2. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 COMPUTER GAMES AND GAME CULTURES

3. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 Digital Culture vs. Game Studies  Espen Aarseth: digital culture is passe, there is need for more stable focus of research… GAME STUDIES  neglected area  ways to avoid talking about games: ’interactive entertainment’, ’entertainment industry’, ’interactors’, ’story games’, ’games as remediated cinema’ etc.

4. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 Play vs. Game  Johan Huizinga: Homo Ludens, playing human – play is a fundamental part of human behaviour –’magic circle’  Roger Caillois’n Les Jeux et les Hommes (agôn – competition, alea – luck, mimicry – simulation, ilinx - vertigo)  Gonzalo Frasca: ludology – research on games  play: open, no clearly defined end, communication, social  game: closed, based on rules, control, aims at perfection

5. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 (Computer) Game  a system of formal rules and defined goals, in which symbolic rewards are sought after (Aarseth)  most of the computer games are modes of spatial discourse  spatial discourse: a communicative situation, which is governed by production and exploration of space; the aim is to master the represented space and its rules (Aarseth)

6. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 Beginnings of Computer Games  games have been played throughout the human history, computer games for some 50 years  in the 1950’s various simulations, (enterprise games and war simulations)  1962, Space War, played on a computer screen, (also: multiplayer, ’open source’, non-commercial)  in the 70’s especially text adventure games

7. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 Game Platforms  50’s & 60’s main frame computers  mid-70’s arcade games  late 70’s video games / tv games / game consoles  the turn of 80’s micro computers (home computers)  80’s (hand held) electronic games  early 90’s the new generation of game consoles (Play Station, Nintendo) & PC’s  mid-90’s Online Games on Internet  late 90’s mobile phones & handheld computers

8. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 Game Studies  Digital Game Research Association – DiGRA (www.digra.org)  during the last five years several academic conferences with game studies focus has taken place –bi-annual DiGRA Conferences (Utrecht 2003; Vancouver 2005) –Computer Games and Digital Cultures (Tampere 2002) –etc.  Game Studies, peer reviewed web journal (www.gamestudies.org)

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10. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 Reasons to Research Games  new kind of media content  active game culture  virtual communities  multi-channel publication LEADER IN DIGITAL MEDIA

11. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 1. New Media Content  games have to be looked at as games, not only as stories or remediated cinema –game studies has to develop concepts and tools to analyze games –basic research on games as prerequisite for understanding games as part of culture

12. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 1. New Media Content  in computer game studies attention needs to be paid on: –visuality: fotorealism – caricaturism – abstractionism televisualism illusionism –auditivity –interface (2D, 2½D, 3D, combinations)

13. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 2. Active Game Culture  games have been very social from the beginning  players are ’active consumers’ –casual players –fans –cultists –enthusiasts –small producers  media panic –unsocial players –violent games –chauvinistic ideology of games

14. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 2. Active Game Culture  the playing itself is fundamentally interactive  modifications: new levels, skins, patches, and mods  fan activity: web sites, fanzines, machinima

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17. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 3. Virtual Communities  MUDs (Multi User Dungeons / Dimensions) in the pre-Internet computer network, with thousands of players  games with multi-player capability through Internet access  online games in the Internet, especially MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role playing games)

18. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 3. Virtual Communities - MMORPGs  EverQuest –started in 1999 –approx. 100.000 simultaneous players at peak hours –almost 500.000 registered players –ca. 4 million $ monthly revenue  South Korean - Japanese The Lineage, over 2 million registered players

19. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 3. Virtual Communities - MMORPGs  game character can be developed for years  the game world has its own currency  there is the game etiquette (ethical principles) in addition to the game rules  virtual arenas for social interaction in addition to game play

20. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 4. Multi-Channel Publication  digital technology has enhanced multi-channel publication, in which cultural productions are published simultaneously in various media (cinema, book, game, mobil entertainment service, comic book, tv serial etc.) –The Lord of the Rings –James Bond –Tomb Raider - Lara Croft –etc.

21. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 Three Levels of Game Culture  1. product, the game  2. marketing, journalism  3. fan activities: fanzines, web sites, new game levels, skins, patches, mods, machinima, etc.

22. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 Challenge for Cultural Studies  games have to be studied on their own terms  games have to be studied as a significant part of digital (popular) culture –critical approach of cultural studies –important themes: violence in games and culture; the cultural pervasiveness of game concepts; the changing nature of everyday life

23. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES AND IDENTITY AS PERFORMANCE

24. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 New Communities  virtual communities in digital media (Internet and tv chat, online game worlds, blog rings etc.)  nonconventional communities (Risto Eräsaari) –processual existence –use of symbolic language

25. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 Virtual Communities  interaction of virtual personas (avatars)  each virtual space creates its own world, with its own structures and hierarchies –> a favourite topic for anthropologists!  anonymity, multiple parallel avatars, identity play (gender swapping etc.) –the aim of creating an (ironical) mirror society – all symbolic gratification imaginable is possible

26. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 Characteristics of virtual communication  simultaneity (struggle for attention -> performance)  communality  netiquet (realistic topography of Islandia and the revolt against that; BloodMUD as a parody)  smileys ;-) and emoticons (expressions of emotions)

27. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 Virtual Communities  symbolic language has a significant role: –nick names anonymity may heighten the sense of community (nick can be chosen to reflect the opinions and values of certain group) –abbreviations (ROFL – rolling on the floor laughing; RL – real life etc.)

28. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 Attributes of community  Steven Brint (2001) have listed classical criteria for community as follows:  tight and exacting social bonds  stable position among its member’s real every day life  events that members share with each other  relatively a small group  the members have same kind of history, style, impression, outlook  shared moral or belief system

29. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 Virtual Society  Howard Rheingold (1993) defines virtual society as “a social formation, which appears in the net when there is enough of people discussing in public long enough, with sufficient human feelings and those persons establish social relationships in cyber world”

30. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 Virtual Society  Jan Fernback: – all virtual social gatherings are not communities – it takes personal investment, intimacy, and commitment that characterise our ideal sense of community – some on-line discussion groups and chat rooms are nothing more than a means of communication among people with common interest cyber community as an entity and process that emerges from the wisdom of our repository of cultural knowledge about the concept of community

31. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 Network Communities  active participation necessary, otherwise there is no community (only an audience)  performance may overtake communication  lurkers an essential part of the community; forming the ’ring of spectators’ around the currently active performers

32. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 Identity  both individual and group identities require durability and continuation  in network communities, there has to be time and space enough for the identities to evolve

33. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 RL Cultural identity  Cultural identity seems to play important role in the virtual communities also, like Japanese internet chat room members use different smilies than Europeans. ( See Kumiko Aoki 1994)

34. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 Game Communities  the gaming culture  player groups  teams

35. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 Online Games  clans  national teams  spectator sport –professional players  community inside the game world (teams) vs. clans and other formations outside of game world itself

36. JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO 2006 Early Games  Space War: http://spacewar.oversigma.com/http://spacewar.oversigma.com/ (see also Wikipedia for Space War)  ClassicGaming.com  www.atarimuseum.com www.atarimuseum.com  http://thcnet.net/error/index.php http://thcnet.net/error/index.php  www.freearcade.com www.freearcade.com