Computerspil II
Introduction
about today
• Players: me, you.• Course description• Course format• Course contents
• Games• Reception• Design• Multiplayer
break
part I
part II
players
• Academic background
• Research• Game Design• Courses taught• What am I playing?
• Name• Academic background• Writing thesis?• Computerspil I?• Virtuelle verdener og
rum?• Why are you here?• What are you playing?GM
multiplayer
course description I
• Understand games reception, game communities and the effects/uses of games
• Understand the process of creating and developing a game
• Describe the principles and practice of game design, focusing on multiplayer games of various sorts
• Discuss aspects related to the game development process
• Create a computer game prototype by applying experience with games, theoretical understanding and technical skill
• Learn to document ideas and take them to practice
goals
course description II
The course studies computer games from the player’s point of view, taking theories of digital reception, interaction and instrumentalization as a starting point. Our focus will be multiplayer games, since they involve more complex interaction and bring up interesting digital communities issues.
In order to work with applied theory, the practical side of the course deals with designing a computer game from scratch, which is a different process to that of designing any other digital product although it shares some characteristics with them. Here we will focus on: how to work with raw ideas, the game proposal (documents, planning, scheduling), genre-specific issues, immersion, interactivity (actions and gameplay), the interface (setting, time, space, characters, etc), tools, the AI, levels, testing, etc.
contents
course description IIIwhat is the bonus?
• Game industry: designer, programmer, artist
• Game journalism: tester, critic, reviewer• Incorporate game aspects into your digital
work (websites, education, advertising...)• Theoretical: reception, interaction,
communities, ideology... Necessary reflection upon IT phenomena
course description IV
• The concept of play• Games history and genres• Games and narratives• Gameplay, flow, emergence• Time• Space• Structure• Exercises: building games (Pac Man, Unreal)
prerequisites - Computerspil I – Jesper Juul
course format I
blocks
lecture
seminar
Guest (RL/VR)
workshop
9 to 15 = 6 hours
lunch break 12 to 13
9 to 10 with break
10 to 11 with break
11 to 12
13 to 15
course format IIevaluation is flexible
- Project: prototype + design documents
- Empirical research study + analysis
- Research paper on theoretical issues
negotiate outcomes / set own goals
oral examination
groups
course content
computer
games
Reception theory
Focus: multiplayer Practical: design
course content II
• Introduction• Game Aesthetics: Reception, critics and players• Game Aesthetics: Interaction & Instrumentalization• Game Aesthetics: Genres• The Multiplayer experience• Game Culture• Game communities• Advergaming• Virtuelle verdener som spil• Game Ideology• Edugaming
Please give us a BREAK
1902
games
• Not a puzzle (static)• Not a toy (no goals)• Not a story (linear)• Not “passive”
(traditional media)
• Decision making (+interactivity)
• Goals• Opposition (struggle)• Managing Resources • Game Tokens (your
way to be present in the game)
• Information
no yes
(Crawford / Costikyan)
Artifacts/ objects/ art forms?
games II
• Diplomacy• Color (atmosphere)• Simulation• Randomness, variety• Identification• Roleplaying• Socializing• Narrative tension• ...
(Crawford / Costikyan)
other things...
games III
In their seminal The Study of Games, Avedon and Sutton-Smith examine what they call ”the usage of games”: games ”have functional value” and can be put to different uses of which the ”recreative purpose” is only one. At the first glance ”games for fun”, ”le jeu pour le jeu” appears to be the ”authentic” function of games, and most current writing looks at games from this perspective. Avedon and Sutton Smith devote chapters to military uses, business uses, educational uses, medicinal uses and so forth, claiming that all these ”functional uses” spring from the first one (games for recreative purposes) and are in that respect secondary.
expanding context
...or was it always there?
reception IReception theory emphasizes the reader's consumption of the literary text over and above the question of the sum total of rhetorical devices which contribute to its structure as a piece of literature.
-Historical (Canon, interpretive communities, particular histories of response, histories of reading, cultural context...)
-Philosophical (Theory of literary communication, interpretation, aesthetic effect, phenomenology, blanks, implied reader, pragmatics...)
-Sociological (Media Studies)
sides
reception II
Reception theory is an important part of digital aesthetics since it studies the processes through which digital art is experienced. It is also a part that is lacking from most of the literature, that has so far concentrated on formalist approaches as if the last 40 years of humanities research had never happened...
design
• The “thinking” part• Apply ideas• Consider contexts• Look for effects• Learn process• Analyze results
multiplayer
Computer games as “anomalous” games “without” social aspect in their origin.
Social dimension brings in new perspectives, contexts, consequences...
Why do we play? What is fun?
purpose of a course like this
The modern technological world is the culmination of Western metaphysics. (Heidegger)
Western Social Imaginary is linked to concepts such as analytic logic, reason, and infinite progress and perfectibility. (Hoeg)
Technology – Economy – Society
We have to do and think
Cultural objects and art as products for mass consumption. (Jameson)
for next week
• Read articles to prepare seminar• Choose & read 2 Rouse chapters to prepare
workshop• Visit Aki Jaarvinen’s website and read his
sample article to prepare for guest chat. Write down questions you would like to ask him.
info in weekly planner