Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Academic Journal on Computer Games

Posted by michael on from the machine-gunning-the-ivory-tower dept.

Espen Aarseth writes: "The world's first academic journal on computer games, Game Studies, is now online. With several international conferences and a peer-review journal, 2001 is the year that the academic world finally takes computer and video games seriously."

2 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. I would say.... by Vermifax · · Score: 3, Insightful
    That the people making these distinctions between art and entertainment are putting up paper thin walls of distinction. Not only that put the paper walls are transparent to anyone who looks too hard.

    Art has always been for entertainment. Its just that most people don't see thinking as entertainment anymore and so we get art that you don't have to think about.

    --

    Vermifax

    Logout
  2. The papers are weak by Animats · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I'm not impressed with Issue I. "The Case of Narrative in Digital Media" indicates a complete lack of familarity with the issues of game design. The place of narrative in game design is widely discussed in the developer community, and is examined in detail at the Game Developer's Conference every year. There's a basic tension in modern game design between world-building and narrative. Managing that balance is hard, and it's a recognized problem. The author of that journal article didn't know that.

    A game is a place that you go or a thing that you do, not a story you listen to. Game designers who ignore this (usually ones stuck doing a game related to some Hollywood property) produce games that lock the player onto a story track. Such games get lousy reviews, and are only played a few times.

    On the other hand, the game designer can easily create a world in which life is nasty, brutish, and short. That doesn't, of itself, make it interesting, although plotless pure first-person shooters do have a substantial market. There's a temptation to add a plot or backstory to give the game depth. But the two are hard to mix. The usual options are to lock the user into a series of challenges to be faced in order, or to build an adventure game with free movement but a finite set of puzzles. Getting beyond those models is a hot topic among game designers.

    The author of the journal article was, clearly, totally unaware of these issue. So they were thus unqualified to write that paper.

    But at least they didn't quote Derrida.