Category: FROG Talk 2020

Hossein Mohammadzade began his academic research in game studies with his thesis for his master’s degree in English Language and Literature at the University of Guilan. His main area of interest is the relationship between ideology, narrative, and videogames.

Resource Wars: From Gameworlds to Physical Reality

FROG 2020 – Short Talk

Whether raiding a settlement in an online strategy game such as Clash of Clans or Lords Mobile, or exploring the retro-futuristic, post-apocalyptic landscapes of Fallout 4, or even reading a magazine in the AI-driven 2038 of Detroit: Become Human, players come across the concept of resource wars. While such wars have happened in the physical world, its anticipation both in the retro-futuristic universe of Fallout 4 and in the futuristic one of Detroit: Become Human could have significant implications. Despite their drastically different timelines and forms of technology, they both anticipate a lack of resources that leads to war. Moreover, with the introduction of new devices, technological developments, and a massive population growth, there is also a concern for the resources needed for such a superfluity. Therefore, if different types of technology which are advertised as convenient and efficient in various ways cannot prevent a critical shortage of those resources, does a comparison of the two games reveal a more fundamental, omnipresent problem? This study tries to demonstrate that an analysis of these games shows how excessive production and consumption in pursuit of more profit lead to death and destruction instead of improving the quality of people’s lives. It also tries to answer this question: Do these games implicitly suggest an urgent need to substitute dominant modes of production, or do they hint at a gradual adaptation or reform of current economic systems or modes of production?

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Samuel Poirier-Poulin holds a master’s degree in anthropology from the University of Toronto, Canada, and is currently a master’s student in game studies at Tampereen yliopisto/Tampere University, Finland. His research interests include horror films and horror video games, trauma studies, autoethnography, and sexuality studies. Samuel is vice editor at Press Start, and the founder and director of Pika-Pi!, a reading circle that works toward decentering game studies.

Sexual Humour, Virtual Romance, and Queer Space in Coming Out on Top

FROG 2020 – Short Talk

Despite an increase in the number of video games portraying the life of queer folks (Greer, 2013; Holmes, 2016; Shaw et al., 2019), queer characters in most games continue to be tragically framed. Whereas Sam in Gone Home (The Fullbright Company, 2013) lives a secret love story and must face the homophobic reaction of her parents, Dave in Firewatch (Campo Santo, 2016) has unrequited feelings for Ron and gets badly beaten at a bar for being gay. As Alexandra (2018) puts it: “while games allow us to be many things—space marines, mages, and tenacious heroes—they rarely allow queer people to be happy” (para. 1). In contrast, Coming Out on Top (Obscurasoft, 2014), a gay-themed visual novel and dating simulator, follows the conventions of the comedy genre. The game tells the story of Mark Matthews, a college student who recently made his coming-out, and focuses on his last academic year, his friendship with his roommates, and his romantic and sexual life. The game is a mix of situational, romantic, and gross-out comedy, and contains erotic and pornographic elements. While the game has been criticized for reinforcing the idea of consumable gay male bodies (Harper, 2015), a qualitative analysis of 514 reviews published on Steam (in English, French, and Spanish) reveals that most players enjoyed the game. Players describe the game as funny and fun to play, and as full of love and sexy scenes. Two elements seem to stand out from the game: its humour and its sexual content. With the understanding that humour can create a safe environment (Dormann & Biddle, 2009) and can be a powerful tool to explore sexuality, including that of marginalized folks, this paper analyzes sexual humour in COOT. I use the tools of netnography (Kozinets, 2015) and close reading (Bizzocchi & Tanenbaum, 2011) to create a dialogue between my own gayming experience, the experience of other players, and previous scholarship on humour. Building on the concept of affordance, I ultimately argue that COOT leaves a positive impression on queer players because it offers them something relatively new in the world of video games: the possibility to laugh and imagine their lives in a positive and fun way.

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Dr. Mathias Lux is Associate Professor at the Institute for Information Technology (ITEC) at Klagenfurt University. He is working on user intentions in multimedia retrieval and production, semantics in social multimedia systems, and interactive multimedia in the domain of video games. In his scientific career he has (co-) authored more than 100 scientific publications, serves in multiple program committees and as reviewer of international conferences, journals and magazines on a regular basis, and has (co-)organized multiple scientific events. Mathias Lux is also well known for the development of the award winning and popular open source tools Caliph & Emir and LIRE for multimedia information retrieval. He has integrated image indexing and retrieval features in the popular Apache Solr search server and his system is for instance powering the WIPO Global Brand Database. At Klagenfurt University he has established a lively community of game developers and enthusiasts who meet at regular events and game jams.

Analyzing Usage Patterns in Online Games

FROG 2020 – Short Talk

Co-Authors:
Wilfried Elmenreich

A typical life cycle of a game is reflected in its usage patterns. A game first builds a user base, then reaches an absolute peak to then online is played by a minimum number of dedicated fans at the end of its life. However, in games, especially multiplayer and massive multiplayer ones, extraordinary events can be observed as peaks in usage. For the usage of video games, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted usage as it had on the game business itself. However, research lacks data to investigate these relations further. Usage statistics of games are rarely accessible for researchers. In this paper, we relate usage statistics to viewership and popularity of a game on Twitch.tv. In a first study, data from the online role-playing game (MMORPG) Eternal Lands is analyzed. Eternal Lands is a free, multiplayer, online game that was created already in 2002. The usage patterns show day/night cycles of players in the prime time of the time zones where most players are located and increased playing activity on weekends. A general trend over time shows a slowly diminishing userbase over the years since its introduction. In April 2020, a significant rise of user activities can be observed, attributed to lockdowns in many countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since user statistics from Eternal Lands are shown on a per-user basis, it is possible to distinguish two patterns for this time. Regular players invest more time playing the game during the lockdown. In contrast, new or recurring players, who have not played the game intensively before, were looking for a distraction during the lockdown. In a second study, we focus on complementary viewer statistics on the popular game streaming platform Twitch.tv. We can easily observe that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the playing time, as mentioned earlier. We relate usage data to viewership and streaming statistics of popular games. With the example of Eternal Lands, being a game that never went viral, we discuss the possibility of app roximating a game’s popularity through game streaming and viewership thereof.

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Bastian Krupp recently completed his M.A. in action-oriented media pedagogy at the Danube-University Krems. He wrote his Master-Thesis on the connection between the development of emotional intelligence and gaming. As a trained educator and studied social worker, he is interested in the effect of digital games as a methodical instrument for initialising educational processes. Since 2017 he has been working as a social pedagogical director in open youth work, where he has been able to realise numerous projects with and through games, such as eSport.

On the connection between the development of emotional intelligence and gaming

FROG 2020 – Short Talk

Digital games have been an integral part of individual media biographies for half a century now. More than one third of Germans play regularly. For society as a whole and for media education in particular, this raises the question of the “right” way to deal with digital games in educational activities. Up to now, social evaluation has been primarily based on the consideration of ascribed risks (see discourse on “killer games” and the loss of empathy through glorification of violence and social isolation). If the potential risks are made the central origin of a social debate, they also control pedagogical action. A benevolent societal attitude toward digital games helps media education to gain greater recognition for its pedagogical use, which has already produced impressive successes for learning and educational processes. Scientifically, there are few relevant research results on the effect of digital games on the development of empathy. Emotional intelligence (EQ) is still a young field of research but is not being considered in the context of digital games. This thesis deals with the question of the effect of digital games on emotional intelligence by means of a quantitative survey of gamers. The results show that gamers, in principle, have no differences in the development of emotional intelligence compared to non-gamers. Thus, they represent an important finding for a social as well as a scientific debate about their recognition as cultural assets. The identification of gender-specific differences also draws attention to the lack of diversity in gaming, which is still characterized by ideals of masculinity and in whose environment women are repeatedly confronted with sexism. In society, as in media education, there is a need for a reformation that allows for a sharpening of the view for the positive effects of digital games and addresses problematic conditions in the gaming scene.

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Tanja Sihvonen is professor of Communication Studies at the University of Vaasa, Finland. She is specialized in digital media, games, and participatory cultures on the internet. Her most recent work considers astroturfing, monsters, and cryptogames.

Narrative Transformations and Cultural Appropriation. Placemaking in Assassin’s Creed: Origins Discovery Tour Mode

FROG 2020 – Short Talk

Co-Authors:
Mona Khattab (Communication Studies, University of Vaasa)
Sabine Harrer (Game Design Department Gotland, Uppsala University, Sweden)

Assassin’s Creed (Ubisoft, 2007-) is an action-adventure stealth video game franchise that lets its player delve into history, from Renaissance-era Florence to Victorian London. In this presentation, we aim at understanding the purpose of placemaking as a technology for virtual and identity tourism. More particularly, we will perform a close-reading of the ‘discovery tour mode’ function in Assassin’s Creed: Origins (henceforth: ACO, 2018), a game that takes place in Ancient Egypt. We argue that due to its quasi-touristic staging of an ancient civilisation, the discovery tour mode is a particularly potent feature in exploring how games render history palatable for an implied white Western audience. What makes the discovery tour mode specifically interesting is the focus that ACO has on the perceived othering and cultural appropriation of classical civilizations. Othering is a tool frequently employed in games seeking to immerse players into ‘exotic’ places constructed from imperial cartographic memory. The presentation unpacks this phenomenon in three sections that analyse placemaking in ACO through three different-level narrative viewpoints. The first of these examines the depiction of Egypt through which the real historical and geographical location is reimagined as a game environment. This section focuses on the transcultural representation of Egypt as the exoticized Other in the representational context of the global south. The second section highlights the centrality of the main character in the game narrative and the structure of the game. The third section addresses the intersectionality of narrativity and cultural representation as immersive, spatially organized experiences and studies these in the theoretical frame of placemaking and the game’s potential for virtual and identity tourism. This talk combines textual analysis of game objects and environments to autoethnographic observation and geographical understanding of real-world locations turned into reappropriated game places. The conclusion highlights the intersectionality of cultural and narratological trajectories within the framework of placemaking, leading to an assessment of the potential of creating virtual tours of historically and geographically non-Western locations.

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For more than 20 years I have been working as a social pedagogue in various fields of activity. As an experienced former head of a school class for potential dropouts, I used digital games for several years to promote the search for identity. Games game me easy access to the young people, so that I could offer pedagogical support to potential dropouts. Digital games enabled the young people to deal with sensitive issues of a game in relation to their own identity. I Aam currently working as a policy maker at the Resource Centre for non-formal Education of Luxembourg secondary schools.

In search of identity through the game “Gris”

FROG 2020 – Short Talk

Searching the own identity trough the game Gris? Gris is a stylish game that deals with the topic of depression. During the gameplay the avatar develops with great care. His healing process until the pain is accepted is the main part of the game. How can the game scenario of Gris contribute to the individual search for identity? In identity crises we must be aware of the many forms of identity crises, as social crises, individual crises and individual crises of meaning. Differences between public and social identity imply a different view of perspectives, whether personal or public. Social interaction is essential in the search for identity. The ability to perceive and understand one’s own inner being and emotions enables system-oriented processes to be created within a peer group. Emotions, changes and (personal) contact are essential for identity, as they have a common/influencing effect on each of them. The prerequisite for this is the ability to change perspectives. This ability is acquired through cognition, which must be supported by the public community in order for people to benefit from this development. Accordingly, the educational aspect and equal access to education represent the conclusion of the search for identity.

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Swen Körner is a professor at the German Sport University Cologne and Head of Department for Training Pedagogy and Martial Research. His research is geared towards the optimization of police education and training, practical issues of evidence based violence prevention and the relevance of martial arts in different domains of modern society.

train2fight the virus – possibilities of university online teaching in sports

FROG 2020 – Short Talk

Co-Authors:
Mario S. Staller (University of Applied Sciences for Police and Administration, North Rhine Westphalia)

The spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Germany and the general restrictions on social contacts decided upon pose major challenges for institutional teaching and learning settings (Koerner & Staller, 2020). In March 2020, a collective helplessness quickly spread among many lecturers at the German Sport University Cologne (DSHS), one of the world’s most renowned sport universities, as a result of the ban on face-to-face teaching. While online based solutions were already known and proven for theory courses primary dealing with cognitive contents, for online practical teaching using electronic devices for the learning of motor and tactical skills neither experience nor orientation was available. In order for the practical teaching to take place under conditions of COVID-19 innovative and adapted solutions were in need, which at the same time at least principally meet the demands of the respective university curriculum. In the case of DSHS` regular “self-defence” module, this meant that students had to be enabled to “understand and practically apply basic principles of self-defence” (DSHS, 2020) by means of online teaching. The paper presents the conceptual framework of DSHS` university “self-defence” course developed specifically for this challenge, in which elements of gamification (Schell, 2008; Fischer et al., 2017) play a driving role.

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Mario Staller is a professor at the University of Applied Sciences for Police and Administration North Rhine Westphalia in the Department of Policing. His research focuses on the professionalization of police education and training both on a practical and an organizational level. Furthermore, current research projects include evidence-based violence prevention and coach development within these settings.

Is there more? – On the (non-)definition of gamified teaching

FROG 2020 – Short Talk

Co-Authors:
Swen Körner (German Sport University Cologne, Department for Training Pedagogy and Martial Research)

The gamification of higher education has potential (Bai et al., 2020; Sailer & Sailer, 2020). The range of possibilities for gamification is diverse and does not appear to be definitively determined (Toda et al., 2019). However, there is consensus that gamification must not impair the effectiveness of learning setting (operationalized as learning that has taken place) in higher education (Fischer et al., 2017). Accordingly, empirical research on the effectiveness of gamification focuses mainly on its direct benefits (e.g., motivation, commitment, learning process performance, retention or application of the taught content). The focus on the effectiveness of a gamified learning environment seems to encourage the application of game-design elements that are primarily related to performance (progress, development and feedback): Points, levels, challenges, trophies, rankings. Thus there is a danger that design elements with primary effects, which are more on an emotional level, are less focused upon limiting the gamified learning experience or not developing the full potential of a gamified learning setting. This article discusses possibilities of an open gamification environment on the basis of a case study in a psychology course at a police academy. The focus is on the planning and reflection process of the teaching, which transcends the possible restrictive definition of gamification.

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Dr. Tobias Unterhuber studied modern German literature, comparative literature and study of religion at LMU Munich and at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2018, he earned his PhD with his thesis on the works of Swiss author Christian Kracht. He is a post-doc for literature and media studies at the Leopold-Franzens University Innsbruck. In addition to pop literature, literary theory, discourse analysis, literature & economics and gender studies, his research interests include video game research in the field of cultural studies. He is an editor of the game studies journal PAIDIA.

The loss and restriction of ludic and political agency in games

FROG 2020 – Short Talk

Agency is not only a central term in game studies but also “[a] crucial term in the theory and practice of feminism, as indeed any politics.” (Andermahr et. al. 1997, p. 13) What we are allowed and what we ought to do in a society is the range of our agency. Laws, implicit and explicit rules, ethics and authority limit it. Furthermore, tactics of marginalization, often based on race, gender and class, restrict people’s agency even further. Discriminatory behavior and structural violence thus can be described as attempts to restrict the agency of marginalized people. However, how is this related to agency in video games? The specific mediallity of video games always affords players agency. The range may vary but it is essential for games that players can choose their actions, to make choices – be it on the macro, micro or substructure level (Cf. Backe 2008). Video games offer players “the satisfying power to take meaningful action and see the results of our decisions and choices” (Murray 1998, p. 129). This has two consequences: 1. Society and games are both rule-governed systems, which give players and people agency. Therefore, ludic agency can act as a structural analogy of political and social agency. Players’ agency can represent the player character’s agency in a fictional world and society. 2. Since players are accustomed to having agency, the loss and restriction of their agency can be a powerful tool to show the aforementioned analogy and to let players experience, in a safe media environment, how people’s agency are not identical based on their class, their race and their gender. The presentation wants to show how games implement situations of agency loss and restricted agency to represent lost and restricted social and political agency and o not only show the players but let them experience how discriminatory systems work.

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Jori Linnamäki is a PhD student at Tampere University, making his doctoral dissertation in Games Research about in-game thinking of players, ethical processes in game design, and understanding the connection between psychodrama and live games. He is curious about the potential of games to help us grow as humans. In his other professional life, he is a teacher (M. Ed.), drama instructor (BTA), Playback Theatre trainer, Psychodrama Director (CP), game designer and a supervisor. In all his fields, Linnamäki works with interaction systems and is searching for creative ways and methods to improve interaction, combining all his different professional fields.

An approach to board game design that centres allyship and empowers trans people

FROG 2020 – Short Talk

Co-Authors:
Josephine Baird (Uppsala University)

The Uppsala University Games & Society Lab started a game project with the Neuroscience Department with the aim to support trans people. During the reflective design and testing process things changed, partly due to ethical processing and partly due to COVID-19. This included changes in the team composition as well the nature of the game from an identity exploration edu-larp to a board game about protecting trans people from microaggressions. The design process was challenging, which inspired us to write an article about the process and its ethics. The article also provided guidelines for other designers working with and for vulnerable target groups. In this presentation, we explore the game design as well as the design and research process it inspired. In the board game, the board represents the trans person facing microaggressions and the players play allies trying to defend the trans person. The game is targeted at allies or the support network of trans people, helping them develop their allyship skills. Our design process was guided by Shaw’s (2011) criteria for ethical representation. We also created a model for an ethical design process, inspired heavily by Frame and Williams’ (2005) model for ethical decision making from a multicultural perspective. The questions we explore in this presentation are, how do we make a board game that has allies as the active party but at the same time it won’t be disempowering for trans people? What skills do allies need to be good allies? And how this led to the model for ethical game design we used and now propose.

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