A Toolkit For Game Analysis

Blog Closed

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Hook) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 12:44:00 +0000

History and Analysis 3 module has now ended, their will be no more posts on this Blog, keep your eyes peeled for the next course blog for History and Analysis 4, starting in Febuary 2009. A link will be posted to the next blog as the module starts.

I want to get physical... physical

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Hook) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:40:00 +0000

I wanted to share another game that i've been following the development of for a while, it's called Crayon Physics Deluxe.

It is a physics base puzzle game developed by Petri Purho, an extension of the original Crayon Physics which was a freeware release on June the 1st 2007 and was inspired by the manifesto of the Experimental Gameplay Project...

1. Each game must be made in less than seven days,
2. Each game must be made by exactly one person,
3. Each game must be based around a common theme i.e. "gravity", "vegetation", "swarms", etc.

"The Experimental Gameplay Project is about discovering new forms of gameplay. Each game must be made in less than 7 days by 1 person, and show off something we've never seen before."

http://experimentalgameplay.com/

Crayon Physics Deluxe won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the Independent Games Festival in February 2008, and you can preorder a copy for $15 from the website http://www.crayonphysics.com/

Crayon Physics Deluxe from Petri Purho on Vimeo.

The original Crayon Physics can be downloaded from softonic

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hDwAAckxOkc

The Lovers

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Hook) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:55:00 +0000

I thought that this was quite an interesting game concept in terms of spatiality and the puzzle game. It is by SHUSHgame, so Barry Atkins, writter of More Than A Game: Computer Games as Fictional Form and Videogame, Player, Text (and blogger SHUSH!). It is a nice example with what can be developed as a simple flash game that plays with space.

The Lovers
Added: 15 August 2008
By: Shushgame

Seeing Genre

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Hook) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:00:00 +0000

I thought that it would be useful for you to know about this article by Rune Klevjer - Genre Blindness http://www.digra.org/hardcore/hc11 as it looks at Genre Studies in the field of Game Studies (or the lack there of) and is a call to arms to re-evaluate the usefulness of Genre Studies as a topology.

“… we need to take genre more seriously because we need to take the games themselves more seriously. We need to look for the significant difference before we settle for the well-formed generalisation. Genre blindness means game blindness.”

hc11: Rune Klevjer - Genre Blindness http://www.digra.org/hardcore/hc11 (accessed 13/11/08)

Rune Klevjer's website has a list of his publications which might be useful to you http://folk.uib.no/smkrk/ and something that might be useful to people studying FPS' for their essay is his paper Way of The Gun: The aesthetic of the single-player First Person Shooter

CVE > CAVE

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Hook) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:53:00 +0000

I am trying to organise a "field trip" to the Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) at Salford's Peel Park Campus, the CAVE is part Salfords award winning research base "The Centre for Virtual Environments" (CVE). CVE houses one of the world's largest collections of apparatus for virtual environments.

I have contacted CVE and they have asked how many students will want to visit. The date of the visits will be 11th December... Salford is said to have the world's biggest CAVE and it is currently being rebuilt and refurbished.

Visit http://www.nicve.salford.ac.uk/facilities/ to view CVE's facilities.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ey61u9J5Bgs

As Real As Your Life

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Hook) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:28:00 +0000

Below is the trailer for the film "As Real as Your Life" which started as a freshman project by Michael Highland a self confessed game addict. His film brings some debates to light that we will be discussing further in H&A4, not around game addiction but around games as an augmentation, creating the cyborg body. I thought I'd give you the link as a teaser for some of the discussions that will follow next term.

Highland, M. As Real As Your Life, 2009
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr2p5eyjko0

Playing Research

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Hook) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:47:00 +0000

This weeks reading is Espen Aarseth's - Playing Research:Methodological approaches to game analysis given at the MelbourneDAC, the 5th International Digital Arts and Culture Conference. May 19 - 23, 2003.

We will be doing quite a large feedback session on this text next week so make sure you read it, make notes and bring you discussions to class.

A Game In The Hands Of A Player

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Hook) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 09:47:00 +0000

This weeks session focused on a video lecture by Jesper Juul given on 28/11/06 at MIT, a presentation of his research post Half Real.

What happens when a player picks up video game, learns to play it, masters it, and leaves it? Using concepts from my book on video games, Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds, I will argue that video game players are neither rational solvers of abstract problems, nor daydreamers in fictional worlds, but both of these things with shifting emphasis. The unique quality of video games is to be located in their intricate interplay of rules and fictions, which I will examine across genres, from casual games to massively multiplayer games.

Student Presentations

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Hook) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 09:30:00 +0000

The time is almost here for your marked student presentations, as your PA2 states…

This image is a link to a copy of your PA2

It has been students responsibilities to assign their own groups (of no more than 3) to present their arguments. As the PA2 states this is 40% of your 10 credits, so it is important that you all pose a coherent argument and prepare yourself for the questions and answers that will follow. Don’t forget that if you are arguing for one school of thought that there will probably be people in the audience that are there to argue the other so be prepared.

You can book suggested slots for your presentation here using doodle

I have tried to help you assign groups but it seems to be increasingly difficult week by week to keep track of your groups so… can people please add a list of group members to the comments of this post so I can try and keep track of them and try to help those not in groups to find people to work with.

Here is a link to a video debate on Game Studies hosted at HumLab between Henry Jenkins and Espen Aarseth which might be interesting for you to watch for your research…

http://www2.humlab.umu.se/video/speldebatt.ram

Understanding Genre

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Hook) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:13:00 +0000

It is important for us to understand that just calling a game by a tag word such as "RPG" or "shooter" is not enough to analyse a game and understand how it both fits within the matrix or taxonomy of genre and how genre works both as a category and a framework to understand games and their development. Genre is an important aspect of game analysis, many frameworks and methods of categorisation have been established throughout the development of game studies as a defined discipline, some are helpful in understanding the development of games and some are somewhat ludicrous!

Genre frameworks work both as an analytical tool and a marketing tool and it is important to understand what frameworks to use and what purposes they serve.

Costikyan, G. 2005 Game Styles, Innovation, and New Audiences:An Historical View
Proceedings of DiGRA 2005 Conference: Changing Views - Worlds in Play
http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/theory/styles.html

Apperley, T. H. Genre and Game Studies: Towards a critical approach to video game genres
http://sag.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/37/1/6
(This will have to accessed from within the university firewalls on a student computer/athens login)

What sort of player are you???

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Hook) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 15:21:00 +0000

The Bartle Test
(MMORPG players)

A player personality analyzer that classifies you as an explorer, socializer, killer or achieve. Originally designed for MUD (multi-user dungeon) participants, it remains relevant to new virtual worlds and MMORPGs. This is an updated version of the Bartle Test, the format and questions remain the same, the wording has just been updated to keep it relevant.

FPS Quiz
(Multiplayer First Person Shooter Players)

Based on the format of the famous Bartle Test, this test applies to multiplayer FPS players, and classifies players as Recon, Shock Trooper, Support and Commander.

RTS Quiz
(Real Time Strategy Players)

Are you a Turtle, Strategist, Commander or Rusher?

"I HAVE NO WORDS"

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Hook) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:49:00 +0000

This week’s reading is a two parter, but unlike a TV series, there is no “to be continued...” so if you wish to read the full text this week then feel free. The text is…

Costikyan, Greg "I Have No Words & I Must Design: Toward a Critical Vocabulary for Games" Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference Proceedings, Tampere: Tampere University Press, June, 2002

(Greg Costikyans keynote speak from the 2002 Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference all papers from the conference can be found here)

And we will be looking at the first section pages 9>26 (up to the “LEBLANC’S TAXONOMY” section). This text although long is a great read and shouldn’t be a struggle. We will be feeding back on our thoughts in the session so it is imperative that you read this text before the session.

For those that are keen on the term gameplay and want to read some more then this article is good - Attempting to Define Gameplay

The Narrative Design Exploratorium

noreply@blogger.com (.) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:28:00 +0000

Here is a link to a site I accessed through the IGDA website. It's a great little resource called The Narrative Design Exploratorium. For those on the Narrative Skills module, this is a tool you should all be taking advantage of. I also think it is going to be useful to anybody with even a passing interest in game narratives and game writing.

So check it out and if anyone finds an article of particular interest, post it here and let us know about it and I will do the same.

Cheers all.

There and Back Again

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Hook) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:44:00 +0000

This week we will be reading "There and Back Again: Reuse, Signifiers and Consistency in Created Game Spaces" by Peter Berger. The text is taken from the book Computer Games as a Sociocultural Phenomenon: Games Without Frontiers - War Without Tears. The essay looks at mapped spaces and signifiers.

The book is an amazing collection of essays about games and game culture and way published earlier this year. It is expensive (£48) but i will be researching how to get the library to buy in copies into Salford as we will be using it as a key text in the module next term (H&A4). A sample of the book can be found here, it has the books contents and one of the essays "The Aesthetic Vocabulary of Video Games" by Joost van Dreunen, which is another great essay that you should look at.

Searching for Articles

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Hook) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:14:00 +0000

I thought that i would put something on the blog to help you go through step by step how to find articles through Google. It's a tool/skill that I stumbled upon, and not a lot of people know it, so i thought I’d write a small tutorial for you and it will help you do your research and make sure you end up with some good outcomes from your search... (hopefully)

A lot of papers from conferences and articles from journals get thrown up onto the internet, hidden away under the piles of trash. Sometimes people put things up as a form of storage so they don't link from their website to it and it sits on a server as a back-up, Academics are notoriously unorganised so the tech savvy ones know this is a good way to keep things safe. GOOGLE BOTS AND SPIDERS FIND EVERYTHING, and a lot of people don't realise that even if it's not linked to it's still there to find, it just takes the bots longer, that's their job, to trawl the internet finding stuff. Most of this stuff gets .pdf'd to try and cut down on size and to try and stop people copying it (which doesn't work unless your really clever about it)

OK... so without further ado how to use advanced search in Google to get good results...

Instead of just using the normal Google search bar and button on http://www.google.co.uk/ click on advanced search

Enter in the search terms, i usually use the "all these terms" box unless I’m looking for an article i want that i know a sentence from and I’ll put it into the "exact words" box. The exact words box is great if you have a text that you think people might have quoted from in their work and you want other opinions or someone might be writing or have used the same paper. Some lecturers also use this to see if your work is plagiarised as an initial search before we start feeding your work into the system and bring out the big guns (software that sniffs out plagiarism). Plagiarism is easy to spot, Lecturers have probably read the work you’re copying from and it's easy to spot the change in tone or language you’re using. Lecturers are sent on training courses to sniff it out... don't do it, you will get caught.

Anyway, enter you search words and in the "file format" drop down box, pick "Adobe Acrobat PDF" and click the advanced search button

You can skip all that though and streamline your search by typing "filetype:pdf" after your search in the normal Google search bar or website. If I’m trawling through looking for lots of different stuff I’ll just cut and paste that bit, keep it on my clipboard and just paste it after each search.

Hope this is helpful and it should improve your research skills and what sort of work your referencing.

Maybe we can start sharing links through the blog that you have found using your newly learned skills...

Wii-Mote Hacks

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Hook) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 11:26:00 +0000

This is non-module specific content...

I thought i would share this with you all after a discussion that i had after the class on Thursday with one of you (who will remain nameless). It is only 5 mins long and a must see for game developers...

Johnny Lee: Creating tech marvels out of a $40 Wii Remote

The wii-mote seems to have boundless possibilities with how we interact and interface with computers and blows open the some what limited capabilities that game controllers had in the past. It is an area of research for me at the moment and thought it might interest you as well.

Here are some other wii-mote hack projects i am following at the moment...

Wii-mote finger tracking
Wii-mote finger tracking Youtube link

Wii-mote controlled robot
Wii-mote controlled robot Youtube link

Wii-mote dance suit
Wii-mote dance suit Youtube link

Leisure Suit Larry to Exploit Wii Technology - The new Leisure Suit Larry to use new wii-mote interactivity

Wii + Second Life = New Training Simulator Real-world simulations like these are perfectly suited to Nintendo's Wiimote, says MIT research fellow David E. Stone. In fact, he claims the motion-sensitive controller is "one of the most significant technology breakthroughs in the history of computer science." Say what?

Share the wii-mote hack links in the comments...

Literary Theory and the Game

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Hook) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:33:00 +0000

We have looked at the benefits and limitations of using Literary Theory to investigate games and their narrative structures.

Three key areas that we have looked at are:

Poetics
Hermeneutics
Aesthetics

And defined these terms in very simple terms as

Poetics – The study of literary conventions and rules
Hermeneutics – The study of literature’s meaning, what signifiers mean within the text
Aesthetics – The study of literature’s effects

I think that a review of Genre construction is important and it is important to understand how the poetics of videogames plays a part in their construction.

Further Reading on Games and Literary Theory

Kücklich, J. - Literary Theory and Computer Games

Ryan, M.-L. - Immersion vs. Interactivity: Virtual Reality and Literary Theory

Rockwell, G. -Gore Galore: Literary Theory and Computer Games (you may need to login to Athens in order to view these)

Widget Crazy

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Hook) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 14:10:00 +0000

I have added a lot of new functions to the Blog, some maybe useful, some may die a death... depends what you find useful and what you will use.

I have added

• A button so that you can send and view contents of the blog on your 3G mobile phone/iphone
• RSS feed
• A widget so that I can upload the powerpoints from the sessions to slide share and they show up on the blog
• A function so you can receive updates to the blog via email (if you subscribe).

I have also converted the PA2 form to my server space as a .pdf and linked to it in the links section in case you need a digital copy of it or additional copy. Only time will tell if these new functions work and will be helpful to you all.

(If you know of any other additions you want for the blog just add them to the comments section of this post, URL's to the widget etc. sites would be helpful if you have any suggestions or comments)

A Short and Simple Definition

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Hook) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:48:00 +0000

I wanted to write a post to share the link to the .pdf of the paper we looked at in class so that you all had a digital copy of it as well as the printed copy I distributed. I think that some of the debates that were raised within the session where very useful, but when we review the text again next week I think we need to keep more closely to arguments drawn from the text, this will help us to learn more from the work and how to read a text.

Esposito, N. A Short and Simple Definition of What a Videogame Is, DiGRA 2005 Conference: Changing Views – Worlds in Play, 2005

I would like to pose a few questions for you to think about when you look at the paper for Thursday, you don't have to answer them but it might help you think about the text.

How do you feel about the definition? Is it too rigid, too loose, does it work?
How useful is it to have a definition of what a videogame is?
On page 4, there is a quote from First Person that states “Game designers are much less interested in telling a story than in creating a compelling framework for play.” As game designers how do you feel about this statement?
Within the conclusion Esposito states that “…knowing what a videogame is, [it] is obviously very useful to know what a good videogame is.” What do you think of this? Do you think this is true, I would pose that having a strict definition is very useful to know when a videogame is good at being a videogame but can not tell you if it is a good videogame. This might seem like semantics but I think that this is a very key point.

Semiotics: in and out of a game space

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Hook) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 10:06:00 +0000

Thursday’s session will focus on structural linguistics, semiotics, semiotic structures and semiotic domains in video games, we will be looking at a couple of texts to help us understand what semiotics is and what it might offer you in terms of game analysis.

One of the main texts we will be using is “Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art” by Scott McCloud which we will be going through in the session. Hopefully it will help us crack the nut of what semiotics is and how it works.

One of the sections we will be looking at focuses on a piece of art by René Magritte entitled Ceci n’est pas une pipe (trans. This is not a pipe)

You can view these pages online here

You might be interested in this page as well which is a very short piece by Michel Foucault about Ceci n’est pas une pipe which might be useful in helping you further understand the picture.

McClouds book has become a seminal writing in the practice of sequential arts (comics) and looks at how we understand comics, investigating the structures and tools of the comic book to open up the realm of the sequential arts.

Some more of the book that we are using can be found here (which is a power point presentation on digital comics)

I have dug out some interesting links for you that you might like to look at for further understanding of the book

How comics can invigorate your storytelling

iFanboy – video review of the book Understanding Comics

Further Reading on Games and Semiotics

Chandler, D. - Semiotics for Beginners

Lindley, C. - The Semiotics of Time Structure in Ludic Space As a Foundation for Analysis and Design computer game research , Game Stdies, Volume 5 Issue 1, October 2005

Behrens, J. Frezzo, D. Mislevy, Kroopnick, M. and Wise, D.- Structural, Functional, and Semiotic Symmetries in Simulation-Based Games and Assessments

Friedman, T. – Semiotics of SimCity

Lemke, J.- MULTIMEDIA SEMIOTICS and DIGITAL GAMES

Neiva, E. and Romano, C. - The Semiotic Immersion of Video Games, Gaming Technology and Interactive Strategies, The Public Journal of Semiotics Volume I No. 2 July 2007

Ludology VS. Narratology

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Hook) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 09:05:00 +0000

As part of the Module requirement you will need to present an argument to support either one of the two of the schools of thought within game studies, either Ludology or Narratology. We looked at some defining quotes in our first session and tried to sketch out a sense of what these words mean. As the module progresses we will discuss some of the standpoints on these two fields of research. I think it is important to lay out the battlefield for this argument and see where we all stand in what has been described as a “polemic” argument or “binary” positions (an argument with two defined apposing sides).

There has been a lot of work looking at these two schools of thought and more recently work done to try and find a middle ground through approaches such as looking at games through spatiality (games as a space) such as Henry Jenkins Game Design as Narrative Architecture in The Game Design Reader (which has been photocopied for you as part of the Narratives Module with Vee Uye) and Peter Bergers There and Back again: Reuse, Signifiers and Consistency in Created Game Spaces in Computer Games as a Sociocultural Phenomenon.

BUT…

We need to focus on the Ludology vs. Narratology debate.

Here are some links that you might find useful; as you scour the internet for useful resources it would be good to share your links with the group. If you post comments with URL’s we can start to share our resources and research. It would be good if you could drop in something along with the URL so we know what to expect from the link (and maybe an opinion on the content)

Blog Posts:

Game Studies: Narratology v. Ludology

Ludology v. Narratology: it lives!

"No Justice, No Peace": No Truce in the Narratology/Ludology War

N&L: I Can’t Take it Anymore!

Articles and Papers:

Juul Jesper “Games Telling stories? -A brief note on games and narratives”

Frasca, Gonzalo “Ludologists love stories, too: notes from a debate that never took place”

Cavazza, Marc; Pizzi, David "Narratology for Interactive Storytelling: A Critical Introduction"

Gomes, Renata "The Design of Narrative as an Immersive Simulation"

Kücklich, Julian "The Playability of Texts vs. the Readability of Games: Towards a Holistic Theory fo Fictionality"

Lindley, Craig A. "The Gameplay Gestalt, Narrative, and Interactive Storytelling"

Mateas, Michael; Stern, Andrew "Build It to Understand It: Ludology Meets Narratology in Game Design Space"

Pearce, Celia "Theory Wars: An Argument Against Arguments in the so-called Ludology/Narratology Debate"

Tronstad, Ragnhild "Defining a Tubmud Ludology"

Murry, Janet “The Last Word on Ludology v Narratology in Game Studies” – A damning of the binary.

An Opening Statement

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Hook) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 17:16:00 +0000

As part of the continuing development of the History and Analysis module of the CVG course at The University of Salford, I will be running this Blog (as discussed in the introductory session of the module).

I should first make an opening statement, that this Blog is not an official or mandatory part of the H&A3 module and is not officially linked The University of Salford in any way. It is an experiment in course development and a place for members of the course to share ideas, links and feedback on ideas discussed in class.

This Blog will run alongside the course and is a way for us to continue to share research, hypotheses about games and their analysis and development, as we develop our ideas as an open research community.

I think as this is not my Blog but a Blog or our Blog, I must catch you up on a few choices that I have made towards it. I have chosen for the Blog to be a blogger blog as apposed to the wordpress Blog discussed in the introductory session. This is for a number of reasons, firstly it is a system that I have used before so it was easier for me to set up instead of having to start from scratch, secondly after chatting to a number of people that consider themselves bloggers they suggested that it would be easier to manage and lastly it is faster and easier for me and others to post to.

I feel that it is important that this experiment grows organically, so we will discuss when we next meet how to manage the content/posts/comments of the blog and how we want it to develop as we progress with it.

(please add any suggestions for the development of the blog to the comments section of this post)