This is the digital version of my dissertation Real-Time Hermeneutics: Meaning-Making in Ludonarrative Digital Games. You can download the pdf version for free from the University of Jyväskylä publication archive. The dissertation consists of a 100 page introductory part, and 5 articles which can be found from the links below.
List of Publications#
- Arjoranta, J. (2011a). Do We Need Real-Time Hermeneutics? Structures of Meaning in Games. In DiGRA 2011: Think Design Play. Utrecht: Utrecht School of the Arts.
- Arjoranta, J. (2014). Game Definitions: A Wittgensteinian Approach. Game Studies, 14 (1).
- Arjoranta, J. (2011b). Defining Role-Playing Games as Language-Games. International Journal of Role-Playing, (2).
- Arjoranta, J., & Karhulahti, V.-M. (2014). Ludology, Narratology and Philosophical Hermeneutics. In Nordic DiGRA 2014. Visby, Sweden: Digital Games Research Association.
- Arjoranta, J. (submitted manuscript). Narrative Tools for Games: Focalization, Granularity and Mode of Narration in Games. Games and Culture.
An updated version of the fifth article has been published in Games and Culture and is available from Sage and as a pre-print version from the University of Jyväskylä.
Yhteenveto (Finnish Summary)#
Digitaaliset pelit ovat suhteellisen uusi media. Ne ovat olleet olemassa
nykyisessä muodossaan jo yli puoli vuosisataa, mutta ne nousivat
merkittäväksi osaksi kulttuuria vasta paljon myöhemmin. Kuten kaikki
aiemmat mediat, pelit ovat joutuneet etsimään omaa kieltään. Jotkin
aiempien medioiden käyttämistä ilmaisutavoista ovat yhä käyttökelpoisia,
mutta pelit mahdollistavat myös uusia ilmaisumuotoja.
Tämä artikkeliväitöskirja tutkii, miten pelielementtejä ja tarinoita
yhdistävät digitaaliset pelit muodostavat ja välittävät merkityksiä.
Väitöskirja sijoittuu osaksi monitieteistä pelitutkimuksen tutkimusalaa.
Tutkimuksella on kaksi tavoitetta: luoda perusteita teorialle pelien
merkitysten ymmärtämiseen ja tarjota pelisuunnittelijoille työkaluja,
joiden avulla pelien merkitysten käsittely ja suunnittelu on helpompaa.
Tutkimuksen lähestymistapa on filosofinen ja nojaa ensisijaisesti
filosofiseen hermeneutiikkaan. Hans-Georg Gadamerin hermeneutiikkaa
käytetään vertailemaan pelien merkitysten muodostusta siihen, miten
taidetta tulkitaan. Lisäksi pelien tulkintaa analysoidaan hermeneuttisen
kehän perusteella. Tutkimus käyttää myös Wittgensteinin kielipelin
käsitettä esittämään, miten pelien määrittely tulisi ymmärtää. Nämä
filosofiset lähestymistavat yhdistetään pelitutkimuksesta lainattuun
teoriaan prosessuaalisuudesta, narratiivisuudesta ja pelaajista.
Tutkimus osoittaa, että tarinallisia elementtejä sisältävät digitaaliset
pelit ovat prosessuaalisia järjestelmiä joita tulkitaan sekä pelaamisen
aikana että osana ympäröivää kulttuurista kontekstia. Tulkinnan tulosta
eivät määrää yksinomaan pelin kehittäjien pyrkimykset tai pelin
tapahtumat. Niin kauan kuin peliä voidaan pelata uudella tavalla tai
uudessa kulttuurisessa kontekstissa, siitä tehtävät tulkinnat voivat
muuttua. Lisäksi tutkimus osoittaa, miten tarinalliset digitaaliset
pelit voivat käyttää muissa medioissa käytettyjä ilmaisukeinoja,
esimerkiksi lainaten perspektiivin käytön elokuvista.
Tämä tutkimus antaa myös ohjeita, joiden avulla peleihin voidaan pyrkiä
suunnittelemaan merkityksiä. Tutkimus osoittaa, miten merkitystä voidaan
käyttää pelimekaniikkana ja miten pelit voivat ilmaista asioita, joita
olisi joko erittäin haastavaa tai mahdotonta ilmaista muissa medioissa.
"https://jonne.arjoranta.fi" by Jonne Arjoranta is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
The copyright of all the images included in the dissertation belong
to their respective owners and are not released under Creative
Commons.
Abstract Digital games are a relatively new medium. While they have been around for over half a century, they only became a major part of the culture relatively late. Like every other medium before, games also have struggled to find an expressive language of their own. Some of the expressive styles of other media are still relevant for games, but new ones have to be created specifically for videogames.
This dissertation is a study of how ludonarrative videogames, videogames that combine game elements with narrative elements, express and convey meaning. This is done as part of game studies, a multidisciplinary approach to studying games. The purpose is twofold: to build a foundation for better understanding of meaning-making in games, and to provide game designers with tools for analyzing issues related to meaning.
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Digital games have been around for more than half a century. Games are significantly older. They are as old as culture, perhaps even older. Play is a universal phenomenon as prevalent in the animal kingdom as it is among humans. While play and games are not synonymous, they should be discussed together.
Despite their age, games have not been studied for long. Cultural anthropologists and sociologists have noticed that humans tend to play and to play games, but this has usually led them to study play or the cultural and social structures of play. Psychologists have discussed play and the play-instinct, but it took the rise of digital gaming for games to be recognized as a distinct and fascinating form of expression of their own. With this recognition game studies, or more controversially, ludology, began to take shape (Frasca, 1999).1
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This chapter presents the theoretical foundation for this study. First, it presents an overview of hermeneutics with a special focus on philosophical hermeneutics. Then it examines Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language-games in order to show how meaning is created in language. And finally, it explores game studies through a discussion of the central concepts and theories used in the study of games. These are then related back to hermeneutics and language games in the final chapter, which combines these three approaches into a synthesis.
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This chapter elaborates on and synthesizes the results from the articles presented at the end of this study. The discussion here also draws on the previous theoretical chapters in a way that was not possible in the articles.
The three research questions answered in this study are presented in the introduction, but are repeated here for the sake of clarity. The three questions are:
What are the preconditions for understanding how games create meaning? (Paper 1) How should games be defined and delimited? (Papers 2, 3 and 4) How do ludonarrative games create meaning? (Paper 5) The following chapters present answers to these questions.
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This chapter discusses the theoretical and practical implications of the research. The reliability and validity of the results is also discussed and some suggestions for future research are given.
Theoretical Implications This study has three types of theoretical implications. First, it broadens the range of phenomena that can be analyzed with hermeneutic tools and provides an example of applying hermeneutics to games. Second, it presents a Wittgensteinian framework for approaching the theoretical discussion of defining games. Third, this study provides tools for constructing a theory of meaning for games. These three points are discussed next.
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Ludography The ludography lists the first published version of a game, preferring the version the author has played if multiple versions have been published simultaneously.
42 Entertainment. (2004). I Love Bees. Alternate reality game, United States: 42 Entertainment.
A Sharp. (1999). King of Dragon Pass. Microsoft Windows, United States: A Sharp.
American Management Association. (1955). Top Management Decision Simulation. United States: American Management Association.
American Management Association. (1957). Business Management Game. United States: American Management Association.
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