Aki Järvinen’s PhD thesis is now published (he will defend it at March). It is worth to read. I have been using draft version of it in teaching Introduction to Game Analysis course.

Järvinen, A. (2008). Games without Frontiers: Theories and Methods for Game Studies and Design. Tampere: TUP, http://acta.uta.fi/english/teos.phtml?11046.

Narrative, Games, and Theory by Simons

The article Narrative, Games, and Theory by Simons reviews ludology–narrative debate and claims that Eskelinen’s, Aarseth’s, and Frasca’s anti-narrativist arguments are fallacious. In addition Simons looks game theory and makes comparisons between game theory and game studies approaches. The most interesting part for me is a section titled Players and characters, which takes Aareth’s claim that characters in games are purely a vehicle for the players’ action. Simons argues against that. He base his counterargument to Bordwell and Genette and notes:

the psychological traits of a character are part of the motivation and motivation is from this perspective a justification a posteriori that explains and naturalizes the character’s action.

This is one reason why ludological approach is not disjuctive with narratological.

Note for myself: read the article again and think if there is a use of the arguments in my thesis.

Simons, J. (2008) Narrative, Games, and Theory. Game Studies 7(1).

Game Studies 7(1) is out. For some reason, address http://gamestudies.org/ takes to the issue 6(1).

I needed to capture gameplay to get some illustrations for papers and my thesis. Also, videos are good source to double-check details later. I did have software for this in my use while I worked at Tampere. Now I needed to figure out solution for OSX. The choice was ELGATO EYETV HYBRID which has functionality needed. Software works fine for capturing; unfortunately my Powerbook G4 is not updating screen without lack when recording. The solution for this is to split the signal for television and laptop, and use television to play.

(P.S., publishing screen captures and making recordings for scientific use are legal, with few limitations, in Finland, see tekijänoikeuslaki, 2.14.)

Science Daily reports on a study conducted at he Stanford University School of Medicine, in which researcher found out that playing activated the brain’s pleasure center of males more than female.

[T]he researchers found that the participants showed activation in the brain’s mesocorticolimbic center, the region typically associated with reward and addiction. Male brains, however, showed much greater activation, and the amount of activation was correlated with how much territory they gained. (This wasn’t the case with women.) (Science Daily, Feb, 4, 2008.)

The researchers say that this might help to explain why males are more easily addicted to games. However, would this result also implicate that males are, in general, more competitive¹ than females, because of the more activation in success in a game?

Notes

1. Stock exchange is not easily distinguished from a game based on the formal features (this applies business also).
2. Study by Allan Reiss et al., published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research.

I have been playing Assassin’s Creed and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. Both games are really beautiful in visual sense.

Altair the player character in Assassin’s Creed is depicted nicely. It is easy to make Altair jump and climb, and powerful (and easy to learn) counter attacks suits to the character which is skilled assassin. Unfortunately missions in the game are not that good. They are repetitive and boring.

Nathan Drake, the player character of Uncharted, is finely animated. The movements, actions, and expressions are believable. Nathan is pulp hero and and believable as character, even with his ability to perform inhuman jumps. The game was mostly fun to play. For me, the game contained too many long obligatory and repetitive fights. The enemies were mainly pirates, but pirate’s persistence and willingness to take bullets just seem unbelievable; how many pirates there are and why they are so eager to risk they life and die one after another.

Anyhow, Uncharted hooked me, and I played it thought quickly. On the other hand, I am not sure if I ever finish Assassin’ Creed.