LudoScience

Abstract

This article summarises our Ph.D. thesis – an analytical view on the player-game relationship through the lens of an action-oriented framework, centred on fundamental entities defined as actors, entities through which action is enacted in the game and of which the player and the game system are a part of. With this in mind, the grounding principles of this framework are seeded in a transition of action into experience, based on communicational systems that structure the dynamic formation of networks of actors from which distinct behaviours emerge, which, in turn, promote the enactment of diverse sequences of events establishing narrative, which is a source of experience of the player. Chronology, responsiveness, thinking and actuation, transcoding, focus, depth, and traversal are the 7 dimensions we unveiled through the lens of this action-oriented framework. This work proposes that video games can be regarded as action-based artefacts and a call to awareness for game designers that when designing for action they are working with the foundations on which video games are built upon.

Keywords

Action; Chronology; Depth; Design; Focus; Framework; Responsiveness; Thinking and Actuation; Transcoding; Traversal; Video Games.

 

References (6):

 

Alvarez, J., Djaouti, D., Ghassempouri, R., Jessel, J.-P, & Methel, G. (2004). Morphological study of the video games. Paper presented at the CGIE 2006, Perth, Australia.

 

Alvarez, J., Djaouti, D., Ghassempouri, R., Jessel, J.-P., & Méthel, G. (2006). V.E.Ga.S.: A tool to study morphology of the video games. Paper presented at the International Digital Games Conference (GAMES 2006), Portalegre, Portugal.

 

Djaouti, D., Alvarez, J., Jessel, J.-P., & Methel, G. (2007a). Towards a classification of Video Games. Paper presented at the Artificial and Ambient Intelligence convention (Artificial Societies for Ambient Intelligence), Newcastle.

 

Djaouti, D., Alvarez, J., Jessel, J.-P., Methel, G., & Molinier, P. (2007b). The nature of Gameplay: a videogame classification. Paper presented at the Cybergames 2007, Manchester.

 

Djaouti, D., Alvarez, J., Jessel, J.-P., & Methel, G. (2008a). Play, Game, World: Anatomy of a Videogame. International Journal of Intelligent Games & Simulation, 5(1).

 

Djaouti, D., Alvarez, J., Jessel, J.-P., Methel, G., & Molinier, P. (2008b). A Gameplay Definition through Videogame Classification. International Journal of Computer Games Technology, 2008.