Game-Studies

I’m writing a paper about the tools authors can use in literature to convey certain meaning effects, but applied to video games. There are several tools available, but perhaps the most interesting is the concept of granularity. It seems that there is a natural level of schematicity in perception. That is, a level of attention that we are normally accustomed to, when we don’t pay any special attention to things. It is only when we focus our attention to specific things that we deviate from that basic level of attention. In literature studies the varying specificity of description is called granularity. ...

Len Talmy writes in Toward a Cognitive Semantics (2002) that: Any old tapestry or painting that in effect depicts a story by showing a number of figures and activities together suggesting a succession of events, but one that the viewer must piece together through her own self-determined sequence of visual fixations, is as much an example of interactive fiction as any modern computer-based form. (426) This is of course false, with any standard definition of interactivity. I think “modern computer-based form” is here a neat place-holder for games (other interactive digital works would also work), despite him not wanting to specify it. Computer games are of course more interactive than your typical painting. The key to understanding this is to separate interaction from interactivity. ...

This fall has been mostly about cognitive semiotics. It is very different to return to basic research on a field where I’m almost completely a newcomer. New terminology and new theory - a lot to take in for a mind so used to the familiar. Hopefully this semester will shake some of the entrenched views into new approaches. One of the classes has me writing about literary arts. I’m writing an paper about meaning effects in literary works, and how they could be translated to work on video games. If the paper comes out good, I’ll try to turn it into a proper research paper next spring. ...

Galleries aren’t waiting for games to be accepted as art by critics, but seem to have made the choice themselves already. For example, The Smithsonian American Art Museum is hosting The Art of Video Games. Also, the NYU Game Center is holding the second annual exhibition of games No Quarter. Unfortunately not very close to me.

I recently gave a lecture on pervasive games. In preparing that lecture I took some notes that were almost an introduction to the subject itself. It seemed a pity not to use that text, so here is a short introduction to pervasive gaming. Pervasive Games Pervasive games are not an entirely new phenomenon, but the research done on them is quite new. We’ll define what pervasive games are in a minute. First, lets look at an example and see if it enlightens what type of games are in question. ...

I wrote about games as art before, so I should mention that Georgia Tech University has held a conference called Art History of Games. The talks are fortunately available on Youtube. Certainly worth a glance.