Note for myself: read this: Fernandez Vara, C. (2009). The tribulations of adventure games: integrating story into simulation through performance. Doctoral Dissertation, Georgia Institute of Technology. URL=http://hdl.handle.net/1853/31756.
Category Archives: Reseach
Game and Cognitive Skills
A study reports enhanced attentional resources of action game players: This work further documents the enhanced attentional resources of action video gamers and establishes faster reaction times in that population without a notable loss in accuracy. These effects were seen throughout the age range studied suggesting similar effects of action game playing from the earlyContinue reading “Game and Cognitive Skills”
Player Character Engagement in Computer Games
My paper Player Character Engagement in Computer Games was accepted to Games and Culture. Here is the abstract: This article argues how players can control a player character influence interpretation and facilitate engagement within a game. Engagement with player characters can be goal-related or empathic, where goal-related engagement depends on affects elicited by goal-status evaluationsContinue reading “Player Character Engagement in Computer Games”
The Art of Videogames (Grant Tavinor)
Tavinor, Grant (2009). The Art of Videogames. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. Tavinor looks at games using tool-set from the analytical philosophy of art,using especially the philosophy of fiction. As the book is drawing on analytical philosophy, the discussion of the definition of videogame is inevitable. Fortunately, Tavinor does not just start a definition project, but discuss theContinue reading “The Art of Videogames (Grant Tavinor)”
Currently Reading
Now, after handling in the dissertation manuscript, I have really started to read and seek new things. Now on my table is following books: Flint Dille & John Zuur Platten, The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design (Lone Eagle Publishing Company, 2007). The book, so far, is a very practical and though-provoking lookContinue reading “Currently Reading”
Horror Video Games
Inger Ekman and I wrote a chapter, Hair-Raising Entertainment: Emotions, Sound, and Structure in Silent Hill 2 and Fatal Frame, for the book Horror Video Games: Essays on the Fusion of Fear and Play edited by Bernard Perron (published by McFarland Publishing). The book should be out early October.
Play in Hybrid Reality
Frans Mäyrä and I wrote a chapter, Play in Hybrid Reality: Alternative Approaches to Game Design, to the book Digital Cityscapes: Merging Digital and Urban Playspaces (Peter Lang Publishing) edited by Souza e Silva & Sutko. The book seems to be already available at amazon.com.
Kultima and Compagno & Coppock
Annakaisa Kultima: Ajatuskokeista (On thought experiments), MA thesis, available at http://gameslices.wordpress.com/2009/06/23/theoretical-philosophy-and-thought-experiments/. the thesis is looking at thought experiment method Compagno & Coppock (eds.) Computer Games between Texts and Practices. Available at http://www.ec-aiss.it/monografici/5_computer_games.php. a compilation studies games using semiotics
Easy to Use and Incredibly Difficult: On the Mythical Border between Interface and Gameplay by Juul & Marleigh
Juul & Marleigh writes about game interfaces. Abstract: In video game literature and video game reviews, video games are often divided into two distinct parts: interface and gameplay. Good video games, it is assumed, have easy to use interfaces, but they also provide difficult gameplay challenges to the player. But must a good game followContinue reading “Easy to Use and Incredibly Difficult: On the Mythical Border between Interface and Gameplay by Juul & Marleigh”
The Player’s Game by Olli Sotamaa
Olli Sotamaa’s PhD thesis The Player’s Game: Towards Understanding Player Production Among Computer Game Cultures is available online: http://acta.uta.fi/teos.php?id=11176.
Petri Lankoski 