Half-Real: Video Games Between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds

Media: Videogames / Narrative / Game

Fri, 06 Jul 07 16:43:18 -0500

Keywords: Media: Videogames / Narrative / Game
Text: "In having fictional worlds, video games deviate from traditional non-electronic games that are mostly abstract, and this is part of the newness of video games."
--Jesper Juul
Date: 07/06/07
ID: 8171

Media: Videogames / Game

Fri, 06 Jul 07 16:44:39 -0500

Keywords: Media: Videogames / Game
Text: "[T]he question is not whether video games are old or new, but how video games are games, how they borrow from non-electronic games, and how they depart from traditional game forms." --Jesper Juul, 4
Date: 07/06/07
ID: 8172

Game / Media: Videogames / Computers

Fri, 06 Jul 07 16:46:28 -0500

Keywords: Game / Media: Videogames / Computers
Text: "There appears to be a basic affinity between games and computers: Like the printing press and cinema historically promoted and enabled new kinds of storytelling, computers works as enablers of games, letting us play old games in new ways, and allowing for new types of games that would previously not have been possible."
--Jesper Juul, 5
Date: 07/06/07
ID: 8173

Game

Fri, 06 Jul 07 16:48:15 -0500

Keywords: Game
Text: "It is a basic paradox of games that while the rules themselves are generally definite, unambiguous, and easy to use, the enjoyment of a game depends on these easy-to-use rules presenting challenges that *cannot* be easily overcome."
--Jesper Juul, 5
Date: 07/06/07
ID: 8174

Game / Systems

Fri, 06 Jul 07 16:50:25 -0500

Keywords: Game / Systems
Text: "Emergence is the primordial game structure, where a game is specified as a small number of rules that combine and yield large numbers of game variations for which the players must design strategies to handle. This is found in card and board games, in sports, and in most action and all strategy games."
compare against "progression," a "historically newer structure" in which "the player has to perform a predefined set of actions in order to complete the game."
Juul, 5
Date: 07/06/07
ID: 8175

Game

Fri, 06 Jul 07 16:52:44 -0500

Keywords: Game
Text: Juul's model for what constitutes a game:
1. a rule-based formal system
2. with variable and quantifiable outcomes;
3. where different outcomes are assigned different values;
4. where the player exerts effort in order to influence the outcome;
5. the player feels emotionally attached to the outcome;
6. and the consequences of the activity are optional and negotiable. [Hmm on this last one]
Juul, 7
Date: 07/06/07
ID: 8176

Game / Media / Narrative

Fri, 06 Jul 07 16:54:00 -0500

Keywords: Game / Media / Narrative
Text: Jesper Juul's game model (see previous entry) "does not tie games to any specific medium, and games are therefore *transmedial* in the same way that storytelling is transmedial."
Juul, 7
Date: 07/06/07
ID: 8177

Game

Fri, 06 Jul 07 16:59:20 -0500

Keywords: Game
Text: Linda Hughes, on girls playing Foursquare:
"Game rules can be interpreted and reinterpreted toward preferred meanings and purposes, selectively invoked or ignored, challenged or defended, changed or enforced to suit the collective goals of different groups of players. In short, players can take the same game and collectively make of it strikingly different experiences."
Thus "children's games cannot be meaningfully described only as the rules that make them up"
Juul, 11
Date: 07/06/07
ID: 8178

Game / Narrative / To Read

Fri, 06 Jul 07 17:10:00 -0500

Keywords: Game / Narrative / To Read
Text: key texts in the narratology vs. ludology debate (cited by Juul)
Murray 1997; Frasca 1999; Juul 1999; Eskelinen 2001b; King and Krzywinska 2002b; Atkins 2003; Aarseth 2004a; Jenkins 2004
aka
Murray, Janet: Hamlet on the Holodeck (1997)
Frasca, Gonzalo: "Ludology Meets Narratology: Similitude and Differences Between (Video) Games and Narrative" (available online)
Eskelinen, Markku: "Towards Computer Game Studies, Part 1: Narratology and Ludology" (available online as PDF)
King, Geoff and Krzywinska, Tanya: "Computer Games/Cinema/Interfaces" in Computer Game and Digital Cultures Conference Proceedings (2002)
Atkins, Barry: More than a Game: The Computer Game as Fictional Form (2003)
Aarseth, Espen: "Genre Trouble: Narrativism and the Art of Simulation" in First Person (2004)
Jenkins, Henry: "Game Design as Narrative Architecture" in First Person (2004)
Date: 07/06/07
ID: 8182

Game

Fri, 06 Jul 07 17:11:27 -0500

Keywords: Game
Text: "ludology" is a word first coined by Csikszentmihalyi in 1982 (although popularized by Gonzalo Frasca, starting 1999)
Date: 07/06/07
ID: 8183

Media: Videogames / To Read

Fri, 06 Jul 07 17:25:10 -0500

Keywords: Media: Videogames / To Read
Text: Rune Klevjer's "In Defense of Cutscenes"
in which Klevjer defends cut-scenes as providing "a unifying logic for the game and rewards for the player's actions" (Juul's paraphrase)
article appears in Computer Game and Digital Culture Proceedings (2002)
Juul, 16
Date: 07/06/07
ID: 8184

Game / Narrative / To Read

Fri, 06 Jul 07 17:27:18 -0500

Keywords: Game / Narrative / To Read
Text: Wibroe, Mads, K. K. Nygard, and Peter Bogh Andersen: "Games and Stories"
appears in Virtual Interaction (2001), Lars Qvortrup, ed.
cited by Juul as "a nuanced discussion of game/story relations"
Date: 07/06/07
ID: 8185

Media: Videogames / Narrative

Fri, 13 Jul 07 10:40:49 -0500

Keywords: Media: Videogames / Narrative
Text: "quests" as a concept
a quest in a videogame provides "an interesting bridge between game rules and game fiction in that the game can contain a predefined sequence of events that the player then has to actualize or enact"
Juul 17
Date: 07/13/07
ID: 8187

Narrative / Media / Media: Videogames

Thu, 06 Mar 08 21:21:09 -0600

Keywords: Narrative / Media / Media: Videogames
Text: Henry Jenkins "sees video games as part of a bigger complex of * transmedia storytelling ,* where content can move between different media"
"Realistically, video games are to some degree part of a general * storytelling ecology ,* incorporating at least some elements of popular stories"
see also Seymour Chatman, who claims that "The transposability of the story is the strongest reason for arguing that narratives are indeed structures independent of any meaning."
Date: 07/13/07
ID: 8188

Game

Sun, 15 Jul 07 10:51:27 -0500

Keywords: Game
Text: "Games provide context for actions: moving an avatar is much more meaningful in a game environment than in an empty space: throwing a ball has more meaningful implications on the playing field than off the playing field; a rush attack is only possible if there are rules specifying how attacks work; winning the game requires that the winning condition has been specified; without rules in chess, there are no checkmates, end games, or Sicilian openings." Juul 18-9
Perhaps one more reason why games are not reducible to rules alone? Because the context derives not only from the rules but from non-rule trappings?
Date: 07/13/07
ID: 8189

Game

Fri, 13 Jul 07 10:48:01 -0500

Keywords: Game
Text: Sid Meier: "A game is a series of interesting choices."
Juul expands: "high-quality games are the ones whose choices provide high-quality mental challenges for players"
Date: 07/13/07
ID: 8190

Game

Fri, 13 Jul 07 10:51:53 -0500

Keywords: Game
Text: Juul's notion that a game contains "goals and conflict" is prefigured by Bernhard Suits (1978), who writes that a game is "directed towards bringing about a specific state of affairs"
and also in Chris Crawford's / Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman's "conflict"
Juul: "a conflict presupposes mutually contradicting goals between two entities or, in a broader sense, between a player and the difficulty of reaching a goal ... [A] game without a goal is a borderline case"
Date: 07/13/07
ID: 8191

Game / Media: Videogames

Fri, 13 Jul 07 10:55:07 -0500

Keywords: Game / Media: Videogames
Text: Bernard Suits' statement that game rules "prohibit more efficient in favor of less efficient means" "completely breaks down in the case of video games ... If we look at *any* video game, how can we say that the player is using less efficient means? Would this be compared to making the game yourself? Hacking the game? Using a cheat code?"
Additionally, simulation games are generally "much easier to master than their real-life counterparts are" (in the case of soccer and tennis)
Juul, 34
Date: 07/13/07
ID: 8192

Game / Media: Videogames

Fri, 13 Jul 07 10:56:28 -0500

Keywords: Game / Media: Videogames
Text: Will Wright claims that The Sims and SimCity are "not games but toys" (because they have no explicit goals)
Date: 07/13/07
ID: 8193

Game

Fri, 13 Jul 07 11:00:12 -0500

Keywords: Game
Text: Juul: "In Roger Caillois's definition, games are *separate* in time and space from the rest of the world and *unproductive.* It is fairly easy to find examples of games that transgress the first aspect ... [T]he time span of [a chess-by-mail game] overlaps a non-game part of life and ... it is possible to consider the moves one wants to play while going about one's daily business. Likewise, many Internet-based strategy games stretch over months or even years."
the claim for their unproductive nature is tricky, too, when considering the question of gambling ("[N]ote that it is possible to bet on the outcome of any game," writes Juul)
Date: 07/13/07
ID: 8194

Game: ARG / Game: LARP

Fri, 13 Jul 07 11:08:48 -0500

Keywords: Game: ARG / Game: LARP
Text: Juul notes that Roger Caillois' concepts of games being "separate" in time and space from the rest of the world is especially problematic in the question of live-action role-playing games, because "the games may be played in spaces also used for 'normal life.' In these cases, specific descriptions have to be made as to what interactions are allowed between non-playing people and players."
also true-- possibly even more true --in ARG / alternate reality games -- see Jane McGonigal's concept of "dark play"
Date: 07/13/07
ID: 8195

Game

Fri, 13 Jul 07 11:12:03 -0500

Keywords: Game
Text: continuing to critique Caillois (see other notes), this time on the notion of the voluntary / involuntary aspect of games, Jesper Juul suggests that because "all games are potential targets for betting and professional playing ... games [should be] characterized as activities with *negotiable consequences*"
"That games carry a degree of separation from the rest of the world is entailed in their consequences being negotiable."
This is what separates games from other rule-guided activities like "traffic" and "war"
Date: 07/13/07
ID: 8202

Game / Play / Concept

Fri, 13 Jul 07 11:13:55 -0500

Keywords: Game / Play / Concept
Text: "[G]ame activity ... requires that the players *respect* the rules. Bernard Suits has described this as *lusory attitude* -- the player accepts the rules because they make the game activity possible." (Juul, 38)
Date: 07/13/07
ID: 8203

Game / Concept

Fri, 13 Jul 07 11:16:11 -0500

Keywords: Game / Concept
Text: Juul's conception that games have a "variable, quantifiable outcome" helps to explain the reason why players may "feign ineptitude" when playing against more novice players -- part of their desire when playing is to "ensure suspense about the outcome of the game"
Juul calls this "player-organized criticality" (39)
Date: 07/13/07
ID: 8204

Game

Fri, 13 Jul 07 11:19:05 -0500

Keywords: Game
Text: when Juul writes that games need to have a "quantifiable outcome," he means that "the outcome of a game is designed to be beyond discussion ... the goal of Pac-Man (Namco 1980) is to get a high score, rather than to 'move in a pretty way'"
note that this quantifiable outcome can sometimes be flexible [?]. See notes on "player-organized criticality"
Date: 07/13/07
ID: 8205

Game

Fri, 13 Jul 07 11:23:23 -0500

Keywords: Game
Text: More on "negotiable outcome"
"Elections are not games since the consequences of the outcome are defined and not subject to negotiation, but the rules governing the execution of the election are potentially usable for game purposes."
(Juul 42)
Date: 07/13/07
ID: 8206

Game

Fri, 13 Jul 07 11:25:19 -0500

Keywords: Game
Text: More on the question of professional athletes (who Roger Caillois says are working, rather than playing)
due to Juul's "negotiable outcomes" clause, we can say that "even professional players are *playing* a *game,* but that in this specific *game session,* the consequences have been determined to be financial and career-determining."
Date: 07/13/07
ID: 8207

Game

Fri, 13 Jul 07 11:32:09 -0500

Keywords: Game
Text: "It is possible to take anything with rules, variable outcomes, player effort, and negotiable consequences and turn it into a game simply by assigning value to the outcomes between players. For example, two people walking down the street can decide to turn it into a race by describing it as *better* to reach the destination first." (Juul, 45)
Date: 07/13/07
ID: 8208

Game

Fri, 13 Jul 07 11:33:07 -0500

Keywords: Game
Text: Juul : "Most of the things described as games are sufficiently well defined that they can be played again. This indicates that there is a loose idea that games are repeatable." (45)
Date: 07/13/07
ID: 8209

Media: Videogames / Concept

Sun, 15 Jul 07 10:46:59 -0500

Keywords: Media: Videogames / Concept
Text: Juul distinguishes between "implementations" and "adaptations"--
"Card games on computers should be considered *implementations* since it is possible to unambiguously map one-to-one correspondences between all the possible game states in the computer version and in the physical card game. Sports games on computers are better described as *adaptations,* since much detail is lost in the physics model of the computer program because it is a simplification of the real world and in the interface because the video game player's body is *not* part of the game state." Juul, 49
Date: 07/15/07
ID: 8212

Game / Computers / Media: Videogames

Sun, 15 Jul 07 10:49:11 -0500

Keywords: Game / Computers / Media: Videogames
Text: "[V]ideo games are just as rule-based as other games, [but] they modify the classic game model in that it is now the *computer* that upholds the rules. This gives video games much flexibility, allowing for rules more complex than humans can handle; freeing the player(s) from having to enforce the rules; and allowing for games where the player does not know the rules from the outset."
Date: 07/15/07
ID: 8213

Game

Sun, 15 Jul 07 10:53:37 -0500

Keywords: Game
Text: Juul (52): "[G]ames that are formally equivalent can be experienced completely differently." (see his Tic-Tac-Toe / magic square example-- although one could argue that these games are not truly formally equivalent since their rule-sets are fundamentally different). The argument about context, noted elsewhere, is perhaps a more forceful proof of this claim
Date: 07/15/07
ID: 8214

Game / Art: Algorithmic Art

Sat, 04 Aug 07 18:01:30 -0500

Keywords: Game / Art: Algorithmic Art
Text: Juul: "[R]ules of [a] game constitute a *state machine*, a 'machine' that responds to player action ... The state machine of the game can be visualized as a landscape of possibilities or a branching *game tree* of possibilities ... To play a game is to interact with the state machine and explore the game tree."
(56)
Also, 60:
"A game is a machine that can be in different states, it contains input and output functions and definitions of what state and what input will lead to the following state ... In a board game, this state is stored in the position of pieces on the board; in sports, the game state is the score and the players; in computer-based games, the state is stored in memory and then represented on screen."
Date: 08/04/07
ID: 8270

Game / Education

Sat, 04 Aug 07 17:37:25 -0500

Keywords: Game / Education
Text: Juul:
"Games are learning experiences, where the player improves his or her skills at playing the game. At any given point, the player will have a specific *repetoire* of skills and methods for overcoming the challenges of the game. Part of the attraction of a good game is that it continually challenges and makes new demands on the player's repetoire."
Date: 08/04/07
ID: 8271

Game / Instructions

Sat, 04 Aug 07 17:40:19 -0500

Keywords: Game / Instructions
Text: Jesper Juul makes a subtle distinction regarding game rules, distinguishing between "Rules limit player action" (as in Salen and Zimmerman) and rules setting up potential actions:
"actions that are meaningful inside the game but meaningless outside"
"Rules specify [both] *limitations* and *affordances*."
Date: 08/04/07
ID: 8272

Game / Sport / Game: ARG

Sat, 04 Aug 07 17:46:02 -0500

Keywords: Game / Sport / Game: ARG
Text: Juul: "The main difference between the rules of a video game and the rules of a sport is that sports use the preexisting systems of the physical world in the game."
Interesting. Isn't the same also true of ARGs?
Date: 08/04/07
ID: 8273

Game / Information

Sat, 04 Aug 07 17:55:52 -0500

Keywords: Game / Information
Text: Juul:
"Game theory ... distinguishes between games of *perfect information* and games of *imperfect information*: In the former case, all players have complete knowledge of the game state at any given moment. In the latter case, players have only partial knowledge of the game state."
(59)
Date: 08/04/07
ID: 8274

Game

Sat, 04 Aug 07 18:01:54 -0500

Keywords: Game
Text: In Counter-Strike, there is an unsportsmanlike strategy known as "camping" -- staying hidden for most of the game simply to snipe unsuspecting players
camping is not explicitly prohibited by the game rules, but Juul categorizes the agreement among players not to camp as a kind of non-explicit rule
it reminds me of the disdain towards "cheese decks" in Magic: The Gathering
Date: 08/04/07
ID: 8275

Game / Systems / Generative Art

Sat, 04 Aug 07 18:04:37 -0500

Keywords: Game / Systems / Generative Art
Text: Salen and Zimmerman: "Every game [of Pong] is unique. Because the ball can travel anywhere on the screen, Pong is an open-ended game with endless possibilities. Pong rewards dedicated play: it is easy to learn, but difficult to master."
Juul: "Pong has very few rules, yet it provides the players with a large possibility space."
what Juul calls an "emergent game" or a "game of emergence"
Date: 08/04/07
ID: 8276

Media: Videogames / Systems / Computers

Sat, 04 Aug 07 18:06:06 -0500

Keywords: Media: Videogames / Systems / Computers
Text: Juul paraphrases Chris Crawford:
"Crawford argues that since the computer is a data-processing device, a game should take advantage of the computer's strengths by emphasizing processing over data storage." (71)
Date: 08/04/07
ID: 8277

Media: Videogames / Systems / Narrative

Sat, 04 Aug 07 18:07:39 -0500

Keywords: Media: Videogames / Systems / Narrative
Text: In Juul's distinction between emergent games and progression games, he writes:
"The progression structure yields strong control to the game designer: Since the designer controls the sequence of events, this is also where we find the games with cinematic or storytelling ambitions."
Date: 08/04/07
ID: 8278

Game / Systems

Sat, 04 Aug 07 18:09:02 -0500

Keywords: Game / Systems
Text: Juul:
"Games of emergence exhibit a *basic asymmetry* between the relative simplicity of the game rules and the relative complexity of the actual playing of the game."
See other entry, on Pong
Date: 08/04/07
ID: 8279

Media: Videogames / Systems

Sat, 04 Aug 07 18:12:06 -0500

Keywords: Media: Videogames / Systems
Text: Another way emergence shows up in videogames is in "emergent gameplay," where creative players play a game "in a way the game designer did not predict" (Juul)
see designer Harvey Smith, who argues for "systemic level design," a style of level design that allows for emergent gameplay.
Smith distinguishes between "desirable emergence" (which leads to interesting gameplay) and "undesirable emergence," which hacks the system in a way that makes the game less enjoyable
Date: 08/04/07
ID: 8280

Systems

Sat, 04 Aug 07 18:48:26 -0500

Keywords: Systems
Text: Stephen Wolfram, circa 1994: "Whenever you look at very complicated systems in physics and biology ... you generally find that the basic components and the basic laws are quite simple; the complexity arises because you have a great many of these simple components interacting simultaneously. The complexity is actually in the organization -- the myriad of possible ways the components of the system can interact."
Date: 08/04/07
ID: 8281

Game / Systems

Sat, 04 Aug 07 22:17:06 -0500

Keywords: Game / Systems
Text: Jesper Juul distinguishes between four types of emergence in games: "emergence as variation, as patterns, as irreducibility, and as novelty or surprise"
variation = "the variety of possible states and game sessions that a game's rules allow"
patterns = "patterns that players cannot immediately deduce from the rules of the game"
irreducibility = the way the outcome of a game system can only be observed through actual playtesting
novelty = "when several rules or objects in a game are combined in a hitherto unforseen way"
Date: 08/04/07
ID: 8282

Systems / Computers

Sat, 04 Aug 07 22:40:13 -0500

Keywords: Systems / Computers
Text: Stephen Wolfram, circa 1998, on cellular automata: "The behavior of the system can thus be found effectively only by explicit simulation. No computational short cut is possible. The system must be considered 'computationally irreducible.'"
Date: 08/04/07
ID: 8283

Media: Videogames

Sat, 04 Aug 07 22:43:05 -0500

Keywords: Media: Videogames
Text: In Grand Theft Auto III there are certain missions, but the emergent elements allows player "to complete the mission in the way he or she wants. ... The advantage of structuring a game like this is that the player experiences a predefined story by completing the missions, *while* having the freedom to solve the tasks in different ways." (Juul, 82-3)
Date: 08/04/07
ID: 8284

Game / Concept

Mon, 06 Aug 07 18:28:12 -0500

Keywords: Game / Concept
Text: Jesper Juul's concept of "gameplay" involves the interaction of three things:
"1. The rules of the game.
2. The player(s)' pursuit of the goal. The player seeks strategies that work due to the emergent properties of the game.
3. The player's competence and repertoire of strategies and playing methods."
Date: 08/06/07
ID: 8285

Game

Mon, 06 Aug 07 21:59:45 -0500

Keywords: Game
Text: Sid Meier's "interesting choices" are fleshed out thusly:
"1. No single option should be the best.
2. The options should not be equally good.
3. The player must be able to make an informed choice."
quoted by Juul, 92 -- although Juul rightfully points out that Meier's choices are "strategic rather than skill-oriented"
see also Juul 115, in which he writes about Vib-Ribbon, which, according to Meier's classifications "does not contain any interesting choices whatsoever [but] is still an enjoyable game"
Date: 08/06/07
ID: 8286

Puzzles

Mon, 06 Aug 07 18:47:39 -0500

Keywords: Puzzles
Text: Marcel Danesi:
"[S]ome puzzles are more intellectually pleasurable than others are. The *aesthetic index* of a puzzle ... seems to be inversely proportional to the complexity of its solution or to the obviousness of the pattern, trap, or trick it hides."
Date: 08/06/07
ID: 8287