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New Issue Of Game Studies Journal Debuts
gurb writes "There's a brand new issue out of Game Studies, a journal dedicated to games research. In this fourth installment of the journal most of the articles are from the "Playing with the Future: Development and Directions in Computer Gaming" conference in Manchester (UK) last year. However, also included is an interview with Tim 'Grim Fandago' Schafer by Celia Pearce."
This journal actually has some great material to read, judging by and perusing some of their archives. It's too bad that over two years, four issues have been published. Research and *thoughtful* analysis like this is badly needed in the industry.
But they don't cover use of the hook in the
battle room.
For every annoying gentoo user, are three even more annoying anti-gentoo crybabies. Take Yosh from #Gimp for example.
This is an interesting question, and the topic of some interesting research proposals at the moment.
Obviously, in a computer game, the way the narrative evolves during the course of play is the "hook" and also the substance of the player's engagement with the game.
But, beyond the cultural context, image and storyline, what are underlying features of the evolution of the interaction that make it "interesting," and can these features that be modelled mathematically or computationally in order that those interesting features of interaction be built into games with other basic storylines, other images, and other cultural contexts?
And how might these be used in casino gaming? A great deal of applied cognitive psychology, traditional game theory and plain old statistics is applied in the development of electronic slot machines -- but what if there were a casino game where the player could be rewarded for developing winning strategies in an evolving but artificial electronic world?
Maybe I don't know enough about Game theory or story telling, but it seems to me that Tim Schaefer is more interested in working out how to use computer games to generate good stories. Lucasarts adventure games were (in)famous for not letting the player die. There is no win or lose, the only game is if the story is interesting enough for you to complete and buy more lucasarts games. You need a certain amount of intelligence to complete the puzzles, but you are likely to meet the requrements if you find the story interesting. Beyond the story and image in his games seems pretty vacant. They are still among my favourite games though.
Tim 'Grim Fandango' Schafer, you mean.
I know you were joking, but I want my Karma, so I'm going to reiterate your post in a serious tone.