DOCSLIB.ORG

Teachers Course Description

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Teachers Course Description Teachers Stephanie Boluk Patrick LeMieux Associate Professor Assistant Professor English, Cinema and Digital Media Cinema and Digital Media University of California, Davis University of California, Davis [email protected] [email protected] http://stephanieboluk.com http://patrick-lemieux.com Course Description Rather than treat “videogames and culture” as two distinct categories that play off one another, in this large lecture and in discussion sections we will examine the community histories and material practices that have evolved alongside videogames as a mass medium, cultural commodity, and digital technology. We will challenge the seemingly self-evident differences between play and production, leisure and labor, form and function, and freedom and control through a quarter-long investigation of the concept of “metagaming.” Metagames are the games we play in, on, around, and through videogames. From the most complex player practices to the simple decision to press start, just as there are no videogames without culture, there are no games without metagames. And although the term “metagame” has a long history–from Cold War mind games in the 1940s to countercultural role-playing games in the 1970s to collectable card games in the 1990s–the concept has taken on renewed importance and political urgency with the rise of social media, streaming video, and sharing services in the twenty-first century. From speedrunning The Legend of Zelda to making a living playing League of Legends and ​ ​ ​ ​ from modding miniature computers in Minecraft to laundering money through Team Fortress 2, ​ ​ ​ in this class we will document and theorize histories of play through the concept of metagaming and a rigorous engagement with academic disciplines such as media studies, games studies, software studies, platform studies, and code studies. We will also put these theories into practice by close playing videogames, streaming speedruns, audio reviewing audiogames, commentating competitions, and making metagames together. This course expands on the content and methods explored in Metagaming: Playing, Competing, ​ Spectating, Cheating, Trading, Making, and Breaking Videogames (2017), available online at ​ https://manifold.umn.edu/project/metagaming. ​ Course Materials Required Readings - All required readings are available in the Metagaming Reader on the Canvas. ​ ​ Required Games - Braid: http://store.steampowered.com/app/26800/ ​ ​ - Portal: http://store.steampowered.com/app/400/ ​ ​ - Speedrunning game of our choice - Audiogame of your choice from Audiogames.net - eSports game of your choice (different than speedrunning game) Recommended System Requirements - Each game listed on http://store.steampowered.com/ will have recommended technical ​ ​ specifications listed for Microsoft Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux (depending on if the game is compatible with each OS). Search the store for Braid, Portal, and other games ​ ​ ​ ​ you want to work on during the class and scroll down to “System Requirements” to see if your system will support them. If you own the game on console or prefer playing on console, you are welcome to play these games in whatever way you prefer. Recommended Free Software - Twitch: http://twitch.tv/ (Mac/Win) ​ ​ - OBS: https://obsproject.com/ (Mac/Win) ​ ​ - Livesplit: http://livesplit.org/ (Win) ​ ​ - Time Split Tracker: https://revenantkioku.itch.io/time-split-tracker-os-x (Mac) ​ ​ - Wine: http://winebottler.kronenberg.org/ (For using Win programs on Mac) ​ ​ Suggested Equipment - USB Controller - Wired Xbox 360 Controller, ~$30 - Portable Hard Drive - 32GB Flash Drive, ~$10 - USB Webcam and Mic Combo - Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920, ~$65 No Computer, No Problem! - If you don't have a computer or if your computer does not meet the system requirements, you can always 1) play with a friend or another student in the class, 2) watch a detailed playthrough on YouTube, Twitch, or other video streaming sites, or 3) load the software on USB and use the computers in Art Annex 103, Mac Lab between 8:00am-4:30pm when no classes are using it or when it is staffed after hours. Course Rules Attendance Being on time and attending all class sessions (both lecture and discussion) is required. Being late to class or absent will affect your attendance and participation grade. If you miss a class, you are responsible for making up lost material. Read the syllabus, website, or ask a friend ​ instead of emailing either your professor or your TA to find out what was missed. Deadlines Assignments must be handed in on time. This policy will be strictly enforced and no extensions will be permitted unless there is proper documentation (e.g., doctor’s note) or the request is made in advance. Each day late will have a third of a letter grade deducted (i.e., B+ becomes B, B becomes B-, etc.) Academic Honesty You are expected to be familiar with and to abide by the UC Davis Rules of Academic Conduct. See http://sja.ucdavis.edu/ for more information. We will report all incidents of academic ​ ​ ​ dishonesty (plagiarism and so forth), whether intentional or not, to Student Judicial Affairs and you will receive no credit (i.e. 0%) for the assignment. Accommodations Any student who feels he or she may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact us privately to discuss his or her specific needs. In addition, the student should contact the Student Disability Center (https://sdc.ucdavis.edu) at (530) 752-3184 or ​ ​ [email protected] as soon as possible to better ensure that such accommodations can be ​ implemented in a timely fashion. All accommodations should have prior approval from the SDC. Cell Phones Cell phones and other communication devices must be turned off during class—no ringing, no buzzing, no talking, no texting. Repeated incidents will affect your participation grade. Email Before sending an email, ask yourself if it is a question already answered by the syllabus or worksheet. We prefer that students make use of office hours rather than email. If you do email ​ ​ either one of the professors or the TA, we will try to respond within 72 hours but this may not always be possible. If you email with a question that asks for a lengthy response (e.g., advice for a project), we may ask that you either visit during office hours or set up an appointment if you are unable to make those times. Laptops Laptops, cellphones, and tablets are for class purposes only. Casual in-class surfing (e.g., ​ ​ social media, watching videos, email, texting, playing games that are not being discussed in class) will affect your attendance and participation grade. Texts You are responsible for bringing all required texts to class. This will affect your attendance and participation grade. Assignments 30% - Metagaming - 2.5% - Making a Metagame, due by 11:59pm on Canvas on 1/23 ​ ​ - 2.5% - Writing a Player’s Guide, due by 11:59pm on Canvas on 1/23 ​ ​ ​ - 2.5% - Close Playing Braid, due by 11:59pm on Canvas on 1/30 ​ ​ ​ ​ - 2.5% - Close Playing Portal, due by 11:59pm on Canvas on 2/6 ​ ​ ​ ​ - 5% - Streaming a Speedrun, due by 11:59pm on Canvas on 2/15 ​ ​ - 5% - Audio Reviewing an Audiogame, due by 11:59pm on Canvas on 2/22 ​ ​ - 10% - Commentating a Competition, due by 11:59pm on Canvas on 3/8 ​ ​ 30% - A History of Play/Playing with History - 10% - Midterm Paper, due in print in class and by 11:59pm on Canvas on 2/8 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ - 5% - Peer Review, due in print in discussion sections on 3/9 and 3/12 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ - 15% - Final Paper, due in print in class and by 11:59pm on Canvas on 3/15 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ 30% - Exams and Quizzes - 5% - Quizzes, at the beginning of random classes throughout the quarter ​ ​ - 10% - Midterm Exam, in class on Tuesday, 2/13 from 3:10-4:30pm ​ ​ - 15% - Final Exam, in class on Wednesday, 3/21, 10:30-12:30pm in Wellman 2 ​ ​ - https://registrar.ucdavis.edu/registration/archive/finals.cfm 10% - Attendance and Participation - Based on performance in lecture, discussion sections, and group projects. 5% - Optional Extra Credit - Please email both [email protected] AND [email protected] if you would like to ​ ​ ​ ​ demonstrate a metagame in front of the class by the end for extra credit by Friday, 1/26. We are particularly interested in small, 10-15m presentations that showcase interesting indie games (platforming, procedural generation, etc.), competitive FPS (aiming angles, pre-shooting etc.), speedrunning (clipping, zipping, sequence breaking, etc.), fighting game communities (hit/hurt boxes, tech, footsies, etc.), MOBAs (draft strats, last hitting, pulling, stacking, etc.), fanfic and cosplay (slash, shipping, etc.), and modding (asset creation, level design, etc.). You must meet with Prof. Boluk and Prof. LeMieux in ​ advance to approve your demo, discuss equipment needs, and set the schedule. Only ​ once per student! Grading A+ 97-100 C+ 79-77 F <60 A 94-96 C 74-76 A- 90-93 C- 70-73 B+ 89-87 D+ 69-67 B 84-86 D 64-66 B- 80-83 D- 60-63 Weekly Projects Making a Metagame Following Brenda Romero’s or Eric Zimmerman’s introduction to game design exercises, in teams of four play a well known game like war, tic-tac-toe, rock paper scissors, heads or tails, and rolling dice. Document your team’s (or your own) understanding of the rules. Think about what might make a game popular (e.g., ease, simplicity, nostalgia, etc.) as well as what might make a game seem boring (e.g., repetition, randomness, no consequences, etc.). Next intervene in the operations of the game by making a metagame. Add new rules, new equipment, new goals, new narratives, new performances, a new title, etc. These modifications can be absurd or rational, critical or constructive but they should change the game. If there’s time, ​ ​ playtest and iterate on your metagame.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Game Design 2 Game Balance
    CE810 - Game Design 2 Game Balance Joseph Walton-Rivers & Piers Williams Friday, 18 May 2018 University of Essex 1 What is Balance? Game Balance Question What is balance? 2 Game Balance “All players have an equal chance of winning” – Richard Bartle Richard covered a combat example in the first part of the module. 3 On Strategies Game Balance • What about higher level strategies? • Zerg rush? • Dominant strategies • Metagaming 4 Metagaming - Rock Paper Scissors • A beats B, B beats C, C beats A • If there are lots of A players, people will play C • Then there are a lot of C players, so people play B • and so on... 5 Metagaming - Dominant Strategies • What if A is significantly stronger? • No one will use the other two strategies • We want to encourage variety in play 6 Can we detect this? • Can we detect strategies which are overpowered? • Try to punish strategies we don’t want to see • We did this earlier in the week with rotate and shoot! • Can we measure this? 7 Automated Game Tuning • Academics seem to think so... • Ryan Leigh et al (2008) - Co-evolution for game balancing • Alexander Jaffe et al (2012) - Restricted-Play balance framework • Mihail Morosan - GAs for tuning parameters 8 Game Curves First Move Advantage First Move Advantage • Typically affects turn based games • Going first in tac tac toe means either a win or adraw • White has > 50% win rate over all games • Worse effects if you have resources • We need a way of dealing with this 9 First Move Advantage Magic Second player gets an extra card Go Second player gets 7.5 bonus
    [Show full text]
  • Linux Journal 23 FOSS Project Spotlight: Nitrux, a Linux Distribution with a Focus on Appimages and Atomic Upgrades by Nitrux Latinoamerican S.C
    ModSecurity Globbing Edit PDFs and nginx and Regex with Xournal Since 1994: The original magazine of the Linux community Linux Gaming A Talk with Linux Game Developers | Review: Thrones of Britannia Two Portable DIY Retro Console Projects | Survey of Native Linux Games TASBot the Linux-Powered Robot Plays Games for Charity ISSUE 290 | SEPTEMBER 2018 www.linuxjournal.com SEPTEMBER 2018 CONTENTS ISSUE 290 86 DEEP DIVE: Gaming 87 Crossing Platforms: a Talk with the Developers Building Games for Linux By K.G. Orphanides Games for Linux are booming like never before. The revolution comes courtesy of cross-platform dev tools, passionate programmers and community support. 105 Would You Like to Play a Linux Game? By Marcel Gagné A look at several games native to Linux. 117 Meet TASBot, a Linux-Powered Robot Playing Video Games for Charity By Allan Cecil Can a Linux-powered robot play video games faster than you? Only if he . takes a hint from piano rolls...and the game for Linux in November 2016. Enix. Feral Interactive released and published by Square , developed by Eidos Montréal doesn’t desync. 135 Review: Thrones Shroud of the Avatar Shroud of Britannia Deus Ex: Mankind Divided By Marcel Gagné from from A look at the recent game from the Total War series on the Linux desktop Image from Portalarium’s Portalarium’s Image from thanks to Steam and Feral Interactive. Cover image 2 | September 2018 | http://www.linuxjournal.com CONTENTS 6 Letters UPFRONT 14 Clearing Out /boot By Adam McPartlan 17 VCs Are Investing Big into a New Cryptocurrency: Introducing Handshake By Petros Koutoupis 20 Edit PDFs with Xournal By Kyle Rankin 22 Patreon and Linux Journal 23 FOSS Project Spotlight: Nitrux, a Linux Distribution with a Focus on AppImages and Atomic Upgrades By Nitrux Latinoamerican S.C.
    [Show full text]
  • ESPORTS a Guide for Public Libraries
    ESPORTS A Guide for Public Libraries 1 Contents Introduction…………….….……….………….…………3 Esports 101….……….….……….………….….….…….4 What Are Esports? Why Are Esports a Good Fit for Libraries? Esports & the Public Library……….…….…….………6 Making a Library Team Other Ways Libraries Can Interact with Video Games Partnerships….……………..…….……………….….….9 Local Partners North America Scholastic Esports Federation Technical Requirements…….………..….……….……10 Creating Internet Videos….…………….……….……12 Recording Editing Uploading IP & Privacy Considerations…………….…………….15 IP Considerations for Video Sharing Privacy A Note on ESRB Ratings Glossary………….……….……….……….……………18 Acknowledgements…….……….………..……………28 Further Reading….….……….…..………….……….…29 URLs……..……….….….……….……………………….30 2 Introduction In September 2019, Pottsboro Area Library in Pottsboro, TX, began an esports program funded by a IMLS grant. With ten new gaming computers and a vastly improved internet connection, Pottsboro Library has acted as a staging location for an esports team in association with Pottsboro High School, opening new hours on Saturdays for the team to practice in private. This collaboration also includes the esports club of nearby Austin College, whose students serve as mentors for the library’s club, and the North America Scholastic Esports Federation (NASEF), which has provided information and assistance in setting up the team to play in its high school league. In addition to being used by the team, four of the gaming computers are open for public use, which has attracted younger patrons to the library and provides new options for children and young adults in an area where internet access is otherwise extremely limited. This guide is intended for public libraries that are interested in esports or video games for any reason—to increase participation of young adults in library programming, to encourage technological skills and literacy, to provide a space for young people to gather and practice teamwork, etc.
    [Show full text]
  • Character Balance in MOBA Games
    Character Balance in MOBA Games Faculty of Arts Department of Game Design Authors: Emanuel Palm, Teodor Norén Bachelor’s Thesis in Game Design, 15 hp Program: Game Design and Programming Supervisors: Jakob Berglund Rogert, Masaki Hayashi Examiner: Mikael Fridenfalk June, 2015 Abstract As live streaming of video games has become easier, electronic sports have grown quickly and they are still increasing as tournaments grow in viewers and prizes. The purpose of this paper is to examine the theory Metagame Bounds by applying it to League of Legends and Dota 2, to see if it is a valid way of looking at character balance in the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena game genre. The main mode of both games consist of matches played on a map where a team of five players is up against another team of five players. Characters in the games generally have four abilities and a number of attributes, making them complex to compare without context. We gathered character data from websites and entered the data into a file that we used with the Metagame Bounds application. We compared the graphs that the data yielded with how often a character wins and how often it is played. To examine whether the characters were balanced we also played the games and analysed the characters in depth. All statistical data gathered was retrieved over the span of a few hours on the 21st of April 2015 from the websites Champion.gg for League of Legends and Dotabuff for Dota 2. Sirlin’s (2001) definition of multiplayer game balance is “A multiplayer game is balanced if a reasonably large number of options available to the player are viable – especially, but not limited to, during high-level play by expert players.” and with the data we see that these games are balanced in terms of characters according to that definition.
    [Show full text]
  • Ocarina of Time Speedrun Record
    Ocarina Of Time Speedrun Record Gerome never reconciling any bings belts ambiguously, is Alfonzo limbless and double-hung enough? Inrush and ill-judged Xever redoubles her fantastic pasteurizers outjutting and cabbages painstakingly. Thrown and bony Zacharia measure almost notionally, though Al send-ups his dog-ends dribbles. N64 The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time TASVideos. About a gear ago the world notorious for speedrunning in vain Any glitchless with high seed category was broken against a Minecraft player from Michigan USA called Korbanoes The player spawned in a dead world with this seed 317496504156339597 and managed to finish the game in a record here of 14 minutes and 56 seconds. Please stop sliding around, ocarina of times are being used. Speedrunner Beats Ocarina of Time in occupy than 17 Minutes. Be confusing to vessel who aren't familiar with Ocarina of Time speedrunning. How only can he beat Ocarina of Time? Time unless By ItzBloxyDev World Record Speedrun web. Free cds that is a single digit number of life in life in general. Speedrunning is frequent someone plays through a video game as fast fashion possible often with point hope of setting a new record off a speedrunner can beat a game ready a fraction of the mild it takes the. Did arrow get Doxxed? Former WR OoT Any Speedrun in 73406 2K 103 Share our Report. There's many new Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time speedrun world record holder in plenty with streamer Jodenstone setting a rule time of 107. Broke Mike's record obtaining the current on-segment world proper of 4.
    [Show full text]
  • Second Annual SXSW Gaming Awards Announces Top Winners in 21 Categories
    Second Annual SXSW Gaming Awards Announces Top Winners in 21 Categories Dragon Age: Inquisition takes home Game of the Year followed by three award wins for Middle- earth: Shadow of Mordor AUSTIN, Texas (Mar. 14, 2015) — South by Southwest (SXSW) Gaming today announced the winners of the second-annual SXSW Gaming Awards – part of the SXSW Gaming Expo – presented by iam8bit, Logitech, Porter Novelli, Twitch and Wikia. Austin City Limits Live at The Moody Theater hosted the ceremony which was co-emceed by actress and comedian Janet Varney and popular YouTube personality Markiplier. In all, 21 awards were handed out, with Dragon Age: Inquisition taking the top honor as Game of the Year. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor followed with three award wins, including Excellence in Gameplay and Excellence in Animation. Speedrunners was chosen by gamers on the show floor to take home the Gamer’s Voice Award, beating out 29 other games showcased in the SXSW Gaming Indie Corner. To be considered for the Gamer’s Voice Award, games must have had less than $1 million in funding; a working and playable demo; and be released by the end of 2015 or shortly thereafter. “We’re ecstatic to see the gaming industry and gamers alike embrace the SXSW Gaming Awards,” said Justin Burnham, SXSW Gaming Project Manager. “Our awards bring together the voice of gamers everywhere with those of industry experts to decide the best of the best. Congrats to the team behind Dragon Age: Inquisition for its Game of the Year win and to the rest of this year’s winners for making 2014 another stellar year for gaming!” The submission process opened in August 2014 through the official Gaming Awards page and closed in December.
    [Show full text]
  • Text Begins by Discussing Spe Beginnings on Edrunningspeeddemosarchive.Com As a Community
    Re-curating the Accident: Speedrunning as Community and Practice Rainforest Scully-Blaker A Thesis in The Department of Communication Studies Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts (Media Studies) at Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada September 2016 © Rainforest Scully-Blaker, 2016 Scully-Blaker iii Abstract Re-curating the Accident: Speedrunning as Community and Practice Rainforest Scully-Blaker This thesis is concerned with speedrunning, the practice of completing a video game as quickly as possible without the use of cheats or cheat devices as well as the community of players that unite around this sort of play. As video games become increasingly ubiquitous in popular media and culture, the project of accounting for and analysing how people interact with these pieces of software becomes more relevant than ever before. As such, this thesis emerges as an initiatory treatment of a relatively niche segment of game culture that has gone underrepresented in extant game and media scholarship. The text begins by discussing spe beginnings on edrunningSpeedDemosArchive.com as a community. and By examiningchronicling its the growth communitys with the emergence of contemporary content hosting sites like YouTube and Twitch, this thesis presents speedrunning as a collaborative and fast-growing community of practice made up of players who revel in playing games quickly. From there, an analysis of space and speed, both natural and virtual, is undertaken with a view to understanding how speedrunning as a practice relates to games as narrative spaces. Discussions of rule systems in games and within the speedrunning community itself follow.
    [Show full text]
  • Subversion and Collective Knowledge in the Ethos of Video Game Speedrunning
    Sport, Ethics and Philosophy ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rsep20 Code is Law: Subversion and Collective Knowledge in the Ethos of Video Game Speedrunning Michael Hemmingsen To cite this article: Michael Hemmingsen (2020): Code is Law: Subversion and Collective Knowledge in the Ethos of Video Game Speedrunning, Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, DOI: 10.1080/17511321.2020.1796773 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/17511321.2020.1796773 Published online: 29 Jul 2020. Submit your article to this journal View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rsep20 SPORT, ETHICS AND PHILOSOPHY https://doi.org/10.1080/17511321.2020.1796773 Code is Law: Subversion and Collective Knowledge in the Ethos of Video Game Speedrunning Michael Hemmingsen College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences, University of Guam, Mangilao, GU, USA ABSTRACT KEYWORDS Speedrunning is a kind of ‘metagame’ involving video games. Video games; speedrunning; Though it does not yet have the kind of profile of multiplayer e- subversion; collective sports, speedrunning is fast approaching e-sports in popularity. knowledge; metagame Aside from audience numbers, however, from the perspective of the philosophy of sport and games, speedrunning is particularly interesting. To the casual player or viewer, speedrunning appears to be a highly irreverent, even pointless, way of playing games, parti­ cularly due to the incorporation of “glitches”. For many outside the speedrunning community, the use of glitches appears to be cheat­ ing. For speedrunners, however, glitches are entirely within the bounds of acceptability.
    [Show full text]
  • Instr Uc Tion Booklet
    SHN-IB-EUR-USA INSTRUCTION BOOKLET DEVELOPED BY GRIMORIO OF GAMES & PUBLISHED BY JANDUSOFT Super Hyperactive Ninja is a fast-paced hyper-caffeinated action-platformer in 2D, designed with those who want a real tough challenge and speedrunners in mind. Recover the stolen coffee before you fall asleep! Use the power of caffeine to enter Hyperactive Mode, to run faster and kill enemies, but use it wisely! Your energy is limited, and must be recharged with the coffees you find in the levels. If you run out of caffeine, its GAME OVER! Race against your cruelest enemy: SLUMBER! 2 SUMMARY PAG 4 CONTROLS PAG 10 ABOUT THIS GAME PAG 11 MAIN MENU PAG 12 OPTIONS PAG 14 LEVEL SELECTOR PAG 15 SHOP PAG 16 CHARACTER SELECT PAG 18 CHARACTERS PAG 24 ITEMS PAG 26 BASIC ACTIONS PAG 30 ENEMIES PAG 33 GAME TIPS PAG 34 NOTES 3 CONTROLS - XBOX ONE Super Hyperactive Ninja for PC is compatible with Xbox One and Xbox 360 Controllers. L BUTTON R BUTTON L TRIGGER R TRIGGER LEFT STICK A / B / X / Y D PAD RIGHT STICK VIEW MENU 4 HOW TO PLAY These are the controls of the game: ICON BUTTON ACTION ICON BUTTON ACTION A BUTTON Jump L TRIGGER (Hold) Item Selection Menu Y BUTTON R BUTTON LEFT STICK Move character B BUTTON Use object RIGHT STICK Fast item change X BUTTON L BUTTON MENU BUTTON Pause R TRIGGER (Hold) Hyperactive MENU BUTTON (at the same time) Mode + VIEW BUTTON Quick restart 5 CONTROLS - PLAYSTATION 4 Super Hyperactive Ninja for PC is compatible with PS4 Dual Shock 4 controllers when launched from Steam.
    [Show full text]
  • Metagaming and Transgressive Play Patrick S
    Purdue University Purdue e-Pubs Open Access Theses Theses and Dissertations Summer 2014 Playing on the periphery: Metagaming and transgressive play Patrick S. Love Purdue University Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_theses Part of the Mass Communication Commons, Reading and Language Commons, and the Rhetoric and Composition Commons Recommended Citation Love, Patrick S., "Playing on the periphery: Metagaming and transgressive play" (2014). Open Access Theses. 650. https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_theses/650 This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact [email protected] for additional information. Graduate School ETD Form 9 (Revised/) PURDUE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL Thesis/Dissertation Acceptance This is to certify that the thesis/dissertation prepared By Patrick S Love Entitled Playing on the Periphery: Metagaming and Transgressive Play Master of Arts For the degree of Is approved by the final examining committee: Samantha Blackmon Thomas Rickert Nathan Johnson To the best of my knowledge and as understood by the student in the 7KHVLV'LVVHUWDWLRQ$JUHHPHQW 3XEOLFDWLRQ'HOD\DQGCHUWLILFDWLRQDisclaimer (Graduate School Form ), this thesis/dissertation DGKHUHVWRWKHSURYLVLRQVRIPurdue University’s “Policy on Integrity in Research” and the use of copyrighted material. Samantha Blackmon Approved by Major Professor(s): ____________________________________ ____________________________________ Approved by:Nancy Peterson 07/18/2014 Head of the 'HSDUWPHQWGraduate Program Date i PLAYING ON THE PERIPHERY: METAGAMING AND TRANSGRESSIVE PLAY A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Purdue University by Patrick Love In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts August 2014 Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana ii This work is dedicated to players, gamers, and people who play.
    [Show full text]
  • Schedule. May 15, 2014 Schedule. May 16, 2014
    SCHEDULE. MAY 15, 2014 Conference Hall Tolstoy Hall Pushkin Hall Chekhov Hall Keynote: “Sincere Game Design" Simultanious translation of all sessions in Conference and Tolstoy Halls is provided Technology & Development 10:00 - 11:00 Rami Ismail, Vlambeer Art & Animation Game Design Production “Preproduction of art in Zeptolab games" “Unity 5 - What News is There For You" Games & Indies 11:00 - 11:30 Alexey Atomsky, Zeptolab Oleg Pridiuk, Unity “Interactive Installations: Massively Marketing Single-player Offline Games" Unity@DevGAMM “The Power of the Facebook Platform for “Game cinematics. Money waste or Valentin Simonov, Interactive Lab 11:30 – 12:00 Gaming Developers" important part of success?" Julia Ognieva, Facebook Vitalijus Zukas, OKTA Speed Game Dating First Stream “Ten Key Steps to a Successful Release “Manifesto of computer game writers" 12:00 – 12:30 Partnership" Nikolay Dybovskiy, Ice-Pick Lodge “Think in other way? Good luck then!" Ted Ursu, Funtomic Maria Kochakova, Message Quest Anton Volkov, AlternativaPlatform “Creation of graphics for Maze and “Finding AwayJS" 12:30 – 13:00 5734L3R" Rob Bateman, Away3D Stanislav Baturin, Indie Developer 13:00 – 15:00 Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch “Game design. “Overcome the bottleneck of HTML5 Discussion Panel: “Postmortem Sheep Happens" 15:00 – 15:30 Problem – solution" mobile game performance" Elena Stolbova, LingPlay Alexey Davydov, Flazm.com David Goemans, BoosterMedia Speed Game Dating Anton Karlov, Indie Developer Second Stream “Road To Japan - How To Do Marketing of Vladimir Kovtun,
    [Show full text]
  • Loops and Metagames: Understanding Game Design Structures Miguel Sicart Center for Computer Games Research IT University of Copenhagen [email protected]
    Loops and Metagames: Understanding Game Design Structures Miguel Sicart Center for Computer Games Research IT University of Copenhagen [email protected] ABSTRACT in Free to Play game design [10], a design space in which the In this paper we present a set of formal concepts that can help in economic need for a distinction between interaction and context game design analysis. Our goal is to provide a conceptual became a key element in the evolution of its development framework based on terminology used in game design. practices. Our model appropriates the concepts of loops and metagames and expands them through the lenses of philosophy Keywords and play research to be applicable for analyzing game designs. Game design research, Interaction Design, Loops, Context, Our model is both an analytical tool and a theoretical argument Formalism. about what game design is, given a clearly defined level of abstraction. Our goal with this model is to have an impact in 1. INTRODUCTION research, education, and design practices. We intend to Game designer and scholar Frank Lantz once defined games as systematize a set of concepts used in game design practice, “basically operas made out of bridges” [1]. A closer look at games formalize them through definitions, and exemplify the advantage shows that, while the metaphor holds, it also falls somewhat short, of using these definitions as analytical and creative tools. as operas or bridges are nowhere as complex as games. Digital games in particular, the object of study of this article, are We will start by presenting the need for formal tools for analyzing particularly complex sociotechnical constructs: they are game designs, and how that research is methodologically engineering feats, pushing the boundaries of real-time and compatible with our model.
    [Show full text]