ICS 60

Meta-Communication

(Bateson) Communication about communication

Ludus

(Caillois) More strict on rules

Paidia

(Caillois) Not bound by rigid rules

Reader Response Criticism (Reception Theory)

A branch of literary theory that explores the experience of the readers as they interact with the text.

Genre

A category of artistic endeavor which has a particular form, content, or technique.

Four types of games

Action, Adventure, Strategy, Process Oriented

70's

Arcade is born, Video game industry is born, invention of microprocessor, D&D

Player Characters

Controlled by the player

Johan Huizinga

Created "Magic Circle"

Roger Caillois

Determined that games must be unproductive, voluntary, uncertain, and consist of make believe. Also came up with agon(competition), alea(chance), mimicry(simulation), ilinx(vertigo) as categories of games.

Types of quests

Exchange, Breach of contact, discovery of the traitor, and saving the kingdom

Primary aspects of storytelling

Fictional worlds, narrative Mechanics

Mansion of Happiness

First commercially produced game in US

Spacewar!

First computer game which was portable and easy to transfer between computers

Pac-Man

First game to feature "power-ups" and cut-scenes. Identifiable main character, try to include women in gaming.

Planetfall

First game to have convincing and dramatically important character who was not the player.

OXO (Tic Tac Toe)

First game to use electronic graphical display.

Senet

First historically documented "game"

Fairchild Channel-F Home Console

First system to have programmable cartridges

Halo

First to be exclusive to a single console

Night Driver

First to successfully use First Person perspective

Galaxian

First true-color video game

Chris Crawford

Four elements to all video games - Representation, Interaction, Conflict, and Safety

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Game A can be like Game B and B like C even though A and C dont share similarities. Can only identify "family resemblances.

Bernard Suitis

Game Rules are inhibiting and favor "less efficient means" that make play compelling

Jesper Juul

Game is a rule-based formal system with a variable and quantifiable outcome.

Monopoly (game)

Game to popularize board games.

Marshall McLuhan

Games are a reflection of the culture that produces them - reveals a culture's core values.

David Parlett

Games are composed of ends and means. Goal that only one player or team can achieve. Means: the equipment and the rules of the game.

Brian Sutton-Smith

Games reflect the evolution of society. Games emerge as a society becomes more mature and develops more complex social and political organization.

Henry Jenkins

Games represent a new 'lively art'

Wolfeinstein

Grandaddy of FPS which was first to include a HUD

Brown Box console

Granddaddy of video game systems

Functional Characters

Have a general function in the game ( like shop keepers)

Cast Characters

Have a particular function in the game related to the story

Cutscenes

Help with narrative, help with missing narrative elements, Links aesthetics of cinema, provide player with key info, shape narrative

Dynamics

How the game plays

Lord of the Rings

Inspired fantasy genre to literature and somehow led to D&D

2000s

MMOFPS thrive, PC's popular for MMOs, FPSs, and RTSs. Steam, MMOs. Rise of casual games, Rise of mobile games. RIse of Video Games as a field of study.

MDA Model

Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics

Doom

Mods were easy and it was shared over internet

Edward Castronova

No solid way to support the idea of games a completely separate from the rest of human existance.

Chaturanga

Original form of chess

Stage Characters

Part of the scenario moving around but no personality or function

George Herbert Mead

Play is important of the development of the self. Games mirror the way people organize themselves.

Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman

Players engage in artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome.

Bonnie Hardi

Professor at UCI which studied how cultural entities work in games. Work Vs Play

80's

Rapid Technological progress, PC's, Nintendo and Sega, Video Game Crash (E.T. & multiple consoles)

Games can affect us through (5)

Requiring Time, Affecting our mood, as a means of communication, our behavior (joining army), and the outside world (currency)

1990s

Rise of RPGs

Video Game

Series of interesting choices. Game played by manipulating images produced by a computer program on a TV or other display screen.

Hiroshima (Aug 6, 2015)

Sparked WW2 Technological societies, and the rise of the American and Soviet empires.`

Narrative elements

Story, Text, Narration, Fiction

Literary Repertoire

The familiar territory within the text which can include anything that the reader might already know

Magic Circle

The idea that when playing a game, the gamer enters a zone that separates the gamer from the outside world. Semi-permeable membrane

Mechanics

The rules and basic code of a game

Aesthetics

What the game makes you feel (Sensation, Fantasy, Narrative)

Gregory Bateson

What we do in games is not to be taken at face value; we are not fighting but playing at fighting