Topical game research articles picked up and referenced by PlayLab! writers.
Paragon or Renegade? When designing a game with complex moral themes, shades of grey trump black and white
Take a peek at the popular phenomenon of gamification from a cultural perspective and map the relationship between games, society and cultural dynamics.
In the article “Tabletop Role-Playing Games, the Modern Fantastic, and Analog ‘Realized’ Worlds”, first published in the 2016 “Role Playing Games” special issue of Analog Game Studies, Curtis Carbonell explores the expansive worlds of tabletop role-playing games as ‘realized’ worlds and their position in the discourse of posthumanism.
Gamers do not see historical games as reliable sources of knowledge
Salaiset tavoitteet, yhteistyö ja vääristeltävissä oleva tieto synnyttävät petoksen fiktiota lautapeleissä.
Braid, Homesickened ja Velocity2X ovat pelattavia pelikritiikkejä.
Through observing the long-term analogies between games and societies and the role performed by mimicry, Cassone's article provides an alternate view of the relationship between games, society, and gamification through the views of Roger Caillois.
Annakaisa Kultima, Kati Alha and Timo Nummenmaa, researchers at the University of Tampere, have coauthored a paper at the Academic Mindtrek 2016 that presents a case study of Finnish Game Jam and of the community built around it. Consisting of post-event surveys collected during 2010–2016 and statistics collected from the event participant registration forms, the study provides an overview of the Finnish Game Jam scene and some suggestions for fostering similar game development ecosystems with national support schemes.
Alexander Muscat et al. explore the design themes that make up “walking simulators” or walker games.
Goa and Navegador depict colonialist empire-building without violence.
From misguided beliefs about global warming to side effects of vaccination, biased decision making can wreak havoc. But how does gaming make us better decision makers?
Unreleased products and unfulfilled promises help us speculate and discuss the possibilities of the future.
How to make journalism more engaging by applying approaches from serious game design?
Platform studies would benefit from including analog games into the scope of the framework.
Nostalgia can rise from the most mundane things and drive players to explore.
Games offer a good medium for critical reflection of social inequality.
Self-reflexive videogames as tools for philosophy is a thought-provoking experiment.
