UVic Study for Video Game Assessment

2 comments

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  Liz
  May 17, 2010 at 1:37 PM

  Hi Jack,
  I am looking forward to your review when you write it. I am interested to hear your opinions. When I was at Digital Games Research conference this year I saw a man named Jesper Juul do a session on 'Bad Games', looking at old retro games like one called "Miner" that has terrible graphics and physics. But he was saying that these bad games are actually good in some ways. I would love to hear some of your observations of older possibly 'bad games'. Here's the description of the session he was a part of at the conference:
  
  A video game can be such an utter failure, in terms of basic craft and artistic value, that it is not possible to gain any enjoyment from playing it. Or is it? This panel discusses the possibility of appreciating video games that are otherwise considered "flawed" or "bad". The concepts of paracinema (Sconce) and camp (Sontag) describe ways of appreciating cinema and culture that is otherwise derided as low quality by dominant standard of taste. Using these as starting points, we can begin to understand how also games can be enjoyed or valued precisely because they fail to meet established quality criteria. Paragaming can be seen as the practice of valuing games because they fail to meet game-specific quality criteria like usability, stability, flow, etc. This panel will explore three different aspects of paragaming, touching on the relationship between difficulty and user experience, the way paracinematic language and culture is often appropriated into not only the practice of paragaming, but into game development, and the role of group dynamics in enjoying "bad games". The question of bad games is important to the mission of game studies. By better understanding counter-readings and/or counter-playings of games - the deliberate appropriation of games in ways that are presumed to go against the intentions of the developers - we can better understand the taste cultures that we are already (and perhaps not consciously) immersed in.
  
  Keywords: GAME DESIGN, PARACINEMA, PARAGAMING, AUDIENCES, GAME APPRECIATION

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  Liz
  May 21, 2010 at 9:44 PM

  Hey Jack! Did you notice that the Google screen today (fri May 21) was Pacman and you can actually play it!!! I think you should do a review on PacMan!

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