Game Studies volume 10, issue 1 is out.
(Yes, 10 years of Game Studies!)
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by J. Alison Bryant, Anna Akerman, Jordana Drell
This article details the “user-centered” research process adopted to create Nintendo DS games for preschoolers and addresses how new titles for specific populations can be approached. We review the role of exploratory and formative research in game development for young audiences and provide findings and design tips from the laboratory and field. [more]
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Tags, Threads, and Frames: Toward a Synthesis of Interaction Ritual and Livejournal Roleplaying
by Sarah Wanenchak
by Sarah Wanenchak
This paper examines a game where sociological rules of interaction are adapted to fit an online context free from face to face encounters, and where these adapted rules are further stretched to fit interactions designed to construct a narrative that exists on both the individual and the communal levels. [more]
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Game designers often limit the availability of powerful cards in collectible card games. This approach can have negative consequences on a game’s suitability for casual play. This paper explores case studies of two online collectible card games and a design philosophy that argues that powerful game effects should be commonly available to players. [more]
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Virtual Worlds Don’t Exist: Questioning the Dichotomous Approach in MMO Studies
by Vili Lehdonvirta
by Vili Lehdonvirta
This article criticises influential MMO scholarship approaching virtual worlds as if they were outside the real world, and presents an alternative view based on Anselm Strauss’s concept of overlapping social worlds. MMOs are seen as sites where the world of players meshes with families and workplaces, and often flows over to other sites and forums. [more]
Interview
by Celia Pearce
Rand Miller, who with his brother Robyn designed Myst, the first blockbuster CD-ROM, talks about his legacy of vanguard game design, and the complex history of its multiplayer sequel Uru: Ages Beyond Myst. This interview, conducted via e-mail, took place shortly before the third re-opening of Uru. [more]
Book Reviews
by Richard Bartle
Review of “Digital Culture, Play and Identity: A World of Warcraft Reader” edited by Hilde G. Corneliussen and Jill Walker Rettberg, (MIT Press, 2008). [more]
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by Frans Mäyrä Review of “Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames” by Mia Consalvo, (MIT Press 2007). [more]
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by Cynthia Haynes
Review of “Critical Play: Radical Game Design” by Mary Flanagan (MIT Press, 2009) [more]
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by Ragnhild Tronstad
Review of “Critical Play: Radical Game Design” by Mary Flanagan, (MIT Press, 2009). [more]