Author: Natalie Denk

Dr Felix Schniz is the co-founder and programme director of the master’s programme Game Studies and Engineering at Klagenfurt University. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English and American studies from the University of Mannheim, where he subsequently joined the master’s programme Cultural Transformations of the Modern Age: Literature and Media. After asking ‘What is a Videogame Experience?’ In his dissertation, his contemporary research focuses on the meaning of experience, peripatetic meaning-making, the genre theory of virtual worlds, and the subjective quality of the medium videogame.

Co-Author:
Christoph Kaindel – Wiener Bildungsserver (Vienna Education Server)

A Walk in the Park? Designing a Very British Gaming Experience

FROG 2022 – Talk

AI-generated content is the most recent trend in procedural, computer-powered art. Set the parameters and let the voice of the machines answer any muses calling – but is it really that easy? This talk challenges the limits of (self) generated content by focusing on a particularly British creation: The landscape garden in the tradition of Lancelot “Capability” Brown and other 18th-century landscape architects.
In order to triangulate the love/hate relationship between humans, computers, and interactive art, we approach the topic from two counterpointed philosophies. On the one hand, we provide the perspective of the landscaper, architect, and designer. It intends to take the audience from the concrete rules of gardening and landscape to the adaptation of these virtual environments and into the hypothetical field of procedurally generating such landscapes in video games for playful exploration. On the other hand, we enter these playgrounds from the perspective of these very explorers: the real and virtual flaneurs. We provide an overview of British walking traditions, the concept of flaneurism, and how far it may help us understand the appeal of video game genres such as the walking simulator.
Our thesis, which serves as a leitmotif through this back and forth, is that landscapers and flaneurs are equally artists, striving to achieve beauty in their deeds. At the same time, however, they are equally entangled in freedoms and oppressions due to their relationship. Our talk juxtaposes the freedoms and strict rules of landscape creators to the free will – or the lack thereof – of the promenading explorer setting out to make specific experiences. Through these interplayed observations, we ultimately challenge the concept of artistic creation of the human being in the digital age and ask, in conclusion, and together with the audience:
How can we quantify the logical rulebook of virtual landscape gardens – and if yes, would we even desire to do so?

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Rebekah Tumasus and Alon Kfir are graduates of the M.Des degree in Digital Game Design and Development at Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art In Ramat-Gan, Israel.

They are both also graduates of the Open University of Israel’s Video Game Design certificate program. Rebekah has a B.Sc in Biology from Tel-Aviv University and is currently employed at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Alon has a B.A. in Economic and East Asian Studies from Tel-Aviv University and currently works as a game designer in the mobile gaming industry.

Further Discussion on Companion NPC Design: Narrative Hierarchies, Ludic Affordances, their Evolutions and the In-Game Impact

FROG 2022 – Talk

Past works have been published about non-player characters in digital games, as well as specifically about companion characters that accompany the player throughout the majority of the game. Design characteristics that promote companion believability have been proposed and iterated upon. This work proposes two new design aspects that describe the dynamics between the companion and player characters and, thereby, with the players themselves. First is the Narrative Hierarchy describing the power balance and strength of the bond between the player character and the companion from a narrative perspective. Second are Ludic Affordances representing the level of control the player has over the companion. These two design aspects can change or remain static throughout the game. The level of intersection of these aspects, as defined by this work, is the Ludo-Narrative Co-Evolution. Upon examining the proposed aspects and their potential development throughout seven selected case studies of existing games, two additional design aspects relating to the Ludo-Narrative Co-Evolution have emerged. These aspects are Correlation and Synchronicity. Correlation determines whether or not the Narrative Hierarchy and the players’ Ludic Affordances over the CNPC evolve in a similar direction. Synchronicity examines the game moments when either the Narrative Hierarchy or Ludic Affordances change (or both together) and whether those moments of transformation are shared by the narrative and gameplay or not. Finally, a new case study was designed with two scenarios, positive and negative evolutions, where the Narrative Hierarchy and Ludic Affordances evolve in tandem. It presents a Ludo-Narrative Co-Evolution which is both positively Correlated and Synchronous.

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Lulamile Mohapi is a Games Developer/ Entrepreneur/ Educator, and an Accidental Techno-activist. In 2019, his docu-tribute 2D game on Winnie Mandela was presented at The NEoN RE@CT Digital Arts Festival in Scotland, where he, and various academics from across the globe demonstrated how video games and immersive techno-Art cultures (VR/ AR/XR, etc) play a role in critical thinking and social change. Between 2018-2019 he taught Game Design at Wits University.

He is the Founding CEO of Fishknife Gamelab, a Game Studio based in Johannesburg. Lulamile consults on Intellectual Property; Digital Entrepreneurship; and Cultural and Economic Policy for video games.

Video Games and the New Apartheid: Algorithmic Toyi-toyi; Press “T” to Toyi-toyi; Theorizing vernacular game design frameworks from the virtual margins

FROG 2022 – Talk

This article applies Sizwe Mpofu Walsh’s theory on “The New Apartheid”; combines Lindsay Grace’s Critical Game Design concepts with Miguel Sicart’s literature on Political Games, to discourse on the digital embodiment of the marginalized people in video game design; and to propose or formalize what I shall term “algorithmic toyi-toyi” and “Press ‘T’ to Toyi toyi” as resistance-based game mechanic(s) design framework from the oppressed. Toyi-toyi is a procedural interchange of song; dance; and resistance slogans performed in South Africa’s political protests. Such performances convey participatory and liberatory forms of expression which I argue, should not only find algorithmic interpretation as techne (through game mechanics/ systems design or in Ian Bogost’s Procedural rhetoric) but also in using games as a catalyst in the struggle against the New Apartheid (The perpetual privatization of apartheid in social engineering) ; and in using games for promoting dialogue and freedom.

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Dr. Mario Donick has studied German language & literature and history at the University of Rostock. He has a PhD in Communication Studies. He works as independent author and researcher. Books and articles on human computer interaction & society, as well as computer games.

Playing differently. How to escape the limitations of Designed Games

FROG 2022 – Talk

Many commercial games allow for just one or just a few possible ways of playing. They present problems to solve, and the methods for solving these problems are constricted by the affordances of game design (which in itself has to adhere to other contraints, such as economic ones). Gaming media reinforce the intended ways of playing (by presenting ways to “beat” a game or by teaching how to play in the most efficient way).

This talk invites to reject this traditional way of playing. The talk will follow 3 main differences:

1) the player as subject (in contrast to seeing the player as system in a socio-technical relation to the game environment) (This difference arises from my own PhD thesis (2016) which had partly the perspective of social systems theory on human computer interaction)

2) being creative (instead of being just “busy”). (This difference goes back to Erich Fromm’s thoughts about “Geschäftigkeit” vs. “Tätig-sein”)

3) experiencing a full gaming “situation” (instead of just a “constellation” of parts) (This difference is influenced by neo-phenomenological concepts / Hermann Schmitz)

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Chris Binder is an artist and trainer for media literacy and game-based learning. He consults and speaks on the topics of media literacy, games, and art. Since 2020, he has working together closely with the Landesmedienzentrum Baden-Württemberg on the project „BLOCKALOT: The Creative Minetest Server for Future-Oriented Learning“

Future-oriented learning with the sandbox game Minetest and BLOCKALOT, a web dashboard for learning partners

FROG 2022 – Talk

Game-based Learning has been put forth as a promising new strand of education that could lead to better learner interaction and motivation, new ways of visualizing and developing competencies and to collaborative and creative problem-solving. But how can one strike the balance between the right amount of rules and mechanics on the one hand and player freedom on the other?

Since 2020, the Landesmedienzentrum Baden-Württemberg (LMZ) has been closely working together with educators, future-oriented learning experts and technicians to build a platform for game-based learning that uses the free and open-source sandbox game Minetest. Together with the web dashboard BLOCKALOT, learning partners (formerly known as teachers) can not only create their own learning environments, they can also access templates to customize and materials to get inspired. This talk will give an overview of some of the results and experiences that have emerged over the 2 years since the start of the project. One of these is the Oasis, a learning environment that enables learners to explore, simulate, collaborate, plan and code.

Then there is an in-game suggestion for the compulsory Basiskurs Medienbildung for the schools of Baden-Württemberg in Germany in which learners take on challenges, translate findings into the physical world and collaborate to achieve a sustainable world.
In the future, we want the community to grow and provide even more focused support tor the learning partners involved. The project’s declared goal is to build an international network, a community of practice that will establish game-based learning with Minetest as a clear alternative for traditional teaching.

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Sonja Gabriel works as a professor for media literacy at University Teacher College Vienna/Krems (Austria). Her primary focus of research is on digital game-based learning and using serious games and gamification for teaching different subjects at school and university as well as evaluation of various projects for learning with games and game-design approaches. Another focus of interest is the use of digital games for teaching values to players.

The potential of serious games in training people to become better citizens

FROG 2022 – Talk

Games – especially serious games – have become a vital part of teaching and learning within the last decades. Not only are they used to teach history, geography or maths but more and more to teach values and ethics. In Poland, for example the game This War of Mine was added to the official reading list for schools and should be used in ethics or social studies lessons. The questions that often arise are if ethics and morale can be taught at all and more specially when talking about digital game-based learning in how far are games better qualified to teach young people about freedom and oppression compared to other media. One reason quite often cited that games are a better choice of teaching material is motivation. The Self-Determination Theory by Ryan & Deci mentions three requirements for motivation: competence, autonomy and relatedness. Digital games, however, sometimes also use different means of motivation which are more of a gamified sort (like points, leaderboards) and which might work to keep players inside the game but not very likely to change their point of view or attitudes towards a certain topic. By having a closer look at some serious games dealing with freedom, oppression and anti war themes and contrasting the motivational structures used by game designers with Self-Determination Theory, the contribution wants to show if digital games have the potential to teach (Western society) values and guide players towards a better understanding of the concepts (re)presented in the game.

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Stephanie Wössner is innovation team leader at the Landesmedienzentrum Baden-Württemberg. She is also a freelance consultant and speaker for future-oriented learning. Her areas of expertise are Extended Reality (XR), Game-based Learning (GBL) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), as well as design and futures thinking and the Metaverse.

Let‘s play! Future-oriented learning with games

FROG 2022 – Talk

Digital devices have become increasingly popular in classrooms and come with a great potential of transforming learning. Nevertheless, teachers continue to prepare “lessons” and implement them instead of letting Gen Z and Gen Alpha become agents of their own learning and taking on the role of learning partners. However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that neither the use of devices per se nor good lesson planning and implementation are a guarantee for “learning success” and learner motivation – or a good future. But how can this be explained?
In a nutshell: future-oriented learning requires us to reconsider everything we take for granted. Therefore, it is time to leave the familiar paths and come up with ideas on how we can support learners in learning the things they will need for their future as responsible (German, European, world) citizens in the digital age and provide them with the skills that will enable them to shape their (and our) future.

Game-based learning is of particular interest in this context because learning opportunities can easily be designed using games. It is of utmost importance that learners actively create and share content in cooperation with their peers.

After a brief look at the world we live in, we will consider a few future-oriented pedagogical approaches anyone can use to design learning experiences and adventures. We will then focus on three concrete examples:

• Designing a sustainable future with Minetest
• Making sure democracy will prevail by approaching This War of Mine from different angles (e.g. analysis, game design, creative gaming)
• Experiencing gender and diversity through the Sims 4

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