Suchergebnisse

1. Rules of the Game: Playing with and Against Computers -- 2. Learning Games -- 3. Games with Graphics -- 4. Games of Searching and Guessing -- 5. Games of Chance -- 6. Games of Strategy -- 7. Varied Strategies -- 8. Puzzles -- 9. Mixed Brainteasers -- 10. Appendix The Programming Language BASIC.

Huizinga's concept of a 'magic circle' has been used to depict computer games and gaming activities as something separate from ordinary life. In this view, games are special (magical) and they only come to life within temporal and spatial borders that are enacted and performed by the participants. This article discusses the concept of a 'magic circle' and finds that it lacks specificity. Attempts to use the concept of a magic circle create a number of anomalies that are problematic. This is not, as has been suggested earlier, primarily a matter of the genre of the game, or a discussion of what an appropriate definition of a 'game' might be. Rather, in this study with hardcore gamers, playing computer games is a routine and mundane activity, making the boundary between play and non-play tenuous to say the least. This article presents an alternative theoretical framework which should be explored further.

When it comes to computer games, the numbers are astounding: the world's top professional gamer has won over half a million dollars shooting virtual monsters on-screen; online games claim literally millions of subscribers; while worldwide spending on computer gaming will top £24 billion by 2011. From techno-toddlers to silver surfers, everyone's playing games on their PCs, Wiis, Xboxes and phones. How are we responding to this onslaught of brain-training, entertaining, potentially addicting, time-consuming, myth-spawning games? In Powering Up, Rebecca Mileham looks at the facts behind the head

AbstractAlthough digital assistants with humanlike features have become prevalent in computer games, few marketing studies have demonstrated the psychological mechanisms underlying consumers' reactions to digital assistants and their subsequent influence on consumers' game enjoyment. To fill this gap, the current study examined the effect of anthropomorphic representations of computerized helpers in computer games on game enjoyment. In the current research, consumers enjoyed a computer game less when they received assistance from a computerized helper imbued with humanlike features than from a helper construed as a mindless entity. We offer a novel mechanism that the presence of an anthropomorphized helper can undermine individuals' perceived autonomy during a computer game. Across six experiments, we show that the presence of an anthropomorphized helper reduced game enjoyment across three different games. By measuring participants' perceived autonomy (study 1) and employing moderators such as importance of autonomy (studies 2, 3, and 4), we also provide evidence that the reduced feeling of autonomy serves as the mechanism underlying the backfiring effect. Finally, we demonstrate that the effect of anthropomorphism on game enjoyment can be extended to other game-related outcomes, such as individuals' motivation to persist in the game (studies 4 and 5).

AbstractIn this paper we examine how soft systems methodology (SSM) can benefit the initial identification and communication of new computer game concepts between those involved in its development. Computer games are a multi‐billion pound worldwide part of the entertainment industry. However, they are a relatively new type of software product and as such the manner in which they are designed and developed is still evolving. Computer games can be highly complex software systems that involve the expertise of a wide range of professionals ranging from programmers to animators, artists and musicians. When designing computer games, new game concepts can be difficult to communicate. In addition, the creative process could be benefited if game design ideas were capable of being shared widely and discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This article presents some thoughts on the forms and functions of 'hidden' knowledge in popular strategy games. It concentrates specifically on discourses of geopolitical thinking to argue that actual games use and reproduce specific forms of a geographical and political knowledge which are both deeply connected to the ideas of an extreme national and political thinking of the early 20th century, and form a way of describing globalized forms of order, policy and conflict. Exposing this idea will take a three-step approach. First, the close linkage between strategy games and spatial concepts in general needs to be examined. Second, some structural arguments of classical geopolitics of the 1920s to 1960s in contemporary strategy games must be revealed. Finally, this text refers to current booms and renaissances of such geopolitical discourses. In short: this article tries to show how politics are coded as actions in space and how the German "Lebensraum"-policy is connected to Samuel Huntington's Clash of Civilization via Age of Empires

This study examines how politically themed computer games function as digital campaigning tools during elections. To make sense of this understudied phenomenon, the concept of political campaigning games (PCGs) is introduced and defined as advergames that promote a partisan political position in an electoral context. The study bridges theoretical literatures from game studies, media studies, and political communication to mount the argument that PCGs convey a persuasive political message through the rhetorical devices deployed in political cartoons as well as computer games. Methodologically, I develop a framework for rhetorical game analysis and apply it to 4 games from European national elections. The analysis expounds the games' strategic political messages as well as how they are rhetorically argued through game mechanics. The findings reveal that PCGs exemplify changing dynamics in digital campaigning, reify the enduring effectiveness of conflict framing, and codify how games can be designed to enact political rhetoric.

This study examines how politically themed computer games function as digital campaigning tools during elections. To make sense of this understudied phenomenon, the concept of political campaigning games (PCGs) is introduced and defined as advergames that promote a partisan political position in an electoral context. The study bridges theoretical literatures from game studies, media studies, and political communication to mount the argument that PCGs convey a persuasive political message through the rhetorical devices deployed in political cartoons as well as computer games. Methodologically, I develop a framework for rhetorical game analysis and apply it to 4 games from European national elections. The analysis expounds the games' strategic political messages as well as how they are rhetorically argued through game mechanics. The findings reveal that PCGs exemplify changing dynamics in digital campaigning, reify the enduring effectiveness of conflict framing, and codify how games can be designed to enact political rhetoric.