Wyniki wyszukiwania - Biblioteka Nauki

1

Cancer on the Holodeck: Metaphors and Cultural Construction of a Disease through Digital Games

100%

Navarro-Sierra N. , Carrillo-Vera J. A. , Gómez-García S.

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nr 2

4-20

EN

A study from the OECD published that Cancer is one of the main causes of mortality in developed societies, with remarkably high prevalence, incidence and mortality rates for both sexes. This study closely examines nine digital games to elucidate how they conceptualize a disease like cancer around a narrative concerning the sickness, patients, treatments and outcomes. Discourse and content analysis techniques were applied to the message contained in the games looking to illuminate the connection between the narrative core, the audio-visual representation and the interactive aspects of the game, within the parameters of values-conscious design applied to digital games. This provides some evidence about the cultural and visual aspects of how game designers conceptualize the disease as a part of society. This research uncovers culturally embedded themes and reveals the prevalence of metaphor use in cancer discourse which relied on science, social support and spiritual convictions for social empowerment, building empathy and identification.

2

Socio-cultural potential of digital games. A synthetic approach

100%

Gałuszka D.

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tom XI(4(33))

59-85

EN

Digital games are a well-recognized and willingly used medium nowadays. People of different ages and social status play games. However, players become entangled in the increasingly complex culture of digital games that during its development surpassed leisure-time, ludic spaces and revealed its potential in different domains of socio-cultural life. This review article takes a holistic, sociological perspective on the phenomenon of digital games. The discussed topics in the social, economic, cultural and educational dimensions outline a generalized picture of gaming in the most important areas of its impact. This usually has a positive effect, but not always. That is why the article also touches on critical threads in relation to digital games. Due to such an approach, readers gain a broad perspective on this medium, necessary for its full understanding, practical use and possible further own research.

3

Political Marketing in Digital Games: ‘Game Over’ for Traditional Political Marketing Methods

100%

Baltezarević R. , Baltezarević B. , Baltezarević V. , Kwiatek P. , Baltezarević I.

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nr 2

28-46

EN

This study focuses on digital games that have become powerful persuasion tools which can be utilized for political marketing purposes. The authors believe that these media have to be thoroughly explored, because of the great potential of these platforms to become very useful tools for setting up political messages and the outreach capacity to the voting segment being difficult to achieve if only traditional media are used. The paper provides a set of theoretical views on political marketing in digital games. There are many examples analyzed in the paper, proving that the techniques of political marketing can create big benefits and that they can help politicians achieve their goals. So, we hypothesized a new phase of political marketing, underpinned by the utilization of digital games. As a methodology, we used content analysis of various digital games. The aim of this paper is to offer a better understanding of the benefits of political marketing campaigns in the digital gaming industry and to explore the role and impact of these techniques, as well as to provide potential future directions of this form of marketing.

4

Heroine’s journey to love: Spatial rhetoric in romantic subplots in BioWare’s fantasy RPGs

89%

Bednorz M.

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nr 38

191-204

EN

This article explores the potential of digital games to encode references encompassing specific cultural ideas of romantic love within their spatial structures, thus helping guide the player’s interpretation of romance as they interact with and move through those spaces. It undertakes an analysis of romantic subplots in BioWare’s fantasy role-playing games, specifically those which reappropriate the courtly love trope, and discusses elements of that remediation which rely heavily on spatial metaphors and structures, including the shared experience of heroic journey, the role of questing for the development of romance, and spatial positioning of lovers on the game map. Through its analysis, the article explores how digital games can employ spatial rhetoric while approaching topics of love, and how they are equipped to represent the materiality and spatiality of love and love narratives.

5

Material windows and working stations. The discourse networks behind skeuomorphic interface in Pathfinder: Kingmaker

88%

Żmuda M. D.

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nr 38

73-94

EN

The article probes the intermedial structure of the skeuomorphic interface in Pathfinder: Kingmaker. The author indicates that intermedia research in game studies is often diachronically limited, focusing on material and semiotic interactions between “old” and “new” media. He proposes to open the field onto historically aware discoursive analysis and bases his method on Friedrich Kittler’s notion of “discourse networks”. This allows him to inspect the game in relation to technologically-founded networks that embody or bring into life specific modes of though and experience. During his analysis, he discovers that the interface design is involved with navigation devices in Late Medieval and Early Renaissance periods, Alberti’s windows as objects through with narrative spaces become visible, isometric modes of objective thinking, industrial and cybernetic notions of control, and the Xerox invention of the computer as a working environment.

6

Shakespeare in Digital Games and Virtual Worlds

88%

Timplalexi E.

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tom 18

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nr 33

129-144

EN

Shakespeare’s plays have long flirted with using various artistic and medial forms other than theatre, such as cinema, music, visual arts, television, comics, animation and, lately, digital games and virtual worlds. Especially in the 20th and 21st century, a fascination with Shakespeare both as a historical and theatrical figure and as a playwright has become evident in screen based media (cinema, television and video), ranging from “faithful,” almost documented performances of his plays to free style adaptations or vague film references. Digital games and virtual worlds carry on this tradition of the transmedial journey of Shakespeare’s plays to screen based media but top it up with new forms of interaction and performativity. For the first time in the history of mankind everyone can enjoy firsthand from his armchair and for free the experience of taking part in a play by the Bard by entering a virtual world as if it was a stage and by assuming roles through avatars. The article attempts first to introduce the reader to the deeper needs that gave rise to animation, a fundamental aspect of digital gaming and virtual worlds. It then tries to illuminate the various facets of digital performance and gaming, especially in relation to Shakespeare-themed and inspired digital games and virtual worlds, by putting forward some axes of classification. Finally, it both suggests some ideas that may be of use in rendering the Shakespeare gaming experience more “complete” and “theatrical” and ends by acknowledging the immense potential for the exploration of theatricality and performativity in digital games and virtual worlds.

7

Real-Life Frustration from Virtual Worlds: The Motivational Potential of Frustration

88%

Balážiková M.

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nr 1

56-68

EN

The presented paper offers a short general introduction to frustration followed by a discourse on frustration as an integral part of gaming experience with the core distinction between positive in-game frustration and negative at-game frustration. The potential of frustration to increase motivation to play, emotional engagement and immersion is outlined. The paper includes comprehensive research using the means of a questionnaire (n=159) and content analysis (n=327) identifying types of frustrating situations in games, perceived sources of frustration, the behavioural impact of frustration and the relationship between locus of control and ascribed source of frustration. Results showed toxic behaviour as a leading cause of frustration. The most common declared behavioural output of frustration caused by the toxic behaviour of other players was quitting a game for a certain amount of time. Frustration showed the most motivational potential within the category of frustrating situations related to gamers e.g. being stuck in a part of the game, losing, not succeeding, etc. At-game frustration concerns mainly the category called the “game itself”. Most often the game was blamed for insufficiencies in game mechanics or game design, malfunctioning and technical issues within the game. The presented research did not show a statistically significant association between the source of frustration and a participant’s locus of control. The paper has potential in terms of game design and research of emotion, motivation or immersion.

8

ENHANCEMENT OF PERFORMANCE AND MOTIVATION THROUGH APPLICATION OF DIGITAL GAMES IN AN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASS

88%

Wichadee S. , Pattanapichet F.

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nr 1

77-92

EN

The study was conducted to find out what impact a digital game had on students’ learning performance and motivation. A quasi-experimental study was performed with two groups of students. The experimental group was taught using the digital game Kahoot whereas the control group was taught with the conventional method. Pre-tests, post-tests, and questionnaires on the students’ motivation and attitudes toward gamification in language learning were the instruments used in this study. The data were analyzed using Independent t-tests and One-way Analysis of Covariance. The results revealed statistically significant differences with regard to learning performance and motivation at 0.05. The experimental group obtained higher scores than the control group, and the motivation of students in the experimental group was much higher than that of the control group. In addition, the results of a survey indicated that students had positive attitudes towards application of digital games in language learning.

9

Following the Hero’s Memories: The Role of Memory as a (Re)construction of the Narrative in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

88%

Vera E.

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nr 2

4-18

EN

This paper discusses the concept of the hero and the role of memory as an object of (re)construction of the world in the narrative of the Nintendo digital game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Through the analysis of how memory is reconstructed in Link and the characters that inhabit Hyrule, memories, historical and social memory, monuments, documents, space, and gameplay within the same digital game are also reconstructed. Testimonial memory, in turn, will help remember and construct the narrative of Link’s personal and social history by reconstructing the story. The personal experience that the player has while interacting with the game through the act of playing can build the metadiscourse between memory and narrative to understand the hero and his journey through the world. In this sense, the importance of the character Link within the game is affirmed, as he is a much more complex subject than a simple archetype within the game mechanics.

10

Easter Eggs in Digital Games as a Form of Textual Transcendence (Case Study)

88%

Mago Z.

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nr 2

48-57

EN

Easter eggs are a well-known and popular phenomenon throughout the whole of pop culture, and the interactive nature of digital games unleashes the full potential of their implementation, as well as integrating them into the gamers’ experience. The study focuses on Easter eggs in digital games from a structural point of view to understand them on the fundamental text level. With this aim, the analysis consists of applying Genette’s textual transcendence to a specific digital game, The Talos Principle. The paper represents part of the introductory theoretical framework to the following research on comprehensive Easter eggs’ classification.

11

A Cultural History of the Greek Digital Games Origins: From Clones to Originality

88%

Theodoropoulos M. S.

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nr 1

86-106

EN

Literature on the digital games industry and gaming history has for the most part focused on the global production centres of North America, Western Europe, Japan, and, lately, China. However, in recent years, a call to research the diverse and less dominant national contexts within which digital games are produced has been addressed. In this article, we shed light on early digital game development in Greece, covering the years between 1982 and 2002. This particular region has been highly neglected by both domestic and international researchers. We approach Greek digital game development from both historical and cultural perspectives, through an investigation of how local game developers interact with a wide range of contextual facets in a complex interrelation between global and national conditions. This article argues that, in order to highlight the characteristics of early national game production cultures and digital games design, one must examine them as well under the broader cultural production ecosystem, along with the economic and institutional contexts and transformations within which digital game production takes shape.

12

Lost Worlds of Andromeda. Mass Effect: Andromeda and the Victorian adventure novel for boys

75%

Majkowski T. Z. , Kozyra M.

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nr 2

23-40

EN

The paper offers a reading of "Mass Effect: Andromeda" (BioWare 2017) vis-à-vis lost world romance (also dubbed “lost race romance”, or “imperial romance”), a late-Victorian area novelistic genre originating from H. Rider Haggard's "King Solomon's Mines" and serving as a major tool for British Empire propaganda - and as a source of the early science-fiction conventions. We claim the narrative failure of the ill-received game stems from its adherence to the rigid principles and forceful themes of the genre and the colonial and imperial imaginary informing it. Our analysis aims at highlighting the way 19th Century novelistic convention can be remediated as contemporary digital games, and to expose the link between imperial imaginary and the way open-world digital games are structured, on both narrative and gameplay levels - even when they do not directly refer to the historical colonial legacy.

13

Temporalne aspekty gier cyfrowych

75%

Kochanowicz R.

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nr 38

95-111

EN

Temporal issues related to digital games go beyond the strictly literary or film studies character of the description and implies technological and marketing issues. It can be outlined by referring to the concept of Andrzej Stoff, who analyzed the spatial dimension of the world of the novel (“delineating space”, “creating”, “functionalizing”, “valorising”). Relating these four detailed issues – constituting the basic subject of description, analysis and interpretation – to temporal aspects, it is appropriate to talk about measuring (conventionalizing, relativizing) time, thematizing, functionalizing and valorizing it. Taking into account the above categories, the most typical concretizations of temporal phenomena can be further defined: functional (classic chronometry, clock, server time, time of a running process), gameplay (real time, relativization, quest time, respawn time), thematic concretizations (e.g. retrospection as a compositional dominant of multimodal narratives) and marketing concretizations (commercialization of time).

14

Performance-Based Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment and Player Experience in a 2D Digital Game: A Controlled Experiment

75%

Robb N. , Zhang B.

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tom 5

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nr 1

4-22

EN

Dynamic difficulty adjustment (DDA) in digital games involves altering the difficulty of a game based on real-time feedback from the player. Some approaches to DDA use measurements of player performance, such as success rate or score. Such performance-based DDA systems aim to provide a bespoke level of challenge to each player, so that the game is neither too hard nor too easy. Previous research on performance-based DDA shows that it is linked to better player performance but finds mixed results in terms of player experience (e.g., enjoyment). Also, while the concept of flow is regarded as an important aspect of digital game experience, little research has considered the effects of performance-based DDA on flow. We conducted an experiment on the effects of performancebased DDA on player performance, enjoyment, and experience of flow in a digital game. 221 participants played either the DDA version of the game, a control version (difficulty remained constant), or an incremental version (difficulty increased regardless of performance). Results show that the DDA group performed significantly better. However, there were no significant differences in terms of enjoyment or experience of flow.

15

Rethinking Digital Games in a Critical and Participatory Perspectives. A Brief Reflection

75%

da Silva Leite P. , Andrade Torquato Schimidt D.

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nr 2

112-117

EN

Digital games are social objects created based on our culture and society and at the same time they contribute to shaping our world. Through a critical perspective of digital games and technology, it is possible to discuss the unfolding of these artefacts in our society and also understand their relevance beyond an instrumental view. In this paper, we present a brief reflection based on two researches developed by the authors: the first, regarding the link between digital games and people with disabilities; and the second, about contributions of digital games to a critical education. Our goal with this work is to highlight the emancipatory and participatory potential present in the critical vision of digital games.

16

Factors Influencing the Quality of Digital Game Localization

75%

Kabát M.

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nr 1

84-94

EN

Software localization is an integral part of a business process as long as a company wants to sell their software products on a global scale. The purpose of the following article is to provide information about some key features of the development and publishing process that have a significant impact on digital game localization from English into Slovak. The selected features are based on a study by M. Kabát on localization aspects of non-gaming software that are here adapted to digital game localization, and on the author’s practical experience. Each key feature is briefly introduced and its impact on digital game localization is described. Where necessary, examples are provided. Other than presenting key features of digital game localization, the intent behind this paper is to spread information on digital game localization as I believe that, e.g., developers should be more informed on this topic to create more effective cooperation with localizers and in that way higher quality localization.

17

FAKE-VERTISING AND MOBILE GAMES: CASE STUDY OF ‘PULL THE PIN’ ADS

63%

MAGO Z.

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2020

|

tom 11

|

nr 2

132 - 147

EN

The mobile games segment currently represents the biggest share of the global game market with the highest year-on-year growth rate. Logically, the importance of mobile game marketing is increasing as well. However, some practices operate ‘on the edge’. Utilising ads presenting fake gameplay footage, which can mislead potential new gamers and lure them to install such games, has become quite common and tolerated advertising practice (so far). This study examines the design and forms of already implemented fake ads on mobile games, concentrating particularly on the case study of originally fictional ‘pull the pin’ mechanics devised for this purpose and utilised by several games’ promotions. The study aims to investigate how misrepresentations concerning ‘pull the pin’ fake ads on mobile games influence their overall rating expressed through the gamers’ reviews of selected games on Google Play, as well as the impact of fake ads on other aspects of the mobile gaming sector by applying a discursive analysis.

18

Ustawienia Galaktyka Hegla. „Event[0]” jako gra (post)humanistyczna

63%

Jankowski F.

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nr 110 Poza człowiekiem

120-136

PL

W filmach oraz grach cyfrowych dotychczas przeważały dwa stanowiska wobec rozwoju sztucznej inteligencji, portretujące ją jako zagrożenie tudzież obronę przed tym zagrożeniem. Celem artykułu jest ukazanie – na przykładzie gry Event[0] – narodzin nowego paradygmatu w kulturze popularnej, w którym sztuczna inteligencja staje się równorzędnym partnerem wymagającym szacunku ze strony człowieka. Posługując się metodą autoetnografii analitycznej, autor docieka możliwości pogodzenia w kontekście tej gry Heglowskiego, antropocentrycznego humanizmu z prądem posthumanistycznym. Rezultaty badań pozwalają dowieść zarówno postępu technologicznego sztucznej inteligencji w grach cyfrowych, jak i wyłaniania się nowego spojrzenia na relację człowiek-maszyna, pozbawionego protekcjonalności poprzednich dzieł kultury popularnej.

EN

In films and digital games, two attitudes towards the development of artificial intelligence have prevailed so far, portraying it as a threat or a defense against this threat. The aim of the article is to show – on the example of the Event[0] digital game – the birth of a new paradigm in popular culture, in which artificial intelligence becomes an equal partner requiring human respect. Using the method of analytical autoethnography, the author explores the possibility of reconciling, in the context of the game, Hegel’s anthropocentric humanism with the post-humanist current. The results of the research prove both the technological progress of artificial intelligence in digital games and the emergence of a new perspective on the man-machine relationship, deprived of the patronage of previous popular culture works.

19

Understanding Auditory Space in Digital Games for Visually Impaired People

63%

Farkaš T.

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nr 1

136-150

EN

The article seeks to establish a foundational framework for comprehending crucial definitions and concepts related to auditory space in digital gaming, particularly focusing on audio games designed for visually impaired individuals (VI), often devoid of graphical interfaces. While existing studies often emphasize players’ interactions with interfaces and the acquisition of real-life skills, this text explores audio games through the lens of entertainment and immersion. Numerous studies indicate a demand among visually impaired players for more intricate and challenging games, incorporating elements usually used in standard digital gaming experiences. By combining definitions from both audio and traditional digital games, this article broadens the scope of sound design considerations, encompassing various aspects and classifications. It presents several auditory dimensions, consolidating them into a comprehensive dimension called attenuation, putting their roles within a game’s context. The author is a sound designer currently working on an audio game; therefore, many of the presented definitions are also a guide that will represent some of his own considerations while working on this game. These include not only the use of binaural or ambisonic sound but also understanding the ways and means of how to work with (3D) space in the context of audio and its possible functions.