Search results

1

DIGITAL GAMES FOR ENGLISH CLASSROOMS

100%

Sardone N. B., Devlin-Scherer R.

Teaching English with Technology

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2010

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vol. 10

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issue 1

35-50

EN

This article describes the games played and highlights reactions of preservice teachers and their students. In addition, suggested ways inservice teachers can use games in the current curriculum are included.

2

Socio-cultural potential of digital games. A synthetic approach

80%

Gałuszka D.

Studia z Teorii Wychowania

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2020

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vol. 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

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

80%

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

Acta Ludologica

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2020

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vol. 3

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issue 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.

4

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

80%

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

Acta Ludologica

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2019

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vol. 2

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issue 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.

5

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

71%

Bednorz M.

Images. The International Journal of European Film, Performing Arts and Audiovisual Communication

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2021

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vol. 29

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issue 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.

6

Digital Games, Collectors and (Artificial) Scarcity: The Digital Future Might Be a Bit Physical After All

70%

Macák M., Šašalová V.

Communication Today

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2022

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vol. 13

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issue 2

4-23

EN

Among other things, digital games can be considered valuable cultural artefacts, and in their physical form, they are inherently collectable. The study aims to reflect on digital game collecting and investigate the impact it has on the contemporary digital games industry. The current trend we would like to focus on further is the influx of ‘limited-print run’ companies and their products, i.e., small-scale companies that produce physical copies of otherwise digital-only games in a limited quantity or within a limited time frame. The study aims to examine the impact of limited-print game distribution on the digital games market, as well as explore what the emergence of this trend can mean in terms of the current state of the digital games industry from the collectors’ perspective. The study is largely theoretical; the methods of logical reasoning, i.e., analysis, synthesis, specification, comparison and wider generalisation are used to address the given topic. The discussed issues are then interpreted in relation to today’s digital games industry, more specifically to some of its key products.

7

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

70%

Żmuda M. D.

Images. The International Journal of European Film, Performing Arts and Audiovisual Communication

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2021

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vol. 29

|

issue 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.

8

What can digital games teach us about (dominant) masculinity?

70%

Gałuszka D.

Kultura-Społeczeństwo-Edukacja

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2020

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vol. 17

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issue 1

445-465

EN

Digital games are a medium of constantly growing socio-cultural significance, which strengthens and expands their potential to influence players. Participation in digital games, however, is indirect and thus accomplished through an avatar – a hero, an object or a more abstract structure that allows the player to impose his will in the game world. At the same time, male avatars embody a specific type of masculinity, symbolically affecting the user. This mutual interaction can be of particular importance in shaping the ideas and views around one’s masculinity or its patterns in the cultural and social dimension. In this sense, players learn from games how to be a man. This article constitutes an attempt at capturing the leading types of masculinity among the main protagonists of the most popular digital games. The study shows that many popular games reproduce the stereotypical narratives of dominant masculinity as understood by Zbyszko Melosik. The article contains an attempt at indicating the reasons for this state of affairs and the possible consequences for the players.

9

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

70%

Wichadee S., Pattanapichet F.

Teaching English with Technology

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2018

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vol. 18

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issue 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.

10

Shakespeare in Digital Games and Virtual Worlds

70%

Timplalexi E.

Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance

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2018

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vol. 18

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issue 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.

11

Convergence in Digital Games: A Case Study of League of Legends

70%

Škripcová L.

Acta Ludologica

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2022

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vol. 5

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issue 2

86-103

EN

The study deals with content media convergence, i.e. the fragmentation of media into different forms and formats in order to reach new audiences. The main thesis is that this form of convergence, which has been observable in the media segment over the last decades, has in recent years started to be deliberately and purposefully implemented in the digital games segment as well, and game studios are trying to reach audiences that are not players of the original game from which the media content converged through the creation of media content. However, not in order to attract them to play the game, which could be considered a classic marketing strategy, but in order to create a narrative and intermedia universe from which each converged part can have a separate audience, for which it is not necessary to know the whole universe. The study proves this through a case study of the game League of Legends by the game studio Riot Games and on the contents that converged from the game, through a discursive content analysis in the categories of gaming segment, audio-visual contents, music, social networks and other contents. The study concludes that the analysis supports the thesis that League of Legends converges and is able to fully reach non-gamer audiences.

12

Gamer Identity: How Playing and Gaming Determines How Those Engaged in Gaming See Themselves

70%

Dietkow O.

Acta Ludologica

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2023

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vol. 6

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issue 2

20-40

EN

The issue with gamer identity has been troubling researchers for the last decade. Despite trying to assign different parameters such as time spent playing, individuals themselves do not identify along such lines and the reasons why one person defines themselves as a gamer and another does not have not been clear. The goal of this paper to demonstrate, by applying B. Suits ontology of games and understanding identity in accordance with H.-G. Moeller’s concept of profilicity as a form of identity construction, the existence of two separate constructs of the gamer label. To demonstrate this, a series of interviews were conducted with two groups of people engaged in gaming: those who sought fun and those that desired winning. Both groups show clear differences in self-identification with their identity and the observed differences explain inconsistencies and issues observed by prior studies. Playing for fun is a factor that acts against seeing oneself as a gamer while playing to win is a factor inducive towards identifying as a gamer. Those that seek winning are likely to seek validation of their identity by comparing themselves to known gamer influencers while those that prefer playing over gaming will construct their definition of a gamer in an authentic manner.

13

Gender, Stress, Satisfaction, and Persistence: The Complex State of Digital Games as Leisure

70%

Tomlinson University of California, School of Social Sciences C.

Acta Ludologica

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2022

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vol. 5

|

issue 1

42-58

EN

Digital games have long been investigated for links to negative influences, but they exert a range of impacts on players. A variety of factors can contribute to stressful experiences in play, including game content, player interactions, and gender. This project uses qualitative methods to better understand how players experience and perceive these stressors and why they persist despite them. There are a surprising number of ways that players’ experiences align in spite of gender. Players encounter stress with both design and social experiences, are inclined to “rage quit” if stressors are substantial enough, and are increasingly averse to toxic communities. However, there are also gender-specific experiences. Men are much more concerned with the skillsets of other players, while women worry about their own performance. Further, these experiences of stress complicate our understandings of distress and eustress, with players less motivated by stressors than they are by the anticipated future relief from distress.

14

Game Based Worldbuilding: Planning, Models, Simulations and Digital Twins

70%

Cureton P., Coulton P.

Acta Ludologica

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2024

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vol. 7

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issue 1

18-36

EN

Urban planning has been simulated through various city-building games such as The Sumerian Game (1964), SimCity (1989), and Cities: Skylines (2015), amongst many others. Gaming technology has been utilized in 3D GIS, City Information Models (CIMs), and Urban Digital Twins (UDTs) to enhance public participation and engagement in the planning process. This article studies the overlap and ‘game-like’ qualities of these systems and presents an Urban Game Continuum. This interactive tool works in tandem with a taxonomy of city-building games and existing UDTs in order to assist with the design of future systems. A case study imported GeoData from Lancaster, UK, into a games platform. The continuum tool and case study offer new insights into opportunities for the utilisation of game design and gaming technology in urban planning and digital transformation. The article argues that the current use of gaming technology for real-world applications is one-directional and misses opportunities to include digital game design and research, such as mechanics, dynamics, flow, and public participatory world-building for future scenarios. By incorporating these elements, UDT systems could offer higher levels of citizen engagement.

15

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

70%

Theodoropoulos M. S.

Acta Ludologica

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2024

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vol. 7

|

issue 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.

16

Tracing the Impact of the Digital Virtual Ludic on Immersive Theatre: A Case of Theatre Gamification

70%

Charitos D., Timplalexi E.

Acta Ludologica

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2023

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vol. 6

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issue 1

4-27

EN

Immersive theatre, a theatrical form emerging at the beginning of the 21st century, invites spectators to become immersed in interactive theatre performances. The use of the term immersive indicates a strong influence from digital media, particularly from virtual worlds (VWs). Immersive theatre and VWs appear to share characteristics. A systematic comparative approach tracing the presence of characteristics shared by immersive theatre and VWs (i.e., virtuality, worldliness, information intensity), among others, still unique to VWs (i.e., agency, ergodicity), reveals that immersive theatre has assimilated some VWs characteristics while still being in the process of negotiating others. The paradigm of pervasive games is brought into the conversation to claim immersive theatre as a partially successful case of theatre gamification, revising theatrical and dramatic conventions, towards what could be called a digitally and ludically inspired neo-dramatic. New intermedial forms of expression could benefit from the adoption of a game/play frame.

17

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

70%

Mago Z.

Acta Ludologica

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2019

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vol. 2

|

issue 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.

18

‘Is This a Joke?’: The Delivery of Serious Content through Satirical Digital Games

70%

YI S.

Acta Ludologica

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2020

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vol. 3

|

issue 1

18-30

EN

Games that utilize satire have largely been unexplored despite their potential to be used as learning supplements or tools to foster conversations around difficult large-scale topics. To what game genre do these games belong, and what are the uses and benefits for learning from such games? In this exploration study, we examine six popular and culturally relevant digital games (5 directly, 1 indirectly) utilizing satire as part of their narrative and gameplay. The range of games covers topics such as global overpopulation, the use of artificial intelligence for surveillance, and the process of mass capitalist production and the manner of its consumption. Satirical digital games serve both the purposes of serious games and entertainment games, pointing to the problematic connotations of the term serious games. It is suggested that the name satirical games is used to describe digital games created for entertainment with underlying political messages and to make a statement and/or commentary on society. Satirical games have potential as powerful learning tools to help facilitate discussion around difficult topics about society’s functions and practices. Future studies should examine additional digital game titles that rely on satire in their narrative and gameplay and investigate the relationship between satire and its role in the learning goals of the games.

19

Digital Games as a Cultural Phenomenon: A Brief History and Current State

70%

Rokošný I.

Acta Ludologica

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2018

|

vol. 1

|

issue 2

48-61

EN

Digital games are one of the biggest cultural phenomenon of our time. From the first primitive devices, throught milestones of age, which inherited cultural status, to the newest technology – every part has its own meaning and proves that humans are playful creatures. But in digital games lies much greater potential, which can be used outside of the gaming industry, because games have an irredeemable place in the majority of the population. In current times we can even talk about gaming society and the author of this overview study sees his goal to process the historical development of digital games, analyse its current state and therefore this study could serve as the theoretical framework for further exploration, such as the future development of this area.

20

Effect of Audio-Visual Appeal on Game Enjoyment: Sample from Turkey

70%

Almaç N.

Acta Ludologica

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2023

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vol. 6

|

issue 2

42-61

EN

A player’s subjective interaction with a digital game is referred to as player experience. The consequence of playing a game affects a player’s thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and behaviours. To measure player experience there are various qualitative and quantitative methods. Iterative game development and play testing sessions enhance and optimize game designs, to determine the impact of functional and psychosocial consequences of gaming in various cultures, a credible scale is required. To be able to measure and analyse player experience, this study aimed at adapting the ‘Player Experience Inventory’ (PXI) scale developed by V. V. Abeele1 to Turkish. The results of test-retest analysis and backand-forth translation demonstrate that linguistic equivalence is not applicable for the Turkish variant. Only one item for functional – audio-visual appeal – and two items from psychosocial – immersion and autonomy – consequence of gaming have a proper factor structure. In this way an adaption study was carried out by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and explanatory factor analysis (EFA) with three items from the scale. The validity and reliability of the scale and relationship of audio-visual appeal of gaming on game enjoyment were tested and this article proposes a model for the functional and psychosocial consequences of gaming.

Refine search results

DIGITAL GAMES FOR ENGLISH CLASSROOMS

Socio-cultural potential of digital games. A synthetic approach

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

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

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

Digital Games, Collectors and (Artificial) Scarcity: The Digital Future Might Be a Bit Physical After All

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

What can digital games teach us about (dominant) masculinity?

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

Shakespeare in Digital Games and Virtual Worlds

Convergence in Digital Games: A Case Study of League of Legends

Gamer Identity: How Playing and Gaming Determines How Those Engaged in Gaming See Themselves

Gender, Stress, Satisfaction, and Persistence: The Complex State of Digital Games as Leisure

Game Based Worldbuilding: Planning, Models, Simulations and Digital Twins

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

Tracing the Impact of the Digital Virtual Ludic on Immersive Theatre: A Case of Theatre Gamification

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

‘Is This a Joke?’: The Delivery of Serious Content through Satirical Digital Games

Digital Games as a Cultural Phenomenon: A Brief History and Current State

Effect of Audio-Visual Appeal on Game Enjoyment: Sample from Turkey