I'm not sure how much relevance this will have for my brief. I'm doing this post as a means to get research under my belt, and also because its a topic of personal interest for my potential future line of work.I've been told that quoting theorists is a good way of obtaining marks, but there's nothing saying that this post can't be beneficial to my coursework either. I myself haven't looked into this area before and if I can apply the theories to my coursework I can potentially make it more credible. Therefore this is my next point of interest in my studies
Gaming Theory - The Study of Gaming
Wikipedia - Game Studies
As usual we start off with the basics. Gaming theory's main purpose is critically studying video games, specifically the way the game is designed, the way it's played and and who by, and the effect that the industry is having on society. Conventionally game studies is very similar to Film/Television Studies, and fits into the category of study of media, and shares some similar issues and conventions that films. Commercially the industry is bigger than both the film and music industries, despite only being around since the start of the modern technology era.
Games, being digitally created, have a potentially infinite scope of possibility, and because they interact directly through the audiences influence, can be much more immersive than films or television programmes are. For these above reasons they are examined and studied by a large variety of other practices and disciplines, but can be categorised into three main approaches:
Social Sciences - What do games do to people?
Social Sciences focuses of the different positive and negative effects that games can potentially have on their audience. As with film and television there is the study of how much of what we see contributes to our real world persona.
Video games, like all forms of media, also have the potential to contribute to the players experience of different cultures. In recent years scientists and teachers have also been starting to understand the power that games have to immerse and make subjects fun, and realising how it can help to solve scientific of mathematical problems if applied correctly.
The main negative effect, it would seem is the fear that the content of the game will affect the behaviour of the player in the real world. Violence and profanity in games is one of the key topics. For that reason it shares a lot of similarities with censorship and study of violence in films. It's no coincidence that both films and games have classification systems.
Humanities - What meanings are made through games?
The Humanities approach looks into the roles that games can play within or own lives, and the value that they're given.Video games are also viewed by some in this approach as representations of culture and explore the meanings contained within the game. Study within this area also looks at the style that games use of implementing real world concepts and combining them with fictional ideas and imagination, as well whether the focus of observation should be the game itself or the person playing it.
The concept of cheating in games is also explored in this approach - with each game being different there are different ways of cheating in each one. The meaning of the word in this concept is also continually debated. The Humanities approach is also the one that brings up the Narratology vs Ludology debate (which we'll cover at a later point), and which side the industry is more leaning towards.
Industry and Engineering - How can we create better games?/What makes a game good?
The Industry and Engineering approach is best described as design/product driven. The focus of this approach is in looking at, comparing, and studying the mechanics of a game - the experience it provides, its usability or lack thereof, the enjoyment the user gets and the mechanics incorporated into it, and continually finding ways to improve them each time. As such technology and new ideas, new guidelines, new suggestions are brought forward concerning how to improve games, to make them better designed, better to play, and causing the industry to most importantly evolve.
Video games are used as examples within this field to demonstrate the advancements and overcoming of limits in technology to enhance their capabilities. In looking for new capabilities of development software to be used in making games, and the competitive nature of having a game that can do what others can't, the industry serves as a considerable contributor to the advancement of digital technology.
Social Learning Theory vs Catharsis Theory and the Influence of Video Game Violence
About.com - Social Learning Theory
About.com - What is Catharsis?
Starting off with the social learning theory, created by Albert Bandura. This is the idea that people are influenced by what they see in media or text. People don't just rely on their own actions and experiences to learn new skills or information. Therefore they rely on an external element to pick up information and acquire skills. This normally comes from a role model, either in person or through watching them via the media.
The experiment credited for showing this theory is the famous bobo doll experiment, where a group of pre-schoolers are shown a bobo doll being beaten up and knocked about by a model, and then testing to see how many of them mimic the actions they see when presented with the doll themselves. The results of the test showed the reliability of it as being 89% positive.
In relation to video games, this theory states that violent and aggressive games have the potential to elicit the same traits in the person playing. If the results of the Bobo doll experiment are anything to go by, it stands to reason that people could replicate the violence they see and do it in real life.
Whilst the same issue arises in violent films, in games the connection is even stronger because of the direct influence the player has on the violence. As opposed to passively watching the violence they see the player is actively participating in the violence. From this idea it stands to reason then that there is is some validity behind the notion that the gaming industry is responsible for spurring violent tendencies in people.
On the reverse side of the argument is the Catharsis Theory. This theory is to do with what is known as Cartharsis; which is having a build-up of of stressful emotions, but finding a way to vent it in a harmless way, normally through physical activity or something else appropriate for stress relief. This same principle can be applied to video games. In this case the idea is that violence in games can serve as a way to relieve aggression by channeling it into the playing, and thus creating something positive in its place. A good example is using the aggression to win a bout in a fighting game, or compete against others in some other competitive game. So games can bring out aggression in people, but also serve as a means of channeling it out harmlessly.
On a side note there's also an argument about censorship in film by Mark Kermode, stating that elements such as rape or violence, which would be likely to be cut because of fear of encouraging similar behaviour, can actually have the obverse effect and repel people from it, due to the feeling of unsettlement it stirs up. A study into the entertainment value of the violence in the film Pulp Fiction also brings up the point that in truth viewers can distinguish the fake violence of a film from real life violence. They don't think any more pleasurably about real violence, deeming it still as horrific, but can find fake violence funny for that reason - it's fake. This idea can just as easily be applied to games as it can film.
Gamification
The term gamification is a recently created idea of implementing game mechanics into concepts outside of gaming, thus adding a fun element to an otherwise dull and tedious problem. Elements brought across include reward systems such as achievements or medals and competing against against others with leaderboards and high scores. Through doing this it's possible for gamers to solve scientific problems with relative ease by turning it them into game puzzles to solve.
Gamification hasn't been hasn't been properly looked into until very recently, and the benefits are only now being realised by teachers and scientists. At the moment it's still a new and most importantly developing strand of gaming, and fast at that.
An article on the Guardian's website puts the benefits of gamification into context. It talks about an enzyme that caused AIDs in monkeys, which scientists had worked on for 13 years. That same problem was solved in three weeks a group of gamers using a game called Foldit, part of a series of game based science projects by a website called Zooniverse. The game involves taking the concept of protein folding and making into an online puzzle game.
Similar games by them include Planet Hunters, a space game about searching the solar system for other planets, the players of which had found 40 previously undiscovered planets that could support life; and Phylo, a colourful tile aligning game, the tiles actually corresponding to animal DNA, which contributes to researching diseases and genetic mutations.
It's not just science that gamification can contribute to. Games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, through their playing styles, can also provide an alternative and potentially more effective way to play real instruments. It is in fact possible to connect real instruments up to the game and use the game to play them properly.
Gamification hasn't been hasn't been properly looked into until very recently, and the benefits are only now being realised by teachers and scientists. At the moment it's still a new and most importantly developing strand of gaming, and fast at that.
An article on the Guardian's website puts the benefits of gamification into context. It talks about an enzyme that caused AIDs in monkeys, which scientists had worked on for 13 years. That same problem was solved in three weeks a group of gamers using a game called Foldit, part of a series of game based science projects by a website called Zooniverse. The game involves taking the concept of protein folding and making into an online puzzle game.
Similar games by them include Planet Hunters, a space game about searching the solar system for other planets, the players of which had found 40 previously undiscovered planets that could support life; and Phylo, a colourful tile aligning game, the tiles actually corresponding to animal DNA, which contributes to researching diseases and genetic mutations.
It's not just science that gamification can contribute to. Games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, through their playing styles, can also provide an alternative and potentially more effective way to play real instruments. It is in fact possible to connect real instruments up to the game and use the game to play them properly.
Scientists are also looking at concepts in others games, particularly MMOs to understand the nature of real world problems relating to the game concepts such as the spread of disease in World of Warcraft and relating it to the spread of disease in real life.
Narratology vs Ludology
Narratology - "The branch of knowledge or criticism that deals with the structure and function of narrative and its themes, conventions, and symbols."
This idea is that Video Games, or at least modern ones, have formed another branch of storytelling known as cyberdrama, within the spectrum of other types of narrative out there. A narrative is basically a story, or at the minimum, the indication of a story being there. In the early years of gaming narrative played next to no role. Arcade games didn't have the capacity for it. It's argued that giving the games titles such as Pac-Man or Street Fighter count as the indication of some kind of story, but aside from that narratology wasn't existent in games.
Ludology - “the study of games and gaming, especially video games.”
This is the puritanical view on video games. Ludology backs the idea that games are purely driven on gameplay, and are independent from other forms of media in their conventions. The study of ludology puts focus on the rules of the game rather than any representation contained within its elements.
As stated with narratology, the true shining point of ludology was in the early days of gaming, back when games were focused purely on the gameplay. It could be implied that people see this as the true form of the industry, but as the industry has expanded, its gone away from its roots in favour of games that have more focus on narrative.
That's not to say that ludology doesn't exist at all in the industry today. Smartphone game apps are the driving force of ludology: next to no narrative, gameplay driven, and conventional very similar to old arcade games, but brought forward into the modern era.
These two studies of games are considered to be mutually exclusive from each other, meaning they don't have any similarities. Look into the gaming industry however, at all of top grossing game series out there - Mario, Pokémon, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Fifa, Final Fantasy, Sims, Need for Speed, Sonic the Hedgehog. None of them incorporate either story or gameplay singularly into their games. They find the key balance between the two to bring out the most in the game.
Finding that balance is one of the key elements of a successful game, or indeed a franchise. Too focused on narratology and it'll become an interactive film rather than a game, and while games purely gameplay based can be successful, it's near to impossible to remove narratology from them completely. Narratives have the power to elicit emotion, and if they can be implemented into games, they can enhance the experience far more than if there was gameplay alone.
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