Journal of Digital Media and Interaction

Cultural Representations in Digital Games

Processo de transformação de linguagem a partir de um estudo netnográfico de Valorant

Resumo Esse artigo demonstra um estudo sobre o processo de transformação da linguagem e suas influências na comunidade do jogo eletrônico Valorant. A pesquisa foi realizada através da imersão no próprio jogo, e nas comunidades do Facebook e da Twitch. Através de uma netnografia com base nas ideias de Malinowski, Kozinets e Waslawick, foi produzido um glossário com o recorte de 59 termos utilizados pela comunidade estudada. Os termos foram categorizados e com base nisso levantou-se hipóteses de como a linguagem adaptou-se à realidade dos jogadores.

Abstract This article demonstrates a study on the process of language transformation and its influences on the Valorant electronic game community. The research was conducted through immersion in the game itself, and in the Facebook and Twitch communities.Through a netnography based on the ideas of Malinowski, Kozinets and Waslawick, a glossary was produced with the clipping of 59 terms used by the studied community. The terms were categorized and based on that hypotheses were raised on how the language adapted to the players’ reality.

Defining a Conceptual Framework for a Toolkit to Game Design: The Gamers4Nature Project

Abstract Seeking to capitalize the interest of younger audiences in game creation activities, the Gamers4Nature project aims to develop a toolkit designed to support game design by allowing the manipulation of the several elements that compose a game. Prior to the toolkit’s development, there was the need to establish the respective conceptual framework. This paper describes the process of defining the project’s conceptual framework. Based on Fullerton’s perspective on game design, the framework was defined following a participatory design approach with the participation of different stakeholders (postgraduate students with extensive knowledge about game design and experts in the game design field). To ease the discussion sessions, a physical artifact (19 hexagonal pieces, and a honeycomb structured board) was developed. Results suggest that a non-linear approach to game design may promote not only the definition of the game’s structure and gameplay but also allow a contextualised analysis of all its elements.

Playing Sites of Memory: Framing the Representation of Cultural Memory in Digital Games

Abstract Basing on an understanding of digital games as cultural objectivations, this article suggests interpreting them as sites of memory, or in other words as ‘carrier’ of cultural memory. By merging game studies, literary studies, and memory studies, we aim at providing a theoretical framework useful to frame different kinds of representation within (and beyond) digital games towards cultural memory. The framework is inspired by Paul Ricoeur and his threefold model of textual mimesis and favours an approach to digital games that takes into account how they represent and re-configure pre-existent cultural forms, and therefore get refigured into novel ones during, after, and beyond the game experience.

A Review of Adaptable Serious Games Applied to Professional Training

Abstract Serious Games have been used in professional training to increase employee engagement and improve training initiatives. This review intends to identify the application of Serious Games in professional training and how these games have been developed, evaluated, and adapted to relate to the learning outcomes. It aims to map the use of Serious Games in professional training, verifying which forms of adaptation are used, learning outcomes, and models and frameworks of Serious Games that include game elements. Different learning outcomes associated with Serious Games were identified, in the general context and professional training, with knowledge acquisition being the most investigated result and questionnaires the most used type of assessment. It was found that several technologies are used in the adaptation of Serious Games. This literature review highlighted gaps in Serious Games research, especially in adaptive games applied in the context of professional training, such as the absence of frameworks for adaptive Serious Games and the lack of a framework for Serious Games that relates game elements to learning outcomes.

Challenging Students’ perspectives with Game Design for Older Adults

Abstract Older adults are a group that is often overlooked by the game industry, even though they make up a reasonable portion of gamers. It is important for game designers to be able to consider different users and the needs involved. In this study, game design students were challenged with the task of making a video game for older adults that had some level of learning and social interaction. A total of sixty students, 13 older adults, an instructor, and the researchers were involved in the study. Seven games were created over two semesters. Older adults participated in the design by providing feedback. The students initially were disappointed with this assignment and resistant to the task, but as the project continued, they were able to embrace the challenge and see the benefits of designing for older adults. It challenged them to think from a different perspective and consider game design that is accessible to a wider audience. What they thought was intuitive (e.g. easy for the player to understand and use) did not always turn out to be so for the older cohort. This required the students adjust their design to suit a wider audience. User-centered design with a cohort different from their own was a beneficial approach to getting students to think of a broader audience.