DiGRA Digital Library

This article aims to construct a comparison between exploration immersive theatre - analysed through the work of the British theatre company Punchdrunk - and the video game genre of walking simulators. This comparison is rooted in strong similarities between the two media forms, namely the use of the environment as the main site of storytelling and the exploratory agency afforded to the audience.…

Board games have been relevant throughout history, as cultural artifacts with a significant role in shaping social imaginaries and providing a unique social experience. Because of this, their production is affected by the same symbolic discrimination that affects any human cultural production. This paper presents a gender perspective study of modern board games of international renown published i…

Based on the theory of embodied interaction and multi-modal sensory design, this study constructs an immersive plant experience model integrating virtual reality technology, and explores the effect of the integration of multiple senses, such as visual, tactile, and olfactory, on the enhancement of user immersion and participation. By integrating software and hardware technologies, an interaction …

This comprehensive study advances the ontological furnace framework to interrogate how cinematic gaming’s pursuit of photorealism transmutes human presence into commodified simulacra. Through rigorous comparative analysis of Erica’s filmed virtuality and Detroit: Become Human’s uncanny prison across four ontological dimensions— Organic Crucible, Fracturing, Forged Replica, and Commodified Specter…

This study investigates how specific game mechanics in digital play influence prosocial behavior in children, focusing on resource sharing under varying levels of perceived risk. Using a custom-designed video game, The Ludum Detector, researchers controlled game mechanics to measure how children weigh costs and benefits in decision-making. Forty-six 8-year-olds (23 boys, 23 girls) participated as…

The use of digital avatars in live streaming, called VTubing, has seen a steady rise over the past 5 years. The increase in VTubing has had transformational effects on streaming as a practice, and on game culture in a larger sense. Previous work on VTubing indicates that the creation of the digital avatar is a central aspect of the practice. This work also indicates that the presence of the avata…

Despite the growing number of female gamers, their participation in game jams remains disproportionately low. This research seeks to understand and address some of the underlying barriers that prevent women from fully engaging in these events, often dominated by male participants and shaped by a masculine culture. Building on a 2019 study conducted in Brazil, this research replicates parts of the…

Ecogame scholarship, the subdiscipline of videogame studies concerned with environment, has a shortcoming. I establish how ecogames changed from a deeply critical to a problematically optimistic field. Reflecting on recent developments I suggest ecogames must take a stance against optimistic climate rhetoric. I analyse two games: Chants of Sennaar (Moya and Panuel 2023) and Norco (Yuts and Gray 2…

As social beings, humans pursue happiness by craving to foment and maintain fulfilling so- cial relations, a need that transcends from personal into professional life and that leveraged the study of psychological factors that can influence teamwork processes and outcomes. Following this tendency, the present work studies how the pairing of people with distinct interaction preferences influences t…

Social deduction games such as Avalon present a unique challenge for AI agents. To discover the hidden roles of others, players must employ indirectness and deception in their communication. DeepRole, an Avalon-playing AI agent created by MIT researchers in 2019, can communicate through in-game actions but is unable to communicate in natural language. We have created Avalocution, a bot that enhan…

This paper explores the phenomenon of gamer activism, focusing on the motivations behind online and offline protests against game corporations (e.g., review bombing, boycotting, crowdfunding, truck protesting), which are reshaping game industry practices and regulations in South Korea. Based on semi-structured interviews with those actively involved in Korean gamer protests from 2021 to 2023, the…

This article will analyze two mobile video games, Lugawan ni Leni [Leni's Porridge Shop] (Coffee Brain Games, 2022) and Let Leni Lead (Cordless Games, 2022). Released during the height of the 2022 Philippine Presidential Campaign, both games are election and propaganda games that endorses and supports the candidacy of former Philippine Vice President Maria Leonor "Leni" Robredo for president. By …

Game industry events are key venues for networking, career advancement and information exchange for industry members. However, these events are not always accessible, inclusive or equally available to all participants. This research examines barriers to attendance through an inclusion framework that emphasises individuals' needs for both belonging and uniqueness. Moments of exclusion, differentia…

This paper explores the relationship between video games and neocolonialism narratives, focusing on Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007) as a case study. The Iraq War, initiated by the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, serves as a backdrop for examining how media, particularly video games, contribute to the legitimization of neocolonial interventions in the Middle East. While traditional media often ratio…

Since their inception, music and sound in digital games have predominantly played supportive roles, with game states and events typically triggering the playback of sounds or changes in the music. This survey shifts the perspective to games where this relationship is reversed: music and sound are at the forefront, driving interactions and shaping the flow of gameplay. These sound-first games are …

This study presents a hybrid approach to scenario adaptation in serious games, using Finite State Machines (FSMs) and Agent-Based Models (ABMs). Focusing on the educational RPG genre of software development, the proposed model aims to automatically adjust the behavior of non-playable characters (NPCs) and the game's progression based on the player's actions and preferences. The methodology includ…

This paper explores how Playboy magazine and the Playboy Mansion shaped early gaming cultures through the lens of domestication theory. Focusing on backgammon, pinball, and early video games, it examines how Hugh Hefner's lifestyle recontextualized play as a marker of urbane, heterosexual masculinity. Games became tools for reinforcing male sociability, status hierarchies, and gendered power dyna…

This article explores how intentional failure in Genshin Impact functions as comedic resistance to the game's meritocratic culture. Genshin Impact promotes a meritocratic system through its mechanics, rewarding players based on skill, time, and labor investment. Through ethnographic research in Chinese player communities, this study examines how players disrupt this meritocratic culture by delibe…

Analogue and digital games collide in Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games 2021), creating a hauntingly immersive experience that blurs the lines between reality and fiction. This paper examines Inscryption through the lens of remediation theory, exploring how its design utilises immediacy and hypermediacy to evoke a compelling hybrid of analogue and digital gaming experiences. By blending skeuomorp…

We discuss how navigation works in video games with a focus on how it provides challenge for players. Informed by work on how humans navigate real world space we propose a framework to guide the analysis and design of games. The framework considers three steps in the process of navigation: Destination (determining where the player needs to go), Routing (determining how to get there), and Executio…