Game Studies: The International Journal of Computer Game Research

Game Studies: "Our primary focus is aesthetic, cultural and communicative aspects of computer games...to explore the rich cultural genre of games; to give scholars a peer-reviewed forum for their ideas and theories; to provide an academic channel for the ongoing discussions on games and gaming."

There is so much interesting research and reading material in this eJournal. Two articles in particular caught my eye. The first, The Case of Narrative in Digital Media (Marie-Laure Ryan), explores the use of narrative storytelling in digital media (with an emphasis on interactive games).

Dr. Ryan outlines several definitions of the term narrative, but I found the following three descriptions (especially in the context of online community, learning, and instructional design) insightful:

• Narrative representation consists of a world (setting) situated in time, populated by individuals (characters), who participate in actions and happenings (events, plot) and undergo change.

• The most prominent reason for acting in life is problem-solving. It is therefore the most fundamental narrative pattern.

• Narrative representations must be thematically unified and logically coherent. Their elements cannot be freely permuted, because they are held together in a sequence by relations of cause and effect, and because temporal order is meaningful.

The second article, Player-Centered Game Design: Experiences in Using Scenario Study to Inform Mobile Game Design (Laura Ermi and Frans Mäyrä), provides an interesting (and long overdue) look at how "games should be challenging and entertaining and the goal of the design should be to create meaningful play."


Links

• Game Studies Journal
• BlendedEdu+Games
• BlendedEdu+Storytelling
• StorytellingU

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