Archives par mot-clé : videogames

Publication: “Japan’s Contemporary Media Culture between Local and Global: Content, Practice and Theory” (Martin Roth, Hiroshi Yoshida and Martin Picard)

Martin Roth, Hiroshi Yoshida and Martin Picard (dirs.), Japan’s Contemporary Media Culture between Local and Global: Content, Practice and Theory, Berlin, CrossAsia-eBooks, 2021

Presentation

This anthology offers a wide range of research on contemporary media culture in Japan, situating popular media content and its associated practices and theories in the complex interplay between the local and the global. The chapters draw attention to several prominent phenomena, suggest new approaches to the study of media and media cultures, and emphasize the importance of positionality in this context. This volume documents the results of a series of doctoral workshops held in Kyoto and Leipzig between 2017 and 2019, and continues the discussions begun there. Continuer la lecture de Publication: “Japan’s Contemporary Media Culture between Local and Global: Content, Practice and Theory” (Martin Roth, Hiroshi Yoshida and Martin Picard)

Conference : Advances in Computer Games 2021 (International Computer Games Association, online)

Conference : Advances in Computer Games 2021

November 23-25

Online (please register here)

Organized by the International Computer Games Association

Presentation

Welcome to the home page for the Advances in Computer Games conference. The first ACG conference was held in 1975 (then called Advances in Computer Chess). 47 years later, we are still going strong! Since the 1990s, the conference has been organized by the International Computer Games Association.

ACG features cutting edge artificial intelligence technology as applied to computer games. This year’s conference is being held online November 23-25. Attendance is free! Join us for an exciting program of superb keynote speakers and exciting research papers. Continuer la lecture de Conference : Advances in Computer Games 2021 (International Computer Games Association, online)

Séminaire international: Input, Poke & Save – étude de plateformes et histoire des jeux vidéo – Deuxième saison (en ligne)

Séminaire international INPUT, POKE & SAVE: Étude de plateformes et histoire des jeux vidéo – Deuxième saison

Septembre-Décembre 2021

En ligne (Discord)

Organisé par Pierre-Yves Hurel (Liège Game Lab) et Yannick Rochat (GameLab UNIL-EPFL)

Présentation

Entre janvier et juin 2021, le séminaire INPUT, POKE & SAVE a donné lieu à six conférences en ligne faisant un panorama affuté des enjeux liés à l’étude des plateformes et l’étude du jeu vidéo. Ce sont désormais plus d’une centaine de chercheurs et chercheuses, étudiant·e·s, professionnel·le·s du milieu ou amateur·e·s qui sont inscrits au serveur discord où s’est déroulé le séminaire.

Jusqu’à la fin 2021, le séminaire entre désormais dans une nouvelle phase de quatre interventions qui aborderont toutes, depuis différents angles, la question des pratiques liées à ces plateformes, sous l’angle de l’appropriation, de la modification, de la conception et de leur médiatisation. Le séminaire est toujours gratuit, accessible à toutes et tous, et intégralement en ligne. Les sessions ne sont pas enregistrées.

Continuer la lecture de Séminaire international: Input, Poke & Save – étude de plateformes et histoire des jeux vidéo – Deuxième saison (en ligne)

Conference : Replaying Japan 2021 – “Artificial Intelligence in Japanese Game Culture” (University of Alberta, online)

Replaying Japan 2021 – “Artificial Intelligence in Japanese Game Culture

August 9-13, 2021

Online (Zoom and Gather.Town). Register here (for free)

Organized by a partnership of the AI for Society (AI4S) signature area, the Prince Takamado Japan Centre (PTJC), and the Kule Institute for Advanced Study (KIAS) at the University of Alberta. It is organized in collaboration with the Ritsumeikan Center for Game Studies, the University of Delaware, Bath Spa University, Seijoh University, University of Liège, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and DiGRA Japan.

Presentation

Since 2012, when we held the first meeting in Edmonton, the Replaying Japan conference has hosted researchers from various fields conducting research on Japanese game culture. The ninth international conference is also our 10th anniversary meeting. We are returning virtually to the University of Alberta 10 years after we first met for an online conference. We celebrate the rich and international research community that has evolved over the decade.

This year’s conference theme is “Artificial Intelligence in Japanese Game Culture”. Particular attention will therefore be paid to how AI is represented in Japanese games, the evolution of game AIs, and how big data analytics have changed the game industry.

Program

Available here.

With Keynotes from Youichiro MIYAKE (Square Enix, Monday Aug 9) and Eleni STROULIA (University of Alberta, Tuesday Aug 10).

Parution: Narrative Mechanics. Strategies and Meanings in Games and Real Life (Beat Suter, René Bauer, Mela Kocher, eds.)

Beat Suter,  René Bauer and Mela Kocher (eds.), Narrative Mechanics Strategies and Meanings in Games and Real Life, Transcript, 2021

Presentation

What do stories in games have in common with political narratives?

This book identifies narrative strategies as mechanisms for meaning and manipulation in games and real life. It shows that the narrative mechanics so clearly identifiable in games are increasingly used (and abused) in politics and social life. They have »many faces«, displays and interfaces. They occur as texts, recipes, stories, dramas in three acts, movies, videos, tweets, journeys of heroes, but also as rewarding stories in games and as narratives in society – such as a career from rags to riches, the concept of modernity or market economy. Below their surface, however, narrative mechanics are a particular type of motivational design – of game mechanics.

 

 

Appel à contributions: Cartographier la poésie et la politique du bruit vidéoludique (Sciences du jeu, n° 18)

Cartographier la poésie et la politique du bruit vidéoludique

Sciences du jeu, n° 18

Échéance : 30 septembre 2021

Date prévue de parution : 2e semestre 2022

Dossier thématique coordonné par Hugo Montembeault

Appel

Dans son ouvrage Le parasite (1997 [1980]), le philosophe Michel Serres définit le bruit comme un chaos primordial formant une matrice universelle sur laquelle se construisent toutes formes de signification. L’auteur rappelle qu’il n’y a pas « de langage sans chicane où se risque le sens, pas de dessin sans tremblé, de dialogue sans malentendu, de canaux sans grésillements accidentels ni de nature, en somme, sans bruit de fond » (p. 11). Peu importe son domaine d’émergence, le bruit signifie erreur, interférence, interruption, rupture, corruption, distorsion, faux pas, accident, impasse, faille, sabotage, confusion, etc. Le présent numéro de Sciences du jeu se consacre à l’application de ce champ conceptuel aux jeux vidéo et aux expériences bruyantes que ce jeune média potentialise.

Si le bruit est effectivement « une information qui sème la panique », Serres (1997 [1980], p. 15-16) rappelle que celui-ci « ensemence un ordre différent » capable de transformer la vie et la signification. Ce pouvoir transformateur s’observe notamment à travers la longue lignée de subversion esthétique et politique qui relie le bruit aux arts d’avant-garde depuis le début du 20e siècle. Le Futurisme italien, le dadaïsme, Fluxus, le cinéma matérialiste, le mouvement punk, l’art vidéo, le glitch art et plus récemment l’art vidéoludique correspondent à autant de tendances artistiques ayant utilisé le bruit pour faire éclater les conventions artistiques et conceptuelles de leur art et pour articuler une critique radicale de leur société d’appartenance. Suivant cette logique dans son livre Noise Channels : Glitch and Error in Digital Culture, Krapp (2011) théorise le bruit comme moteur d’émancipation des arts sonores. Selon l’auteur, le bruit aménage un « espace d’exploration ludique » (p. 55) pour briser les règles, rompre avec les conventions, déjouer l’horizon d’attente et reformuler la frontière imprécise entre le dissonant et l’assonant. Par conséquent, il conclut que l’« erreur demeure l’avenir » (p. 92) en tant que marge d’expérimentation pour renouveler les arts et ses matières de l’expression.

Continuer la lecture de Appel à contributions: Cartographier la poésie et la politique du bruit vidéoludique (Sciences du jeu, n° 18)

Appel à participation : Complexity Jam

Complexity Jam – Addressing complexity with games and interactive digital narratives

21st-28th May, 2021

Online

Game Jam organized in the context of the INDCOR COST action – Interactive Narrative Design for Complexity Representations

Topic: Post-Pandemic Education

Presentation

Bring your ideas and create a game that supports fun and engaging post-pandemic learning for students!

Join us if you are a game developer, artist, graphic designer, musician, narrative designer, writer or just simply interested in making video games or other interactive digital narratives. Continuer la lecture de Appel à participation : Complexity Jam

Parution : Game Prodution Studies

Olli Sotamaa, Jan Svelch (eds), Game Production Studies, Amsterdam University Press, 2021. 

Video games have entered the cultural mainstream and now rival established forms of entertainment such as film or television in terms of economic profits. As careers in video game development become more common, so do the stories about precarious working conditions and structural inequalities within the industry. In Game Production Studies, an international group of researchers takes a closer look at the everyday realities of video game production, ranging from commercial studios to independent creators. Across sixteen chapters, the authors deal with issues related to labour, production routines, or monetization, as well as local specificities. As the first edited collection dedicated solely to video game production, this volume provides a timely resource for anyone interested in how games are made and at what cost.

Olli Sotamaa is an associate professor of game cultures studies at Tampere University, Finland.

Jan Svelch is a researcher at the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Faculty of Arts at Charles University, Czechia.

Call for Papers: Replaying Japan 2021, The 9th International Japan Game Studies Conference

Conference theme: Artificial Intelligence in Japanese Games

Date: August 9-13, 2021

Location: Hosted Online by the University of Alberta

Conference website

Proposals in Japanese are most welcome! 日本語での発表要旨も受け付けます。

Call for Papers

Since 2012, when we held the first meeting in Edmonton, the Replaying Japan conference has hosted researchers from various fields conducting research on Japanese game culture. The ninth international conference is also our 10th anniversary meeting. We are returning virtually to the University of Alberta 10 years after we first met for an online conference. We celebrate the rich and international research community that has evolved over the decade. Continuer la lecture de Call for Papers: Replaying Japan 2021, The 9th International Japan Game Studies Conference

Parution : Manifest Destiny 2.0. Genre Trouble in Game Worlds

Sara Humphreys, Manifest Destiny 2.0. Genre Trouble in Game Worlds, University of Nebraska Press, 2021. 

At a time when print and film have shown the classic Western and noir genres to be racist, heteronormative, and neocolonial, Sara Humphreys’s Manifest Destiny 2.0asks why these genres endure so prolifically in the video game market. While video games provide a radically new and exciting medium for storytelling, most game narratives do not offer fresh ways of understanding the world.

Video games with complex storylines are based on enduring American literary genres that disseminate problematic ideologies, quelling cultural anxieties over economic, racial, and gender inequality through the institutional acceptance and performance of Anglo cultural, racial, and economic superiority. Although game critics and scholars recognize how genres structure games and gameplay, the concept of genre continues to be viewed as a largely invisible power, subordinate to the computational processes of programming, graphics, and the making of a multimillion-dollar best seller.

Investigating the social and cultural implications of the Western and noir genres in video games through two case studies—the best-selling games Red Dead Redemption (2010) and L.A. Noire (2011)—Humphreys demonstrates how the frontier myth continues to circulate exceptionalist versions of the United States. Video games spread the neoliberal and neocolonial ideologies of the genres even as they create a new form of performative literacy that intensifies the genres well beyond their originating historical contexts. Manifest Destiny 2.0 joins the growing body of scholarship dedicated to the historical, theoretical, critical, and cultural analysis of video games.

Sara Humphreys is an assistant teaching professor of English at the University of Victoria.

Continuer la lecture de Parution : Manifest Destiny 2.0. Genre Trouble in Game Worlds