2024
Mayer, Aska; Thiel-Woznica, Marcel
Dance and Mind Control in The Lands Between. Video-based Study-in-progress of Alternative Game Interfaces in Elden Ring Livestreaming Proceedings Article
In: Companion Proceedings of the 2024 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, pp. 188-193, 2024, ISBN: 979-8-4007-0692-9.
Abstract | Links | Tags: Game controllers, Streaming
@inproceedings{nokey,
title = {Dance and Mind Control in The Lands Between. Video-based Study-in-progress of Alternative Game Interfaces in Elden Ring Livestreaming},
author = {Aska Mayer and Marcel Thiel-Woznica},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3665463.3678782},
doi = {10.1145/3665463.3678782},
isbn = {979-8-4007-0692-9},
year = {2024},
date = {2024-10-14},
booktitle = {Companion Proceedings of the 2024 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play},
pages = {188-193},
abstract = {Game controllers are a crucial element of gameplay experience and agency. Still, they are rarely centered in game livestreaming potentially due to familiarity of users and audiences with them. Within this explorative study-in-progress, we center alternative game controllers, which break with this expectation structures both for player and audience and therefore present new challenges for gameplay structure and technology mediation. To explore this phenomenon, we conducted a video interaction analysis of two Elden Ring livestreams presenting different alternative control modes, a brain-computer-interface (invisible control) and a repurposed Dance Pad (embodied control). It will be shown that the analysed alternative game controllers 1) alter the embodied representation of play, 2) require the adoption of new gameplay structures, and 3) make the development and appearance of evidence practices necessary, to communicate potentially unfamiliar functionality to users.},
keywords = {Game controllers, Streaming},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Game controllers are a crucial element of gameplay experience and agency. Still, they are rarely centered in game livestreaming potentially due to familiarity of users and audiences with them. Within this explorative study-in-progress, we center alternative game controllers, which break with this expectation structures both for player and audience and therefore present new challenges for gameplay structure and technology mediation. To explore this phenomenon, we conducted a video interaction analysis of two Elden Ring livestreams presenting different alternative control modes, a brain-computer-interface (invisible control) and a repurposed Dance Pad (embodied control). It will be shown that the analysed alternative game controllers 1) alter the embodied representation of play, 2) require the adoption of new gameplay structures, and 3) make the development and appearance of evidence practices necessary, to communicate potentially unfamiliar functionality to users.
2019
Mäyrä, Frans
The Player as a Hybrid: Agency in Digital Game Cultures Journal Article
In: GAME: The Italian Journal of Game Studies, vol. 8, iss. 1, pp. 30-47, 2019, ISSN: 2280-7705.
Abstract | Links | Tags: Agency, Game controllers, Game culture, Phenomenology, Play, Power, Technology
@article{Mäyrä2019,
title = {The Player as a Hybrid: Agency in Digital Game Cultures},
author = {Frans Mäyrä},
url = {https://www.gamejournal.it/the-player-as-a-hybrid-agency-in-digital-game-cultures/},
issn = {2280-7705},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-01-01},
journal = {GAME: The Italian Journal of Game Studies},
volume = {8},
issue = {1},
pages = {30-47},
abstract = {This article studies the player as a hybrid: a particular compound version of subjectivity that emerges from involvement with the contents, cultures and technologies of games. Drawing from both cultural studies of technology and phenomenology of game play, the article aims to connect key historical works in cultural technology studies with game and play studies to open perspectives into the tensions and potential conflicts that underlie the empowerment and expansion of gaming self. While engaging in game play provides us with novel opportunities for experiencing alternate realities and developing our abilities, our connections with games are also power relations that shape our hybrid, cultural agency in ways that we are not necessarily always aware of. The increasing intermingling of technology and play has consequences for players’ agency that are revealed to be simultaneously empowering and limiting. The multiple identified areas of tension in the constitution of hybrid player agency also suggest a non-essentialist approach to understanding games, players and playing.},
keywords = {Agency, Game controllers, Game culture, Phenomenology, Play, Power, Technology},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
This article studies the player as a hybrid: a particular compound version of subjectivity that emerges from involvement with the contents, cultures and technologies of games. Drawing from both cultural studies of technology and phenomenology of game play, the article aims to connect key historical works in cultural technology studies with game and play studies to open perspectives into the tensions and potential conflicts that underlie the empowerment and expansion of gaming self. While engaging in game play provides us with novel opportunities for experiencing alternate realities and developing our abilities, our connections with games are also power relations that shape our hybrid, cultural agency in ways that we are not necessarily always aware of. The increasing intermingling of technology and play has consequences for players’ agency that are revealed to be simultaneously empowering and limiting. The multiple identified areas of tension in the constitution of hybrid player agency also suggest a non-essentialist approach to understanding games, players and playing.