@inproceedings{Lovlie2008,
  author    = {L{\o}vlie, Anders Sundnes},
  title     = {The rhetoric of persuasive games : freedom and discipline in America's Army},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-24616},
  year      = {2008},
  abstract  = {This paper suggests an approach to studying the rhetoric of persuasive computer games through comparative analysis. A comparison of the military propaganda game AMERICA'S ARMY to similar shooter games reveals an emphasis on discipline and constraints in all main aspects of the games, demonstrating a preoccupation with ethos more than pathos. Generalizing from this, a model for understanding game rhetoric through balances of freedom and constraints is proposed.},
  language  = {en}
}
@inproceedings{Schrape2008,
  author    = {Schrape, Niklas},
  title     = {Playing with information : how political games encourage the player to cross the magic circle},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-24668},
  year      = {2008},
  abstract  = {The concept of the magic circle suggests that the experience of play is separated from reality. However, in order to interact with a game's rule system, the player has to make meaningful interpretations of its representations - and representations are never neutral. Games with political content refer in their representations explicitly to social discourses. Cues within their representational layers provoke the player to link the experience of play to mental concepts of reality.},
  language  = {en}
}
@inproceedings{HoffstadtNagenborg2008,
  author    = {Hoffstadt, Christian and Nagenborg, Michael},
  title     = {The concept of war in the World of Warcraft},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-24674},
  year      = {2008},
  abstract  = {MMORPGs such as WORLD OF WARCRAFT can be understood as interactive representations of war. Within the frame provided by the program the players experience martial conflicts and thus a "virtual war." The game world however requires a technical and as far as possible invisible infrastructure which has to be protected against attacks: Infrastructure means e.g. the servers on which the data of the player characters and the game's world are saved, as well as the user accounts, which have to be protected, among other things, from "identity theft." Besides the war on the virtual surface of the program we will therefore describe the invisible war concerning the infrastructure, the outbreak of which is always feared by the developers and operators of online-worlds, requiring them to take precautions. Furthermore we would like to focus on "virtual game worlds" as places of complete surveillance. Since action in these worlds is always associated with the production of data, total observation is theoretically possible and put into practice by the so-called "game master." The observation of different communication channels (including user forums) serves to monitor and direct the actions on the virtual battlefield subtly, without the player feeling that his freedom is being limited. Finally, we will compare the fictional theater of war in WORLD OF WARCRAFT to the vision of "Network-Centric Warfare," since it has often been observed that the analysis of MMORPGs is useful to the real trade of war. However, we point out what an unrealistic theater of war WORLD OF WARCRAFT really is.},
  language  = {en}
}
@inproceedings{Pohl2008,
  author    = {Pohl, Kirsten},
  title     = {Ethical reflection and emotional involvement in computer games},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-24652},
  year      = {2008},
  abstract  = {This paper focuses on the way computer games refer to the context of their formation and ask how they might stimulate the user's understanding of the world around him. The central question is: Do computer games have the potential to inspire our reflection about moral and ethical issues? And if so, by which means do they achieve this? Drawing on concepts of the ethical criticism in literary studies as proposed by Wayne C. Booth and Martha Nussbaum, I will argue in favor of an ethical criticism for computer games. Two aspects will be brought into focus: the ethical reflection in the artifact as a whole, and the recipient's emotional involvement. The paper aims at evaluating the interaction of game content and game structure in order to give an adequate insight into the way computer games function and affect us.},
  language  = {en}
}