Meaningful Play Podcast

In this episode, Sian and Heather reflect on the complexities of archiving video games. We discuss the way that formal archiving is often difficult and tied up with ideas and judgements about cultural value. We also reflect on the importance of fan preservation, and the discussions around ownership, accessibility, licencing, backwards compatibility, remixing, and more. Finally, we describe our explorations of the LGBTQ Video Game Archive and Play It Again Memory Archive.

Support the Internet Archive: https://blog.archive.org/2024/09/04/internet-archive-responds-to-appellate-opinion/.

Check out the Internet Arcade: https://archive.org/details/internetarcade

Ludography

7G06. (2013). Hypno’s Lullaby. ROM hack.

Bioware. (2010). Dragon Age: Origins. Electronic Arts.

Cobblemon (2022-2024). Cobblemon. https://cobblemon.com/en.

Game Freak. (2018). Pokemon Quest. Nintendo.

Pixelmon Mod. (2012-2024). Pixelmon. https://reforged.gg/.

T. Takemoto. (2007). Kaizo Super Mario World. ROM hack.

Team Folon. (2024). Fallout London. Team Folon.

Two and a Half Studios. (2023). A Date with Death.

Big Blue Box and Lionhead Studios. (2004-2010). Fable (series). Microsoft Game Studios.

References

De Kosnik, A. (2020). Piracy Is the Future of Culture: Speculating about Media Preservation after Collapse. Third Text, 34(1), 62–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/09528822.2019.1663687

Holm, P. (2014). Piracy on the simulated seas: The computer games industry’s non-legal approaches to fighting illegal downloads of games. Information & Communications Technology Law, 23(1), 61–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600834.2014.899770

LGBTQ Video Game Archive. https://lgbtqgamearchive.com/

Newman, J. (2018). Kaizo Mario Maker: ROM hacking, abusive game design and Nintendo’s Super Mario Maker. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 24(4), 339–356. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856516677540

Play It Again. https://ourdigitalheritage.org/hostedArchives/playitagain/index.html

SirRonLionHeart. (2009). Let’s Play Kaizo Super Mario World – Episode I. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZxu0Xzz79E

Stuckey, Helen, et al. “Remembrance of Games Past: The Popular Memory Archive.” ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, ACM, 2013, pp. 1–7, https://doi.org/10.1145/2513002.2513570.

Queer games? For pride month? Ground-breaking. This episode Sian and Heather chat about queer game design and the growing body of scholarship from writers including Bo Ruberg and Xavier Ho on queer games and the way queer games reimagine and play with the video game form. We catch up on what we’ve been working on and playing recently, including robobarbie’s Stop Burying Me Alive, Beautiful! We talk about some of our past research with the LGBTQIA+ Video Game Archive and queer representation in English-language romantic games. We discuss some queer games we find interesting including Lookouts and I was a teenage exocolonist. Lastly, we close with a discussion of some of Jack Halberstam and Bo Ruberg’s work on queerness and failure, and the provocative questions their scholarship asks about form and the status quo.

Ludography

Airdorf Games. (2022). FAITH: The Unholy Trinity. New Blood Interactive. https://new-blood.itch.io/faith-the-unholy-trinity

Akabaka. (2022). Sucker for Love: First Date. Dread XP.

Angela He, Robobarbie, Destini Islands, Allie Vera. (2024). Stop Burying Me Alive, Beautiful! Itch. https://zephyo.itch.io/stop-burying-me-alive-beautiful

Dino999z. (2019-2022). Vincent: The Secret of Myers. Itch. https://dino999z.itch.io/vincent-the-secret-of-myers

ParanoidHawk. (2022). Lookouts. Itch. https://paranoidhawk.itch.io/lookouts

Dreamfeel. (2014). Curtain. Itch. https://dreamfeel.itch.io/curtain

DigiTales Interactive. (2021). Lacuna. Assemble Entertainment, WhisperGames, Mayflower Entertainment. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1364100/Lacuna__A_SciFi_Noir_Adventure/

Northway Games. (2022). I was a teenage exocolonist. Finji.

References

Arasu, P. (2023). Lovecraftian Games: The Afterlife of Cthulhu on Valve’s Steam Client. Games and Culture. https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120231217538

Bernevega, A., & Gekker, A. (2022). The Industry of Landlords: Exploring the Assetization of the Triple-A Game. Games and Culture, 17(1), 47-69. https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120211014151.

Blakey, H. (2023). I was a teenage exocolonist is a posthuman childhood odyssey. GamesHub. https://www.gameshub.com/news/reviews/i-was-a-teenage-exocolonist-review-2606796/

Halberstam, J. (2011). The queer art of failure. Duke University Press.

Ho, X. (Ed.). (2023). Pride at play. Jump to Glide.

Ho, Xavier, Remedios Perez Escobar, and Natalie Tran. 2022. ‘Queer Indie Games on Itch.Io, 2013-2022’. In Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games. FDG ’22. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3555858.3555881.

Ruberg, B. (Ed.). (2020). The queer games avant-garde: How LBGTQ game makers are reimagining the medium of video games. Duke University Press.

Ruberg, B. (2019). Video games have always been queer. New York University Press.

Ruberg, B., Halberstam, J., & Juul, J. (2017). The Arts of Failure: Jack Halberstam in Conversation with Jesper Juul. In B. Ruberg & A. Shaw (Eds.), Queer Game Studies (pp. 201–210). University of Minnesota Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctt1mtz7kr.23

Tomkinson, S. (2024). “This kind of life has no meaning”: Neru’s Vocaloid album CYNICISM. M/C Journal, 27(2). https://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/3037

In this episode Sian and Heather reflect on ‘cosy’ games – games that are designed or played for relaxation and comfort. We recap our research over the past month or so, including the DIGRAA conference, and games we’ve played recently, including Signalis and Mato Anomalies. We consider what ‘cosy’ games are; a category that often includes farming sims such as Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley, but also games with an introspective or relaxing ‘vibe’. We note that that such games can encourage experiences of mindfulness–but that other games can too! Further, we consider specific political, social, and cultural contexts that complicate ‘cosy-ness’ as a concept. We note associated trends or aesthetics such as hygge and iyashikei, both of which have become prominent following times of crisis and stress.

Ludography

Arrowiz (2023). Mato Anomalies. Prime Matter, Plaion.

ConcernedApe. (2016). Stardew Valley. ConcernedApe.

Frogwares. (2019). The Sinking City. Frogwares.

Game Yarouze and Japan Studio. (2008). Echochrome, Sony Computer Entertainment.

Hoyoverse. (2020). Genshin Impact.

Maxis. (2021). The Sims 4: Cottage Living. Electronic Arts.

Mojang Studios. (2011). Minecraft. Mojang Studios, Xbox Game Studios, and Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Paralune LLC. Mythic Ocean. Paralunce LLC, Nakana.io, Untold Tales.

rose-engine. (2022). Signalis. Humble Games.

Second Face Software. (2024). Portal: Revolution. Second Face Software.

Sunblink (2023). Hello Kitty Island Adventure. Sanrio, Apple.

Thunder Lotus Games (2020). Spiritfarer.

Various. (2001-present). Animal Crossing (series). Nintendo.

References

Campbell, C. (2022). What are cozy games, and what makes them cozy?. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/what-makes-a-cozy-game-cozy

Hairston, M. (2008). A Healing, Gentle Apocalypse: Yokohama kaidashi kikō. Mechademia, 3(1), 256–258. https://doi.org/10.1353/mec.0.0036.

Murakami, H. (1991). Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. Kodansha International.

Nguyen, C. Thi. (2020). Games : Agency as Art. Oxford University Press, 2020.

Ren, J. (2020). Analysis of the Japanese Iyashikei Films and the Culture Behind These Films. Proceedings of the 2020 International Conference on Language, Art and Cultural Exchange (ICLACE 2020). Xiamen, China. https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.200709.007

Roquet, P. (2009). Ambient Literature and the Aesthetics of Calm: Mood Regulation in Contemporary Japanese Fiction. The Journal of Japanese Studies, 35(1), 87–111. https://doi.org/10.1353/jjs.0.0050.

Sliwinski, J., Katsikitis, M., & Jones, C. M. (2015). Mindful Gaming: How Digital Games Can Improve Mindfulness. In J. Abascal, S. Barbosa, M. Fetter, T. Gross, P. Palanque, & M. Winckler (Eds.), Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2015 (pp. 167–184). Springer International Publishing.

Universal Music Japan. KIRIMIちゃん. – 「マジカルKIRIMI！」（Short Ver.). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lV719DU328

Yoshimoto, B. (1993). Kitchen. Grove Press.

In this episode Sian and Heather ‘dive in’ to underwater worlds and level design in video games, particularly the kinds of storytelling inscribed in watery environments. We first catch up on different research projects we’ve been working on and what we’ve been playing recently, before discussing a few different artistic and scientific projects that bring game design and the ocean together. We discuss some projects where games are used to showcase underwater cultural heritage and others where game design is world in installations to simulate conditions underwater. Lastly, we talk about some of our favourite underwater levels in games, including the Bioshock series, Laguna Bend in Cyberpunk 2077, the Spyro series, and (of course) the new Fontaine region in Genshin Impact.

Ludography

2K Boston & 2K Australia. (2007). Bioshock. 2K.

2K Marin. (2010). Bioshock 2. 2K Games.

CD Projekt Red. (2020). Cyberpunk 2077. CD Projekt.

Colorful Palette & Crypton Future Media. (2020). Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage! [Project Sekai]. Sega.

f4samurai. (2020). Disney Twisted-Wonderland. Aniplex.

Giant Squid. (2016). Abzû. 505 Games.

Insomniac Games. (2000). Spyro: Year of the Dragon. Sony Computer Entertainment.

Kitfox Games. (2021). Boyfriend Dungeon. Kitfox Games.

Larian Studios. (2023). Baldur’s Gate 3. Larian Studios.

Microids Studio Lyon. (2023). Agatha Christie – Murder on the Orient Express. Microids.

miHoYo. (2020). Genshin Impact. HoYoverse.

Paralune LLC. (2020). Mythic Ocean. Untold Tales.

Rare. (2018). Sea of Thieves. Microsoft Studios.

References

Bellarbi, A., Domingues, C., Otmane, S., Benbelkacem, S., & Dinis, A. (2012). Underwater augmented reality game using the DOLPHYN. The 18th ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236898930_Underwater_augmented_reality_game_using_the_DOLPHYN

Cozza, M., Isabella, S., Di Cuia, P., Cozza, A., Peluso, R., Cosentino, V., Berbieri, L., Muzzupappa, M., & Bruno, F. (2021). Dive in the Past: A Serious Game to Promote the Underwater Cultural Heritage of the Mediterranean Sea. Heritage. 4(4), 4001-4016. https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage4040220.

Huang, C., Chen, Q., Petrovic, V., & Rissolo, D. (2021). Interactive Game-Based Exploration of an Underwater Paleontological Site. 7th International Conference of the Immersive Learning Research Network (iLRN). https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9459364

Pell, S. J., & Mueller, F. (2013). Designing for depth: underwater play. Proceedings of the 9th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment: Matters of Life and Death (IE ’13). https://doi.org/10.1145/2513002.2513036

In this episode, Sian and Heather ‘tuck in’ to video game food and its role from both  mechanical and narrative perspectives. Food, an essential part of life, is a constant presence in video games that rely on world-building and environmental storytelling to convey meaning. From cute cooking minigames to games that use food to inscribe safety, tension, intimacy and fear, food carries power as a narrative device in video games. We discuss Agata Waszkiewicz’s new book Delicious Pixels and Sarah Stang’s work on food in the Fallout series. We also, of course, catch up on the release of Baldur’s Gate 3, including Heather’s tempestuous relationship with gnomes, situationships with Shadowheart, and the sound design of clown body parts. 

Ludography

Arkane. 2017. Dishonored: Death of the Outsider.

Bethesda Game Studios. 2015. Fallout 4

Black Salt Games. 2023. Dredge.

Capcom. 2018. Monster Hunter: World.

CD Projekt Red. 2015. The Witcher 3.

Hoyoverse. 2020. Genshin Impact.

Kitfox Games. 2021. Boyfriend Dungeon.

Larian Studios. 2017. Divinity: Original Sin II.

Larian Studios. 2023. Baldur’s Gate 3.

Naughty Dog. 2020. The Last of Us Part II. 

Nintendo. 2017. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Nintendo. 2020. Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Square Enix Business Division 2. 2016. Final Fantasy XIV. Square Enix.

Square Enix. 2013. Final Fantasy XV: A Realm Reborn.

Supergiant Games. 2020. Hades.

Stoic Studio. 2014. The Banner Saga.

References

Henley, S. (2020, December 7). Eat, drink, play: the recipe for memorable food in video games. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/games/2020/dec/07/food-and-drink-in-video-games

Lamerichs, N. (2018). Hunters, climbers, flâneurs: How video games create and design tourism. In C. Lundberg & V.Ziakas (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of popular culture and tourism (pp. 161–169). Routledge.

Stang, S. (2021). Irradiated Cereal and Abject Meat: Food as Satire and Warning in the Fallout Series. Games and Culture 17(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120211030800 

Tomkinson, S. (2023, August 4). How Abby in ‘The Last of Us: Part 2’ challenged players to think differently. GamesHub. https://www.gameshub.com/news/features/the-last-of-us-part-2-how-abby-challenged-players-to-think-differently-2625606/

Waszkiewicz, A. (2022). Delicious Pixels: Food in video games. De Gruyter.

Gamification is the practice of applying game design elements in non-game contexts. Both the term and practice have been applied to various activities including education, work, fitness, romance, finances, and beyond. In this episode, we slow down and unpack what the term means and some of the research around its application from various game studies scholars. We also touch on the potential intersection between gamification and serious games. We wrap by discussing some games designed to forge a relationship between play and behaviour, including Lumi Interactive’s Kinder World.  

*Heather’s comment about the French cartography project refers to the Cassini map, which was worked on by four generations of the Cassini family (not six, as Heather speculates in this episode).

Ludography

Konami. 2009. Love Plus.

Larian Studios. 2023. Baldur’s Gate III.

Niantic. 2021. Pikmin Bloom.

Lumi Interactive. 2022. Kinder World. 

Q Dork. Morning Makeup Madness.

References

Beth Bos, Lucy Wilder, Marcelina Cook, & Ryan O’Donnell. (2014). Learning mathematics through Minecraft. Teaching Children Mathematics, 21(1), 56–59. https://doi.org/10/gf8qtb

Bogost, I. (2011). Gamification is Bullshit. Bogost.Com. http://bogost.com/writing/blog/gamification_is_bullshit/

Brooks, R. (2021). Artificial Intimacy. NewSouth Books.

Calvino, I. (2020). The Narrative of Trajan’s Column. Translated by M McLaughlin. Penguin Books.

Deterding, S., Dixon, D., Khaled, R., & Nacke, L. (2011). From Game Design Elements to Gamefulness: Defining ‘Gamification’. Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments, 9–15. https://doi.org/10.1145/2181037.2181040

Ho, X., Daunt, F., Mackenzie, M., and Appleby, C., curators. (2023). Pride at Play. Jump to Glide.

O’Donnell, C. (2014). Getting played: Gamification, bullshit, and the rise of algorithmic surveillance. Surveillance and Society, 12(3), 349–359. https://doi.org/10/ggnsv2

Ruffino, P. (2018). Future gaming: Creative interventions in video game culture. Goldsmiths Press.

Tsumura, K. (2020). There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job. Translated by P Barton. Bloomsbury.

Zimmerman, E. (2022). The rules we break: Lessons in play, thinking, and design. Princeton Architectural Press.

Music created with Per Nyblom’s Abundant Music.

What does the phrase ‘gaming lifestyle’ mean in 2023? In this episode, we talk about the spaces, times, and activities that come to mind when we think of gaming as a hobby. From stylised gaming setups and the visuals of video game streaming; to challenging and toxic communities; to game design exhibitions and the community of LGBTQIA+ game designers publishing on Itch.io.

We also catch up on some of the recent Digital Games Research Association events (DiGRA), some of (our!) highlights from DiGRA International and GSOAP, and the games we’ve playing this month, including Honkai: Star Rail, Tokyo Ghostwire, and The Sims 4: High School Years.

Ludography

Experience Inc. 2017. Spirit Hunter: Death Mark. Aksys Games.

Hoyoverse. 2020. Genshin Impact.

Hoyoverse. 2023. Honkai: Star Rail.

Maxis. 2022. The Sims 4: High School Years. Electronic Arts.

Spike Chunsoft. 2009. Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. Aksys Games.

Square Enix, h.a.n.d., Jupiter Corporation. 2007. The World Ends With You. Square Enix.

Tango Gameworks. 2022. Ghostwire Tokyo. Bethesda Softworks.

viv_url. 2021. Off Day. Itch.io.

References

Boudreau, K., (2019). Beyond Fun: Transgressive Gameplay—Toxic and Problematic Player Behavior as Boundary Keeping, in: Jørgensen, K., Karlsen, F. (Eds.), Transgression in Games and Play. The MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/11550.003.0022 

Chess, Shira, (2017). Ready Player Two: Women Gamers and Designed Identity. University of Minnesota Press.

Ho, Xavier, et al. (2022). “Queer Indie Games on Itch.io, 2013-2022”. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series. https://doi.org/10.1145/3555858.3555881.

Moore, Kyle. (2023). Global Mobile Game Cultures, in Proceedings of the Games Symposium for Oceania and the Asia Pacific, 15 June, Melbourne, Australia.

Perreault, G., & Vos, T. (2019). Metajournalistic discourse on the rise of gaming journalism. New Media & Society, 22(1), 159–176. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819858695

Liu, T. (2023). Keynote, in Proceedings of the Games Symposium for Oceania and the Asia Pacific, 14 June, Melbourne, Australia.

Ruberg, Bonnie “Bo”, and Daniel Lark. (2021). “Livestreaming from the Bedroom: Performing Intimacy through Domestic Space on Twitch.” Convergence, 27(3), 679–695, https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856520978324 

Ruberg, Bo. (2022). “Live Play, Live Sex: The Parallel Labors of Video Game Live Streaming and Webcam Modeling.” Sexualities, 25(8), 1021–1039. https://doi.org/10.1177/13634607221103204 

YiangJing. (2023). Keynote: Fear & Care in the Museum: The Politics of Exhibiting Chinese Games, in Proceedings of the Games Symposium for Oceania and the Asia Pacific, 15 June, Melbourne, Australia.

Credits
Music created with Per Nyblom’s Abundant Music.

What makes something cute, and what does a cute thing do in the context of video games? As a surprisingly (or perhaps unsurprisingly) dominant aesthetic of the contemporary era, cuteness is an area of interest for various scholars. In the episode, Sian and Heather unpack some of the developing ideas around cuteness within and outside the discipline of cute studies. We discuss Sianne Ngai, Emma Reay, Ina Saltz, Erica Kanesaka, vocaloids, vtubers, and eebly-fying of everyday life. We also catch up on what we’ve been playing recently and our favourite cute games.

Ludography

2K Boston and 2K Australia. 2007. Bioshock. 2K.

CD Projekt Red. 2020. Cyberpunk 2077. CD Projekt.

Game Freak. 2022. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Nintendo and The Pokémon Company.

Irrational Games. 2013. Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea. 2K Games.

Massive Monster. 2022. Cult of the Lamb. Devolver Digital.

Maxis. 2014. The Sims 4. Electronic Arts.

miHoYo. 2020. Genshin Impact. HoYoverse.

Nintendo EPD. 2020. Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Nintendo.

ParanoidHawk. 2022. Lookouts. Itch.io

Q_dork’s games available at https://q_dork.itch.io/ 

Sketchy Logic. Aviary Attorney. 2015.

Team Salvato. 2017. Doki Doki Literature Club!.

Triskell Interactive. 2023. Pharaoh: A New Era. Dotemu.

ZA/UM. 2019. Disco Elysium.

References

Allison, Anne. 2004. ‘Cuteness as Japan’s Millennial Product’. In Pikachu′s Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokemon, edited by Joseph Tobin, 34–49. Durham: Duke University Press.

Annett, Sandra. 2017. ‘What Can a Vocaloid Do? The Kyara as Body without Organs’. Mechademia 10: 163–77. https://doi.org/10/ghp4mw.

Brazil, Kevin, 2020. Interview with Sianne Ngai, The White Review.

Carpenter, Nicole, 2023. Cosy games are getting darker, Polygon.

Kanesaka, Erica, 2023. The Mixed-Race Fantasy Behind Kawaii Aesthetics, Catapult.

Matsue, Jennifer Milioto. 2017. ‘The Ideal Idol: Making Music with Hatsune Miku, the “First Sound of the Future”’. In Vamping the Stage: Female Voices of Asian Modernities, edited by Andrew N Weintraub and Bart Barendregt, 320–48. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

Ngai, Sianne. Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, Interesting, Harvard University Press, 2012

Özdal, Öznur, and Güven Çatak. 2022. ‘Breaking the Fourth Wall in Video Games: A New Terminology and Methodology’. In Games and Narrative: Theory and Practice, edited by Barbaros Bostan, 45–59. Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81538-7_3.

Pellitteri, Marco. 2018. ‘Kawaii Aesthetics from Japan to Europe: Theory of the Japanese “Cute” and Transcultural Adoption of Its Styles in Italian and French Comics Production and Commodified Culture Goods’. Arts 7 (3): 24. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts7030024.

Reay, Emma. 2021. Cute, cuddly and completely crushable: Plushies as avatars in video games. Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds, 13(2), 131–149.

Saltz, Ina. 2004. “Step Out: The Aesthetics of Cute.” Step Inside Design, vol. 20, no. 6, pp. 14.

Waszkiewicz, Agata, and Martyna Bakun. 2020. ‘Towards the Aesthetics of Cozy Video Games.’ Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds 12 (3): 225–40. https://doi.org/10.1386/jgvw_00017_1.

Credits

Music created with Per Nyblom’s Abundant Music.

In this episode, Sian and Heather get stuck into the influential concept of flow. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s writing and lectures on the flow state have been applied by designers and scholars alike to understand and articulate the unique experiences of play that video games facilitate. We walk through what the concept means and discuss some later research, including Soderman’s Against Flow, that questions the way flow is understood in the wider discipline of game studies. 

Ludography

RachelDrawsThis. 2022. Elevator Hitch. Itch.io. https://racheldrawsthis.itch.io/elevator-hitch 

Motvind Studios. 2021. How We Know We’re Alive. Itch.io. https://motvind-studios.itch.io/how-we-know-were-alive

RoboBarbie. 2023. Today I’m Harvesting You!. Itch.io. https://robobarbie.itch.io/today-im-harvesting-you 

Cocoa Moss Games. 2023. A Day in the Life of Death. https://cocoamoss.com/a-day-in-the-life-of-death/a-day-in-the-life-of-death.html

Cocoa Moss Games. 2020. Hide and Seek. https://cocoamoss.com/hide-and-seek/hide-and-seek.html 

Kitfox Games. 2021. Boyfriend Dungeon. 

References

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2008). Flow (2nd edn). HarperCollins e-books.

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihalyi (2008, 25 October). Flow, the secret to happiness. TED Talks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXIeFJCqsPs

Jin, S.-A. A. (2012). “Toward integrative models of flow”: Effects of performance, skill, challenge, playfulness, and presence on flow in video games. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 56(2), 169–186. https://doi.org/10/gfgxhv

Mansfield, B. E., Oddson, B. E., Turcotte, J., & Couture, R. T. (2012). A possible physiological correlate for mental flow. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 7(4), 327–333. https://doi.org/10/ghp4t6

Soderman, Braxton. (2021). Against flow: Video games and the flowing subject. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

Teng, C.-I. (2011). Who are likely to experience flow? Impact of temperament and character on flow. Personality and Individual Differences, 50(6), 863–868. https://doi.org/10/fnqxq4

Tien, Amanda. (2021, 27 August). ‘In defense of Boyfriend Dungeon and its troubling content’. The Punished Backlog. https://punishedbacklog.com/in-defense-of-boyfriend-dungeon-and-its-troubling-content/ 

Zimmerman, Eric. (2022). The rules we break: Lessons in play, thinking and design. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

Credits

Music created with Per Nyblom’s Abundant Music.

Happy new year! In this episode Sian and Heather talk about failure in video games. Failure has been an aspect of gameplay that has fascinated many scholars studying video games. We walk through the theories of several scholars, including Jesper Juul, Jane McGonigal, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Ronald Tocci, Christopher Paul, Bonnie Ruberg, and Jack Halberstam, reflecting on their theories in the context of our play of video games in various genres. We think about what the word failure means in the context of gameplay, and moments of failure in gameplay we find joyful and interesting.

Ludography

Bethesda Game Studios. 2011. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Bethesda Softworks.

Bethesda Game Studios. 2018. Fallout 76. Bethesda Softworks.

Blizzard Entertainment. 2012. World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria. 

Game Freak. 2022. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Nintendo and The Pokémon Company.

Kyle Horwood. 2022. Security Booth. Itch.io. https://3dkyle.itch.io/security-booth 

Majick. 2022. Last Bus Home. Itch.io. https://majikgames.itch.io/lastbushome 

Northway Games. 2022. I Was a Teenage Exocolonist. Finji.

Volition. 2011. Saints Row: The Third. THQ.

Volition. 2013. Saints Row IV. Deep Silver.

Warrrkus. Harvest Festival 64. Itch.io. https://warrrkus.itch.io/harvest-festival-64

References

Halberstam, Jack. 2011. The Queer Art of Failure. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Juul, Jesper. 2013. The Art of Failure: An Essay on the Pain of Playing Video Games. Playful Thinking. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.

Ruberg, Bonnie. 2017. ‘Playing to Lose: The Queer Art of Failing at Video Games’. In Gaming Representation: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Video Games, edited by Jennifer Malkowski and TreaAndrea M Russworm, 197–210. Indiana University Press.

Ruberg, Bonnie, Jack Halberstam, and Jesper Juul. 2017. ‘The Arts of Failure: Jack Halberstam in Conversation with Jesper Juul’. In Queer Game Studies, edited by Bonnie Ruberg and Adrienne Shaw, 201–10. University of Minnesota Press.

Tocci, J 2008, ‘“You Are Dead. Continue?”: Conflicts and Complements in Game Rules and Fiction’, Eludamos. Journal for Computer Game Culture, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 187–201.

Adinolf, S. and Turkay, S. 2018. ‘Toxic Behaviors in Esports Games: Player Perceptions and Coping Strategies’,

Paul, CA 2018, The Toxic Meritocracy of Video Games: Why Gaming Culture is the Worst, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.

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Credits

Music created with Per Nyblom’s Abundant Music.