@article{Wiemer2010, author = {Wiemer, Serjoscha}, title = {Playing on the plane of immanence}, series = {DIGAREC series}, journal = {DIGAREC series}, number = {4}, issn = {1867-6227}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-42765}, pages = {166 -- 195}, year = {2010}, abstract = {In recent years computer games have been discussed by a variety of disciplines from various perspectives. A fundamental difference with other media, which is a point of continuous consideration, is the specific relationship between the viewer and the image, the player and the game apparatus, which is a characteristic of video games as a dispositive. Terms such as immersion, participation, interactivity, or ergodic are an indication of the deep interest in this constellation. This paper explores the resonance between body and image in video games like REZ, SOUL CALIBUR and DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION from the perspective of a temporal ontology of the image, taking particular account of the structuring power of the interface and its subject positioning aspects.}, language = {en} } @book{Venus2010, author = {Venus, Jochen}, title = {Simulation of self-action : on the morphology of remote-controlled role playing}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-42770}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2010}, abstract = {Computer games may be defined as artifacts that connect the input devices of a computer (such as keyboard, mouse or controller) with its output devices (in most cases a screen and speakers) in such a way that on the screen a challenge is displayed. On the screen we see pictorial elements that have to be manipulated to master a game, that is to win a competition, to solve a riddle or to adopt a skill. Therefore the characteristics of the representational function of computer games have to be contrasted phenomenologically with conventional games on the one hand and cinematic depictions on the other. It shows that computer games separate the player from the playing field, and translate bodily felt concrete actions into situational abstract cinematic depictions. These features add up to the situational abstract presentation of self-action experience. In this framework computer games reveal a potential as a new means of shared cognition that might unfold in the 21st century and change the beingin- the-world in a similar way as cinematic depiction did in the 20th century}, language = {en} } @article{CermakSassenrath2010, author = {Cermak-Sassenrath, Daniel}, title = {The logic of play in everyday human-computer interaction}, series = {DIGAREC series}, journal = {DIGAREC series}, number = {4}, issn = {1867-6227}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-42720}, pages = {80 -- 108}, year = {2010}, abstract = {Communication, simulation, interactive narrative and ubiquitous computing are widely accepted as perspectives in humancomputer interaction. This paper proposes play as another possible perspective. Everyday uses of the computer increasingly show signs of similarity to play. This is not discussed with regard to the so-called media society, the playful society, the growing cultural acceptance of the computer, the spread of computer games or a new version of Windows, but in view of the playful character of interaction with the computer that has always been part of it. The exploratory learning process involved with new software and the creative tasks that are often undertaken when using the computer may support this argument. Together with its high level of interactivity, these observations point to a sense of security, autonomy and freedom of the user that produce play and are, in turn, produced by play. This notion of play refers not to the playing of computer games, but to an implicit, abstract (or symbolic) process based on a certain attitude, the play spirit. This attitude is discussed regarding everyday computer use and related to the other mentioned perspectives.}, language = {en} } @article{Kuecklich2010, author = {K{\"u}cklich, Julian}, title = {Seki}, series = {DIGAREC series}, journal = {DIGAREC series}, number = {4}, issn = {1867-6227}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-42700}, pages = {36 -- 62}, year = {2010}, abstract = {Game space can be conceived of as being structured by varying levels of ruledness, i.e. it oscillates between openness and closure, between playability and gameness. The movement through game space can then be described as a vector defined by possibility spaces, which are generated organically out of the interplay between ruled and unruled space. But we can only define rules ex negativo, therefore the possibility of breaking the rules is always already inscribed in this vector of movement. This can be conceptualized as a boundary operation that takes the difference between 'ordinary life' and 'play' as its argument, and which thus generates the difference between 'play' and 'game'.}, language = {en} } @article{Butler2010, author = {Butler, Mark}, title = {On reality and simulation in an extra-moral sense}, series = {DIGAREC series}, journal = {DIGAREC series}, number = {4}, issn = {1867-6227}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-42787}, pages = {212 -- 236}, year = {2010}, abstract = {This paper is a critical examination of the relationship between reality and simulation. After a brief theoretical introduction, it unfolds its argument on an empirical level, using a thick game playing description of GRAND THEFT AUTO IV. This in-game experience serves as material for the subsequent analysis, in the course of which defining characteristics of computer game playing are formulated. Finally, on the basis of this analysis, the paper postulates the hypothesis that playing computer games like GTA IV promotes competency in deconstructing simulations and implements a cyclic logic of recreation.}, language = {en} } @article{Nohr2010, author = {Nohr, Rolf F.}, title = {The naturalization of knowledge}, series = {DIGAREC series}, journal = {DIGAREC series}, number = {4}, issn = {1867-6227}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-42746}, pages = {130 -- 145}, year = {2010}, abstract = {Reflecting on how and with what kind of consequences something artificial, something manufactured becomes naturalized in video games will be the central issue of this text. It deals with the question of how the video game hides its artificiality in terms of technique. In a certain sense this retrieves one of the fundamental questions of modernity and industrialization: How does the manufacturing of our environment become a naturalized, self-evident and indubitable process?}, language = {en} } @article{Warnke2010, author = {Warnke, Martin}, title = {Logic as a medium}, series = {DIGAREC series}, journal = {DIGAREC series}, number = {4}, issn = {1867-6227}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-42710}, pages = {64 -- 78}, year = {2010}, abstract = {Computer games are rigid in a peculiar way: the logic of computation was the first to shape the early games. The logic of interactivity marked the action genre of games in the second place, while in massive multiplayer online gaming all the emergences of the net occur to confront us with just another type of logic. These logics are the media in which the specific forms of computer games evolve. Therefore, a look at gaming supposing that there are three eras of computation is taken: the early synthetical era, ruled by the Turing machine and by mainframe computers, by the IPO principle of computing; the second, mimetical era, when interactivity and graphical user interfaces dominate, the domain of the feedback loop; and the third, emergent era, in which the complexity of networked personal computers and their users is dominant.}, language = {en} } @article{GuenzelLiebeMersch2010, author = {G{\"u}nzel, Stephan and Liebe, Michael and Mersch, Dieter}, title = {Logic and structure of the computer game}, series = {DIGAREC series}, journal = {DIGAREC series}, number = {4}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1867-6227}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-43020}, pages = {16 -- 35}, year = {2010}, abstract = {This paper comprises four parts. Firstly, an overview of the mathematics of decision logic in relation to games and of the construction of narration and characters is given. This includes specific limits of the use of decision logic pertaining to games in general and to storytelling in particular. Secondly, the rule system as the medial unconsciousness is focused on. Thirdly, remarks are made on the debate between ludology and narratology, which had to fail as it missed the crucial point: the computer game as a medium. Finally, gaming in general, as well as its relationship to chance, coincidence, emergence, and event is discussed.}, language = {en} } @article{Wenz2010, author = {Wenz, Karin}, title = {Narrative logics of digital games}, series = {DIGAREC series}, journal = {DIGAREC series}, number = {4}, issn = {1867-6227}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-42750}, pages = {146 -- 164}, year = {2010}, abstract = {The debate whether to locate the narrative of digital games a) as part of the code or b) as part of the performance will be the starting point for an analysis of two roleplaying games: the single-player game ZELDA: MAJORA'S MASK and the Korean MMORPG AION and their respective narrative logics. When we understand games as abstract code systems, then the narrative logic can be understood as embedded on the code level. With a focus on the player's performance, the actualization of the possibilities given in the code system is central. Both logics, that of code and that of performance, are reflected in players' narratives based on the playing experience. They do reflect on the underlying code and rules of the game system as they do reflect on the game world and their own performance within. These narratives rely heavily on the source text - the digital game -, which means that they give insights into the underlying logics of the source text. I will discuss the game structure, the players' performance while playing the game and the performance of the player after playing the game producing fan narratives. I conceive the narrative structure and the performance of the player playing as necessarily interconnected when we discuss the narrative logics of a game. Producing fan narratives is understood as a performance as well. This performance is based on the experience the players made while playing and refers to both logics of the game they use as their source text.}, language = {en} } @article{Nitsche2010, author = {Nitsche, Michael}, title = {Games as structures for mediated performances}, series = {DIGAREC series}, journal = {DIGAREC series}, number = {4}, issn = {1867-6227}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-42730}, pages = {110 -- 129}, year = {2010}, abstract = {Video games structure play as performance in both the virtual and the physical space. On the one hand, the player encounters game worlds as virtual stages to act upon. On the other hand, the game world stages the player and re-frames the play space. This essay sets out to suggest some of the elements that are at work in this dualism of games as performative media. The two key elements here are the mediation of the game environment and the transformation of the player through virtual puppetry. Both cases will be argued with a focus on spatiality in performance.}, language = {en} }