Gareth Schott

Heavy Hero or Digital Dummy? Multimodal Player–Avatar Relations in Final Fantasy 7:

This article analyses the player–avatar relation in Final Fantasy 7, drawing on multimodality theory to analyse textual structures both in the game and in the discourse of player–interviews and fan writing. It argues that the avatar is a two-part structure, partly designed in conventional narrative terms as a protagonist of popular narrative, and partly as a vehicle for interactive game-play. The former structure is replete with the traditions and designs of Japanese popular narrative, oral formulaic narrative and contemporary superhero narratives, and is presented to the player as an offer act – a declarative narrative statement. The latter is a construct of evolving attributes and economies characteristic of role-playing games; and is presented to the player as a demand act – a rule-based command. Though these two functions separate out in the grammar of player and fan discourse, it is their integration which provides the pleasure of gameplay and narrative engagement.

A conceptual framework for the analysis of first-person shooter audio and its potential use for game engines

We introduce and describe a new conceptual framework for the design and analysis of audio for immersive first-person shooter games, and discuss its potential implications for the development of the audio component of game engines. The framework was created in order to illustrate and acknowledge the direct role of in-game audio in shaping player-player interactions and in creating a sense of immersion in the game world. Furthermore, it is argued that the relationship between player and sound is best conceptualized theoretically as an acoustic ecology. Current game engines are capable of game world spatiality through acoustic shading, but the ideas presented here provide a framework to explore other immersive possibilities for game audio through real-time synthesis.

Feedback-based gameplay metrics: measuring player experience via automatic visual analysis

Using gameplay metrics to articulate player interaction within game systems has received increased interest in game studies. The value of gameplay metrics comes from a desire to empirically validate over a decade of theorization of player experience and knowledge of games as ludic systems. Taking gameplay metrics beyond formalized user testing (i.e. with the aim of improving a product) allows researchers the freedom of examining any commercially available game without the need to have access to the games source code. This paper offers a new methodology to obtain data on player behavior, achieved through analyzing video and audio streams. Game interface features are being analyzed automatically, which are indicative of player behavior and gameplay events. This paper outlines the development of this methodology and its application to research that seeks to understand the nature of engagement and player motivations.

Mergence of Spaces: MMORPG User-Practice and Everyday Life

In the introduction to his seminal book The Language of New Media, Lev Manovich (The MIT Press, Cambridge, 2001) expresses his concern that future researchers might not find adequate records and theories on emerging digital mediums. Manovich warned that ‘analytical texts from our era […] contain speculations about the future rather than a record and theory of the present’ (ibid. 7). In this chapter, we too argue that it is only by attending to the everyday that we gain access to sites where new media technologies are being negotiated and played out as ‘lived’ daily experiences. When applied to the fluid and configurative spaces of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG), it is possible to examine how such spaces form the very nature of everyday practice for its players. This chapter thus comprises an account of the way players inhabit an assortment of roles within role-playing spaces with a particular interest in the varying social and personal narratives that penetrate and extend the function of the fictional universes. What we find is a culture that transgresses the MMORPG space through its appropriation, active negotiation and reconfiguration of its social and material resources. In doing so, the present project aims to provide the very ‘theory of the present’ that Manovich once sought.

Postprocessing Gameplay Metrics for Gameplay Performance Segmentation Based on Audiovisual Analysis

This paper introduces a new variant of gameplay metrics that further develops a set of processes that expand user-centered game testing practices capable of quantifying user experiences. The key goal of the method presented here is to widen the appeal and application of game metrics within research relevant to, and representative of the wider field of game studies. In doing so, we acknowledge that the interests of this research community is often focused on player experience and performance with a broad range of off-the-shelf games that have already been released to the public. In order to be able to include any PC game system within research (or audiovideo stream, e.g., YouTube walkthroughs) our approach comprises of a postprocessing method for analyzing player performance. Through exploiting the audiovisual streams that are transmitted to the player, this approach processes content activated and generated during play and is therefore representative of individual players encounters with specific games.