism: Establishing a Feminist Pragmatist Epistemology in Game Studies","authors":"Laureline Chiapello","doi":"10.1177/15554120231186265","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120231186265","url":null,"abstract":"Since the seventies, the definition of scientific knowledge has undergone major shifts. However, game researchers do not sufficiently reflect upon those epistemological changes. This paper suggests that to make game studies more inclusive—for women especially and diverse voices in general—game researchers need to shift from traditional, objective epistemologies toward pragmatist ones instead. To support such an argument, this paper first focuses on the central concepts of pragmatist feminist epistemology: experience, rationality, situation and fallibilism. Those concepts are then used for a rereading of game studies epistemological stances. I argue that game studies initially adhered to traditional epistemologies, which formed hostile attitudes toward women and minorities in the field. On the contrary, several authors now develop their scholarship congruently with a feminist pragmatist epistemology. Their works are analyzed to observe how pragmatist feminist concepts concretely manifest in research.","PeriodicalId":12634,"journal":{"name":"Games and Culture","volume":"75 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2023-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80684637","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}