37 | 2007

Now showing 1 - 9 of 9

"Play, Memory": SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS and Cognitive Workouts
Ciccoricco, David (2007)
This paper applies the distinction of episodic and procedural memory from cognitive science to the experience of contemporary video games. It aims to illustrate how participation in the simulative digital environments of "coherent world games" not only draws on but also relies on both forms of memory. Toward this end, the paper employs Fumito Ueda's _Shadow of the Colossus_ (2005), a game that combines a complexity of interaction (play and puzzle-solving) with a narrative complexity that allows for - and encourages - an interpretative understanding of its characters and storyworld.
Canons and Fanons: Literary Fanfiction Online
Thomas, Bronwen (2007)
Fanfiction has been hailed as 'the democratic genre' (Pugh 2000), its proponents celebrated as 'textual poachers' (Jenkins 1994) who radically disrupt but also reinvigorate canonical texts. Over time, aspects of plotting and characterisation introduced by fanfic writers may become 'fanonical', accepted by the fans as being just as intrinsic to the storyworld as any aspect of the 'original' or 'source' text. Focusing on literary fanfiction online, this article will trace the emergence of 'fanons' within specific fanfic communities, analysing the extent to which they either draw on, or depart from, the 'source' texts. Alongside this, the article also explores how far fanons are either openly or covertly self-policing, and address the fundamental tensions between fidelity and deviance, dependence and freedom that underlie the whole fanfiction phenomenon.
Claiming Its Space: Machinima
Nitsche, Michael (2007)
Although machinima has grown exponenatially, it remains a largely undefined digital artistic practice in-between existing traditions. Machinima makers freely sample/ combine/ and break elements of traditional media. They "play" their references. This essay does not attempt to fix machinima to any single definition but will identify the intermedia relations to better position machinima into the digital media landscape. The argument will target three main influences: film, television, and theatrical performance. To exemplify these points the essay will discuss examplatory and relevant machinima pieces. It puts emphasis on the real-time aspects in production and play back to highlight the key specifics of this relatively new format.
Combat to Conversation: Towards a Theoretical Foundation for the Study of Games
Johnson, Matthew S. S. (2007)
In "Combat to Conversation," I first conduct a rhetorical analysis of representative examples of video game scholarship in order to reveal that much of digital game studies lacks the close-readings of individual games necessary to establish viable video game theory. I then provide an example of the type of close-reading that can be done -- specifically on the adventure game Indigo Prophecy -- which I argue illustrates a form of gameplaying and storytelling that resists easy classification by either ludologists or narratologists.
Hypertext in Context: Space and Time in Latin American Hypertext and Hypermedia Fictions
Pitman, Thea (2007)
The vast majority of hypertext and hypermedia fiction available today is produced by Anglophone writers living in the First World. Nevertheless, such works are presently being created by writers in the developing world and in languages other than English. This article seeks to explore the different perspectives that Latin American writers bring to the creation of hypertext and hypermedia fictions through the detailed study of two such works: Dolor y viceversa [Pain and Its Opposite] (2001-02) by Mexican/American author Blas Valdez and Tierra de extracción [Land of Extraction] (2002) by Peruvian/Venezuelan author Doménico Chiappe.
Illusory Agency in VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE – BLOODLINES
MacCallum-Stewart, Esther; Parsler, Justin (2007)
The understanding of agency within digital games is a concept that we believe requires reinvestigation. The development of more complex gaming experiences means that the relative ability that a player has to shape their own experiences within it has become more complex. This paper looks towards the growth of a new taxonomy of agency by investigating one aspect; that of illusory choices in role playing games. Through a case study of Activision's Vampire the Masquearde: Bloodlines, we aim to begin a new series of debates surrounding this issue.
Internet Detectives: Performativity and Policing Authenticity on the Internet
Stoate, Robin (2007)
It is possible to detect a certain crisis of subjective authenticity in the fictional/real writings of members of certain online communities, such as LiveJournal and Myspace. Some community users construct 'false' stories about their lives, deploying the unique forms possible online as a means of enriching the 'narrative'. However, these stories are often hunted down and 'uncovered' as 'false' by others looking to reinforce the strength of their own online presence. This article is a reading of the performative character of some examples of this 'policing' of authenticity online, in a mode inspired by both Jacques Derrida and Judith Butler.
New Perspectives on Digital Literature: Criticism and Analysis
Ensslin, Astrid; Bell, Alice (2007)
Reading the Code between the Words: The Role of Translation in Young-hae Chang Heavy Industries’s NIPPON
Pressman, Jessica (2007)
This essay reads a work of electronic literature that does not display code onscreen but which intervenes in discussions of code vs. screenic text in electronic literature criticism. Young-hae Chang Heavy Industries's Nippon presents a juxtaposition of English and Japanese onscreen, an aesthetic of deconstruction that promotes a similar critical approach to examining the boundary between onscreen text and programming code. Instead of addressing what code does for our readings of electronic literature, I argue that works like Nippon prompt us to consider what electronic literature does for our readings of code.

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