Historiska strategispel som Europa Universalis IV och Civilization V försöker på olika sätt representera historia samtidigt som de försöker skapa engagerande spel. I följande studie jämförs historierepresentationen med fokus på spelmekaniker som representerar imperialism. Genom en utförlig analys av båda spelens mekaniker och en efterföljande jämförelse har deras likheter samt skillnader inom representation av imperialism belysts. Resultatet har visat att Civilization V har enklare och mindre utförliga mekaniker för imperialistiskt agerande i jämförelse med Europa Universalis IV. Däremot måste spelaren i Civilization V interagera med dessa mekaniker medan i Europa Universalis IV är dessa mekaniker inte nödvändiga att interagera med. Vidare forskning kan utföras genom att vidga definition av imperialism som spelen undersöks med för att inkludera intern imperialism då studien huvudsakligen fokuserat på extern imperialism. Vidare forskning skulle även kunna utföras genom att undersökas fler spel inom genren som därmed skulle kunna öppna möjligheten att göra resultaten generaliserbara.

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This project is a scholarly manifesto on unplaying games by (both figuratively and literally) burning them. Building from the work of trans feminist game and media scholars and designers, this dissertation asks: how can we play in the unplayable, that we might live in the unlivable? To contend with these questions, this dissertation explores "ludoarsony"—the practice of un-playing games—as a critical design philosophy and theorical approach to play. It analyzes self-immolating and self-destructing games that burn away paper, plastic, characters, and stories and gray market games that have been ‘burned' with legal dubiousness in order to show how trans play can be found in ending the (game)world. This project builds its case for ludoarsaony across three case studies, each attending a different play practice. In the first chapter, it explores self-immolating games as examples of un-ending play. By playing with fire, we can become doombringers that (un)make worlds and games alike. In the second chapter, it contends with emulation as un-recognizing play that troubles computational ontologies. By emulating games, we can explore de/compilation of software and cultural systems. Finally, it demonstrates how un-balancing play—and flipping tables—upheaves unspoken exclusionary rhetoric and ludic traditions. Ultimately, this dissertation seeks to claim the "unplayable" as a space of trans imaginary—at once speculative and material—that emerges from the ashes of ruptured ludic and computational systems. It serves as an introductory investigation into the playful possibilities of what lies beyond the horizon of the so-called unplayable.

<p>Abstract</p><p>Title: The game of playing: A media ethnographic study of children playing videogames on a Swedish after school recreation centre. Spelet om spelandet: En medieetnografisk studie av barns dataspelande på en fritidsklubb.</p><p>Number of pages: 46</p><p>Author: Peter Brandberg</p><p>Tutor: Amelie Hössjer</p><p>Period: Spring term 2008</p><p>Course: Media and Communication studies D</p><p>University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University</p><p>Purpose/Aim: The aim with this study is to describe how children play video games in an everyday context. In this study this context consists of a Swedish after school recreation centre. By combining three different aspects on the activity this study tries to understand how both the video game and the social and cultural context in which the activity takes place in influences it. This by taking one analyse of the specific game that the children played at the time of the study and how the overall environment is structured into account. Together these two perspectives contribute to the understanding of the playing as a complex and dynamic activity.</p><p>Material/Method: The material and method consists primary of a participatory observation which were conducted for eight days in an after school recreation centre. The analyse of the video game uses specific parts from the ludologist Aki Järvinens “applied ludology” to understand the game Guitar Hero.</p><p>Main results: The main results of this study shows how the social context influences the play activity in which the children needs to negotiate about the resources needed to play. They used different strategies to try to gain control over the interfaces to the game. The study also shows how the children didn’t relate to the fact that these interfaces looked like guitars in their use of them. Instead the children used knowledge about other interfaces and played the game by “pressing buttons in the right time”.</p><p>Keywords: media ethnographic, participatory observation, ludology, applied ludology, video game, game studies, guitar hero, children, after school recreation centre, situated play</p>

This paper explores the potential of historical simulation games to nurture historical consciousness. Merging the subject of history and game studies, the material analyzed is the digital game Crusader Kings 2 as well as player created narratives spawned from it. The paper uses a mixed method from game study and history didactics, and theories of historical consciousness to interpret the material. The study shows that the potential to develop historical consciousness do exist in the historical simulation game, and that the narratives that players create from play contain signs of historical consciousness. The study opens up the field for future case studies where the development of historical consciousness through historical simulation can be tested in a formal school setting. / Denna studie undersöker potentialen hos historiska simulationer i digitala spel att utveckla historiemedvetande. Ämnet historia och spelstudier blandas i denna uppsats där det digitala spelet Crusader Kings 2 och tillhörande spelarskapade narrativ undersöks. Studien använder en blandad metod från spelstudier och historiedidaktik. Teorier om historiemedvetande används för att tolka materialet. Undersökningen visar att det finns potential för detta historiska simulationsspel att utveckla historiemedvetande. Den visar även att tecken på historiemedvetande syns i de spelarskapade narrativen. Studien öppnar upp för framtida fallstudier där utvecklingen av historiemedvetande genom historisk simulation kan testas i formell skolmiljö.

Submitted by Fabricia Fialho Reginato (fabriciar) on 2015-07-22T23:24:55Z No. of bitstreams: 1 MarsalBranco.pdf: 9186656 bytes, checksum: 9ee88cf3360a0fd3008bec9a4d111492 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-22T23:24:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MarsalBranco.pdf: 9186656 bytes, checksum: 9ee88cf3360a0fd3008bec9a4d111492 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-08-09 / Nenhuma / Propõe uma teoria dos jogos digitais. Para tanto, apresenta uma estrutura de análise que divide os jogos em três instâncias - produção, interpretação e discurso -, e três dimensões que as atravessam - lógica, estética e tecnológica. As instâncias permitem pensar os games como produtos de comunicação e portanto afetados por lógicas sociais, políticas, econômicas, estéticas e tecnológicas, servindo como ponto de entrada dos fatos do mundo ‘externo’ dentro da produção, do discurso e do jogar games. As dimensões dão conta das formas pelas quais esta produção, discurso e fruição acontecem e dizem respeito às especificidades internas da linguagem dos games. Para estas, são propostos conceitos como ludemas/sistema de regras, vivacidade/interatividade, manifestações discursivas e estruturas discursivas. A estrutura em dois níveis (instâncias e dimensões) permite lidar com os fenômenos desta mídia tanto a partir de suas afetações internas - lógica, estética e tecnologia tensionando-se e modificando-se -, bem como em um nível mais geral ao evidenciar como cada dimensão é também uma resposta às forças externas que partem de um contexto sócio-cultural. A construção dessa estrutura conceitual permite o desenho de uma teoria dos jogos digitais: mostra seus conceitos fundamentais, seus modos de relacionamento internos, suas conexões com o mundo externo e modos de funcionamento. / Proposes a theory of digital games. To do so, presents an analysis framework that divides games into three instances - production, interpretation and discourse - and the three dimensions - logical, aesthetic and technological. Instances allow us to think the games as communication products and therefore affected by social, political, economic, aesthetic and technological aspects, serving as the entry point of the facts of the world 'outside' into production, speech and play games. The dimensions concern on the diferent manners how this production, speech and enjoyment happen and relate to specific internal language of games. For these are proposed the concepts of Ludema / system rules, vividness / interactive, discursive structures and discursive manifestations. The two level structure (instances and dimensions) allows you to tackle the phenomenon of media either from its internal affectations - logic, aesthetics and technology tensing up and modifying - as well as a more general level by showing how each dimension is also a response to external forces departing from a socio-cultural context. The construction of this conceptual framework allows the design of a digital game theory, shows its fundamental concepts, their modes of internal relations, its connections with the outside world and modes of operation.

<p>Abstract</p><p>Title: Interactivity and participation - a qualitative study about the making of machinima with</p><p>World of Warcraft (Interaktivitet och och deltagande – en kvalitativ studie kring skapandet av</p><p>machinima med World of Warcraft)</p><p>Number of pages: 68 total, 50 without appendix</p><p>Author: Peter Brandberg</p><p>Tutor: Else Nygren</p><p>Period: Autumn 2006</p><p>Course: Media and Communication Studies C</p><p>University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University</p><p>Purpose/Aim: The aim of this study is to take a closer look at the phenomenon machinima by analysing a number of specific movies from the site worldcraftmovies.com. This analyse is focusing on how the content of these movies relate to the wider game culture of the MMORPG World of Warcraft, what specific elements in the movies is referring to and if there is differences or similarities between different genres (or categories).</p><p>Material/Method: The method used in analysing the movies is a combined method inspired by hermeneutic, semiotics and discourse analysis.</p><p>Main results: Instead of answers this study raises many questions about the diverse content of the movies. A general division can be seen between movies focusing on the games rules and movies that are trying to present a fictive world. But the study also shows how there are many movies moving between these two points. The study also suggests that further studies need to focus on the emotional investment players put into the game.</p><p>Keywords: cultural studies, participatory culture, convergence culture, fan culture, new media, game studies, machinima, MMORPG, World of Warcraft</p>

Abstract Title: Interactivity and participation - a qualitative study about the making of machinima with World of Warcraft (Interaktivitet och och deltagande – en kvalitativ studie kring skapandet av machinima med World of Warcraft) Number of pages: 68 total, 50 without appendix Author: Peter Brandberg Tutor: Else Nygren Period: Autumn 2006 Course: Media and Communication Studies C University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University Purpose/Aim: The aim of this study is to take a closer look at the phenomenon machinima by analysing a number of specific movies from the site worldcraftmovies.com. This analyse is focusing on how the content of these movies relate to the wider game culture of the MMORPG World of Warcraft, what specific elements in the movies is referring to and if there is differences or similarities between different genres (or categories). Material/Method: The method used in analysing the movies is a combined method inspired by hermeneutic, semiotics and discourse analysis. Main results: Instead of answers this study raises many questions about the diverse content of the movies. A general division can be seen between movies focusing on the games rules and movies that are trying to present a fictive world. But the study also shows how there are many movies moving between these two points. The study also suggests that further studies need to focus on the emotional investment players put into the game. Keywords: cultural studies, participatory culture, convergence culture, fan culture, new media, game studies, machinima, MMORPG, World of Warcraft

The field of video game studies has through later years shown a growing interest in game's spatialfeatures, along with their narrative implications. By introducing earlier findings of spatialmanifestations of dreams and psychological content in narrative works, with regards to their medialrepresentation into this discussion, I hope to conjoin video game research (better known asludology) with a line of psychoanalytic inquiry, which hitherto seems to have been left unexploredwithin media research.    While establishing a viewpoint through the interdisciplinary field of media research andpsychoanalysis, my intention is to broach a discussion on the possibilities of expanding itsviewpoints and theoretical frameworks unto the video game medium. In the present thesis I will forthis purpose center the discussion on the dreamlike Portal games, developed by Valve Corporation,which manages to enact a psychologically interesting narrative content largely through its spatialfeatures, as well as their game mechanics.    The psychoanalytic approach I intend to adopt for this study will, apart from taking mediaspecifications into account, also necessarily, following Gilles Deleuzes and Félix Guattaris focus onthe historical-political situation in their critique of earlier psychoanalytic inquiry, be directedtowards a societal context while addressing the individual works. I will thus, while analyzingspatial-psychological implications of works in different media, be regarding contemporary topics ofcultural phenomena and theories on human psychology as important factors for the forms ofexpression and thematic content, which contemporary cultural artifacts may take.    The term transmediality, which below will be discussed in appliance to psychoanalytic inquiry,refers in this thesis to the definition outlined by the literary scholar Irina Rajewsky, who situates itsemergence in an ongoing development in the field of the interconnected narratology and intermedialstudy, in which I hope to engage and contribute.