The Long and Winding Road

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The Long and Winding Road

• Miguel Sicart
• Computer Game Theory
• Mid - semester summary

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What have we learnt so far?
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and now, more seriously
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Computer games are rubbish
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Innovation is an unknown word for the industry
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Game analysis is not as easy as it might seem
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Keyboard Mouse / Dualshock are not the only
controllers useful for computer games
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More sistematically
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What is a game?

• A game is a system with rules that are
  experienced by a number of players in a virtual
  environment created by the game.
• A game is playing rules in a virtual environment.

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Classifying games

• We should classify games depending on how they
  are designed, related with the key definitional
  elements of gameplay

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Playing ...
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... rules ...
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... in a virtual environment ...
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Transmediality

• Games operate as cross medial cultural devices.
• In a licensed world, we will find the Matrix
  effect much more spread and much more relevant.
• But also, games will spread within different
  technological devices, making new kinds of games.

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Games telling stories?

• Games can tell stories, but that is not what they
  are built for.
• If a game tells a story (and doesnt want to be
  Myst), then the quest structure will most likely
  be present
• The quest structure can seriously affect
  gameplay, and the obsession for telling a story
  (or seeing a story in a game) can damage the
  potential of games understood as games

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The mysterious history of (computer) games
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Game Analysis

• Games are complex cultural objects that are in
  dialogue with many different cultural spheres
• Our analysis depends very much on to whom we are
  talking to
• But we have to keep in mind always that games are
  a fundamental part of post-industrial culture,
  and that they are objects we experience.
• When we analyze game we have to keep in mind the
  fact that they are designed experiences that is
  the way to make New Games Journalism, selling
  your ideas to a company, or analyze the rhetoric
  of a game from an academic perspective.

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And now, for the one-liner
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the answer to all these questions you should have
learnt is ...
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I have no idea, but Im thinking about it(and I
know how to do it)
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The Computer is your friendThe Computer loves
youYou Love the Computer