Gaming with God: a Case for the Study of Religion in Video Games
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Blast Off Broken Sword
ALL FORMATS LIFTING THE LID ON VIDEO GAMES Broken Sword blast off Revolution’s fight Create a jetpack in for survival Unreal Engine 4 Issue 15 £3 wfmag.cc TEARAWAYS joyful nostalgia and comic adventure in knights and bikes UPGRADE TO LEGENDARY AG273QCX 2560x1440 A Call For Unionisation hat’s the first thing that comes to mind we’re going to get industry-wide change is collectively, when you think of the games industry by working together to make all companies improve. and its working conditions? So what does collective action look like? It’s workers W Is it something that benefits workers, getting together within their companies to figure out or is it something that benefits the companies? what they want their workplace to be like. It’s workers When I first started working in the games industry, AUSTIN within a region deciding what their slice of the games the way I was treated wasn’t often something I thought KELMORE industry should be like. And it’s game workers uniting about. I was making games and living the dream! Austin Kelmore is across the world to push for the games industry to But after twelve years in the industry and a lot of a programmer and become what we know it can be: an industry that horrible experiences, it’s now hard for me to stop the Chair of Game welcomes everyone, treats its workers well, and thinking about our industry’s working conditions. Workers Unite UK, allows us to make the games we all love. That’s what a a branch of the It’s not a surprise anymore when news comes out Independent Workers unionised games industry would look like. -
Religion, Video Games, and Simulated Worlds
Workshop and Lectures Religion, Video Games, and Simulated Worlds Trento | 5-6.02.2018 Fly-8 / 1-2018_ISR Programme Monday, 5th February OPEN WORKSHOP (Aula Piccola) 15.00 - 15.30 Religion & Innovation: Our Mission and the Workshop Series Marco Ventura, Fondazione Bruno Kessler 15.30 - 16.30 Institution of Belief: Religio and Faith in Simulated Worlds Vincenzo Idone Cassone, University of Turin Mattia Thibault, University of Turin 16.30 - 17.00 Break PUBLIC LECTURE (Aula grande) 17.00 - 19.00 Gamevironments as a Communicative Figuration. An Introduction to a Heuristic Concept for Analyzing Religion and Video Gaming Kerstin Radde-Antweiler, University of Bremen 19.30 Dinner Tuesday, 6th February OPEN WORKSHOP (Aula Piccola) 09.00 - 10.30 God, Karma & Video Games: An Evolving Relationship Marco Mazzaglia, Synesthesia and MixedBag, Turin 10.30 - 11.00 Break CLOSED WORKSHOP (Aula Piccola) FBK researchers and invited speakers only 11.00 - 13.00 Exploration of Project Ideas and Funding Schemes 13.00 - 14.15 Lunch Buffet OPEN WORKSHOP (Aula Piccola) 14.15 - 15.00 Virtualising Religious Objects Paul Chippendale, Fondazione Bruno Kessler, ICT-TeV Fabio Poiesi, Fondazione Bruno Kessler, ICT-TeV 15.00 - 16.15 Religion as Game Mechanic Tobias Knoll (University of Heidelberg) 16.15 - 17.00 Break PUBLIC LECTURE (Aula grande) 17.00 – 19.00 In principio erano i bit: genesi e fede dei mondi videoludici Vincenzo Idone Cassone, University of Turin Mattia Thibault, University of Turin 19.30 Dinner Short Bios PAUL IAN CHIPPENDALE has a PhD in Telecommunication and a degree in Information Technology from Lancaster University (UK). He is currently a Senior Researcher in the ICT Centre of Fondazione Bruno Kessler. -
Priming and Negative Priming in Violent Video Games
Priming and Negative Priming in Violent Video Games David Zendle Doctor of Philosophy University of York Computer Science September 2016 Abstract This is a thesis about priming and negative priming in video games. In this context, priming refers to an effect in which processing some concept makes reactions to related concepts easier. Conversely, negative priming refers to an effect in which ignoring some concept makes reactions to related concepts more difficult. The General Aggression Model (GAM) asserts that the depiction of aggression in VVGs leads to the priming of aggression-related concepts. Numerous studies in the literature have seemingly confirmed that this relationship exists. However, recent research has suggested that these results may be the product of confounding. Experiments in the VVG literature commonly use different commercial off- the-shelf video games as different experimental conditions. Uncontrolled variation in gameplay between these games may lead to the observed priming effects, rather than the presence of aggression-related content. Additionally, in contrast to the idea that players of VVGs necessarily process in-game concepts, some theorists have suggested that players instead ignore in-game concepts. This suggests that negative priming rather than priming might happen in VVGs. The first series of experiments reported in this thesis show that priming does not happen in video games when known confounds are controlled. These results also suggest that negative priming may occur in these cases. However, the games used in these experiments were not as realistic as many VVGs currently on the market. This raises concerns that these results may not generalise widely. I therefore ran a further three experiments. -
“Lessons Learned, from Games Preserved”
“Lessons Learned, from Games Preserved” James “Ender” Brown Former Project Lead – http://www.scummvm.org/ [email protected] WhoWho AmAm II ● Grew up gaming and learning to code with the BBC Micro/Archimedes, Commodore 16(!) and Amiga – learnt Unix & VMS by doing naughty things to the Tassie VAX cluster (any locals remember davros and typhoon? :) ● Retro-Gaming Enthusiast by night, Systems Admin for a Perth-based Data Centre and Hosting Company by day ● Became Project Lead of ScummVM in Feb 2002, retiring as co-lead (from a team of 3) in Dec 2008 ● 10th linux.conf.au, first talk submission :) WhatWhat isis ScummVM?ScummVM? ● ScummVM is a collection of interpreter implementations for classic adventure games ● Founded by Ludwig ‘ludde’ Strivegus (uTorrent, OpenTTD, now at Spotify) in 2001, along with Vincent ‘yaz0r’ Hamm (now at Oculus), with the goal of building an interpreter for SCUMM-based games by LucasArts/LucasFilm games. ● Designed to be highly portable ● … evolved to become something much much more PortabilityPortability ● ScummVM architecture evolved early on to maximise portability by abstracting backend and common functions (‘Osystem’), with each port supplying a Osystem backend class (with platform specific overrides and subclassing where necessary) Osystem Backend Osystem Common Engine (Platform Specific) ● Carefully developed coding standards to encompass ‘lowest-common- denominator’ C++ implementations. No STL, Exceptions, etc http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Coding_Conventions ● Ssennaidne ● Endianness ● Segment size limits on various platforms ReimplementingReimplementing EnginesEngines ● Most game studios developed their own engines, often used across a family of games. Examples: SCUMM (LucasArts), AGI/SCI (Sierra), Virtual Theatre (Revolution), AGOS (Adventure Soft) ● Reverse engineer: – Container files – Graphics formats (background, actors, sprites) – Audio formats (voice, sfx, music) – Scripting engine (where scripted.. -
Overview of Schedule
Overview of Schedule Tuesday, August 7 12:00pm - 5:00pm: Graduate Student Pre-Conference 7:00pm - 9:00pm: Opening Reception, Koening Alumni Center (for registrants only) 9:00am - 10:30am: Plenary with John Durham Peters Wednesday, August 8 10:30am - 10:45am: Break 10:45am - 12:15pm: Panel 1 12:15pm - 2:00pm: Lunch 2:00pm - 3:30pm: Panel 2 3:30pm - 4:00pm: Break 5:00pm - 6:30pm: Keynote with Anthea Butler, Old Main Chapel (free & open to the public) 6:30pm - 8:00pm: Reception, Koenig Alumni Center (free & open to the public) Thursday, August 9 9:00am - 10:30am: Panel 3 10:30am - 10:45am: Break 10:45am - 12:15pm: Panel 4 12:15pm - 2:00pm: Lunch 2:00pm - 3:30pm: Panel 5 3:30pm - 4:00pm: Break 4:00pm - 5:30pm: Plenary with Merlyna Lim 5:45pm - 7:15pm: Discussion on Re-Imagining Public and Activist Scholarship Friday, August 10 All-day Field Experiences: Denver, Colorado Springs, and Red Feather Lakes 9:00am - 10:30am: Panel 6 Saturday, August 11 10:30am - 10:45am: Break 10:45am - 12:15pm: Panel 7 12:15pm - 2:00pm: Lunch 2:00pm - 3:30pm: Plenary Panel on Public Scholarship 3:30pm - 4:00pm: Break 4:00pm - 5:30pm: Business Meeting 7:00pm - 9:00pm: Banquet and Presidential Address, Glenn Miller Ballroom, UMC (for registrants only) Sunday, August 12 10:00am - 6:00pm: Post-conference organized by the International Academy for the Study of Religion and Video Gaming (IASGAR), Best Western Plus Boulder Inn *Unless otherwise noted, all events will take place in the University of Colorado Boulder Village Center Dining and Community Commons (3300 Baseline Road, Boulder, CO 80303). -
Beneath a Steel Sky: a Musical Characterisation of Class Structure
The Computer Games Journal https://doi.org/10.1007/s40869-018-0067-6 Beneath a Steel Sky: A Musical Characterisation of Class Structure Andra Ivănescu1 Received: 28 September 2018 / Accepted: 3 October 2018 © The Author(s) 2018 Abstract This article proposes Revolution Software’s Beneath a Steel Sky (1994) as a start- ing point for the analysis of the relationship between music and social class in video games. While other issues of representation have been studied extensively within game studies (gender representation in particular), the representation of class remains an underexplored area. Furthermore, the relationship between video game music and socio-cultural aspects of video game studies is also rarely examined beyond issues of race, ethnicity, and cultural appropriation. This article draws con- nections between these two underexplored areas and analyses the musical charac- terisation of class in the 1994 cyberpunk adventure game, which takes places largely in a literally stratifed metropolis where the three levels of the city act as represen- tations of the three social classes. Here, music plays an important role in terms of environmental storytelling, both as semiotic shorthand, and as a refection of the afordances available to the inhabitants of the city. Keywords Class · Video games · Video game music · Ludomusicology 1 Introduction Issues of representation in video games have been important to video game studies for over two decades, largely focussing on gender (Cassell and Jenkins 1998; Dietz 1998; Kafai et al. 2016; Lynch et al. 2016), and, to a lesser degree, LGBTQ issues (Consalvo 2003; Ruberg and Shaw 2017), and race (Burgess et al. -
Panel Session 1: Wednesday, August 8 10:45Am-12:15Pm
Panel Session 1: Wednesday, August 8 10:45am-12:15pm “There’s an app for that!” Social Media and Virtual Soteriology Multipurpose Room A Dheepa Sundaram, College of Wooster, USA: “‘Instagram your Durgā pūjā!’ A Social Media Experience of Durgā Pūjā in Bengal” Andrea L Stanton, University of Denver, USA: “App’ing the Hajj: Keeping Count of Tawaf and Finding the Restrooms” Tine Vekemans, Ghent University, Belgium: “From Self-Learning Pathshala to Tirth App: The Expanding World of Jain Religious Apps” Owen Gottlieb, Rochester Institute of Technology, USA: “Minecrafting Bar Mitzvah: A Digital Pathway of Inclusion, Self-Expression, and Justice in Jewish Worship” Chair: Benedikt Kastner, University of Hamburg, Germany Roundtable on Teaching Religion and Journalism in the Age of Trump Multipurpose Room B Robert Jensen, University of Texas-Austin, USA Joyce Smith, Ryerson University, Canada Diane Winston, University of Southern California, USA Moderator: Mia Lövheim, Uppsala University, Sweden Streaming the Word: A Roundtable Discussion on Religion Podcasting Multipurpose Room C John Dehlin, Mormon Stories Vincent Horn, Buddhist Geeks Rev. Anne Dunlap, The Word is Resistance Moderator: D. Ashley Campbell, (w)Holy Media podcast creator and host, and University of Colorado Boulder, USA Pope Francis and the Media The View Laurens de Rooij, University of Cape Town, South Africa: “Papal Narratives: The Discourse of Pope Francis, And His Media Representation” Oren Golan and Michele Martini, University of Haifa, Israel: “The Making of Contemporary Papacy: Instagram Strategies and Manufactured Charisma” Gustavo Guizzardi, University of Padova, Italy: “When the Pope is Image” Carlo Nardella, University of Milano, Italy: “Behind the Representation: Pope and Journalists” Chair: Carlo Nardella, University of Milano, Italy Religion and Media in India Breakout Room A Soumi Banerjee, Lund University, Sweden: “The Emerging Hindutva wave in India: Politics of Hated, Collective Memory Mobilisation and Myth-making” Juli L. -
The Digital Watchmakers: Playing with the Sacred in Video Games
Digital Watchmakers: Playing With the Sacred in Digital Games By: Anthony Langley Department of Comparative Religion Abstract Introduction Questions: With video games establishing itself as a multi- Video games are no longer just fun and games. Some games in fact could be argued to not be any •How are video games representing religion, religious elements, and billion dollar industry, academia as a whole has fun at all. In spite of this, they still find ways to become more and more engaging regardless of fun. been slowly looking at the medium as an object of Thus we have now hit a critical point within the games industry where developers can create more spirituality in the various mechanics? study. The field of religious studies has also begun complex games and thus more complex narratives. This creates an atmosphere in which games to take notice of it. At face value, this is a great a have finally reached the maturity in its art form to truly permeate popular culture. In fact they are •What does the abstraction of religions say about those that create way to observe concepts of religiosity in a fairly slowly rivaling other mediums like comics, books and even movies. Therefore, their growing them and those that play them? new medium. In spite of this, the same questions popularity forces the industry to create more and more games that reach all sorts of different are being asked. The first is how are the narrative audiences. It is because of this that I have had a growing interest in studying games as a reflection of games depicting religious motifs? Secondly, what of culture. -
Entertainment Software Rating Board - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia Visited on 10/04/2016 Not Logged in Talk Contributions Create Account Log In
Entertainment Software Rating Board - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Visited on 10/04/2016 Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Article Talk Read Edit View history Entertainment Software Rating Board From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Main page Contents "ESRB" redirects here. For the European financial agency, see European Systemic Risk Featured content Board. Current events "Mature content" redirects here. For other uses, see Pornography. Random article The Entertainment Software Rating Board Donate to Wikipedia Entertainment Software Rating Wikipedia store (ESRB) is a self-regulatory organization that Board assigns age and content ratings, enforces Interaction industry-adopted advertising guidelines, and Help About Wikipedia ensures responsible online privacy principles for Community portal computer and video games in the United States, Recent changes nearly all of Canada, and Mexico. The ESRB was Contact page established in 1994 by the Entertainment Software 2006 – present logo Tools Association (formerly the Interactive Digital What links here Software Association), in response to criticism of Type Non-profit, self-regulatory Related changes violent content found in video games such as Industry Organization and rating system Upload file Night Trap, Mortal Kombat, and other controversial Predecessor 3DO Rating System Special pages Recreational Software Advisory video games with excessively violent or sexual Permanent link Council content. Videogame Rating Council Page information September 16, 1994; 22 years Wikidata -
Ian Bogost CV
IAN BOGOST CURRICULUM VITAE Ivan Allen College Distinguished Chair in Media Studies Professor of Interactive Computing Professor, Scheller College of Business Professor of Architecture Georgia Institute of Technology Founding Partner, Persuasive Games LLC Contributing Editor, The Atlantic CONTACT Georgia Institute of Technology Persuasive Games LLC Digital Media / TSRB 318B 1100 Peachtree St. 85 5th St. NW Suite 200 Atlanta, GA 30308-1030 Atlanta, GA 30309 +1 (404) 894-1160 +1 (404) 907-3770 [email protected] [email protected] bogost.com persuasivegames.com I. EARNED DEGREES Ph.D., Comparative Literature, University of California, Los Angeles, 2004. M.A., Comparative Literature, University of California, Los Angeles, 2001. B.A., Philosophy & Comparative Literature, University of Southern California, 1998. Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa Diplôme Approfondi de Langue Français, Centre International d’Etudes Pédagogiques, 1997. II. EMPLOYMENT 2019–2022 Adjunct Professor (not in residence) Centre for Digital Humanities Brock University St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada 2013 – present Contributing Editor The Atlantic 2012 – present Ivan Allen College Distinguished Chair in Media Studies School of Literature, Media, and Communication, Ivan Allen College Page 1 of 57 Ian Bogost Curriculum Vitae Professor of Interactive Computing School of Interactive Computing, College of Computing Professor of Business (2014–) Scheller College of Business Professor of Architecture (2019–) School of Architecture, College of Design Georgia Institute of Technology -
Worldbuilding Voices in the Soundscapes of Role-Playing Video Games
University of Huddersfield Repository Jennifer, Smith Worldbuilding Voices in the Soundscapes of Role Playing Video Games Original Citation Jennifer, Smith (2020) Worldbuilding Voices in the Soundscapes of Role Playing Video Games. Doctoral thesis, University of Huddersfield. This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/35389/ The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of the University, available on Open Access. Copyright and Moral Rights for the items on this site are retained by the individual author and/or other copyright owners. Users may access full items free of charge; copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided: • The authors, title and full bibliographic details is credited in any copy; • A hyperlink and/or URL is included for the original metadata page; and • The content is not changed in any way. For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: [email protected]. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/ Worldbuilding Voices in the Soundscapes of Role-Playing Video Games Jennifer Caron Smith A thesis submitted to the University of Huddersfield in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Huddersfield October 2020 1 Copyright Statement i. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/ or schedules to this thesis) owns any copyright in it (the “Copyright”) and s/he has given The University of Huddersfield the right to use such Copyright for any administrative, promotional, educational and/or teaching purposes. -
Robert Megone
Robert Megone Hampshire, UK T: +44(0)7736902590 E: [email protected] I previously worked as a Gameplay Programmer on The Darkside Detective, Gameplay Programmer on Beyond a Steel Sky, QA Lead on Thimbleweed Park and Gameplay Programmer on the adventure game Broken Sword: The Serpent’s Curse with development, design and QA credits on over twenty games on Switch, Xbox, PS4, Vita, iOS, Android, PC, Mac & Linux. As a candidate with experience in both the game design and QA fields, I value the iterative development process and thrive in an environment where I can be responsible for making decisions that ensure quality always comes first. Professional Experience Spooky Doorway - Gameplay Programmer(Unity)(July 2020 – Present) Games: - Darkside Detective Season 1(Nintendo Switch, Windows/Mac, PS4/PS5, UWP) - Darkside Detective Season 2(Nintendo Switch, Windows/Mac, PS4/PS5, UWP) • Development of various minigames in C# for Season 2 to support the main gameplay. • Implementation of gameplay using Adventure Creator Action Lists in Unity. • Bug fixing and testing across two games in preparation for publishing to new platforms. Revolution Software - Gameplay Programmer(Unreal Engine 4)(November 2017 – July 2020) Games: - Beyond a Steel Sky(Apple Arcade, Console, Desktop) • Working in Unreal to develop and implement gameplay for a fully 3d adventure game. • Implementing gameplay using blueprint scripting language based upon level design documents. • Implementing NPC AI behaviors using behavior trees. • Implementing motion comic using UMG. • Responsible for the dialogue gesture system implementation on a blueprint code level. • Working with animation blueprints. • Setting up a range of animation montages. Spooky Doorway - QA Tester(November 2017 – July 2020) Games: - Darkside Detective S1(Nintendo Switch, Windows/Mac, PS4/PS5, UWP) - Darkside Detective S2(Nintendo Switch, Windows/Mac, PS4/PS5, UWP) - Sunken Spectre Vertical Slice(Windows) • Testing and reporting of bugs.