The aim of this article is to present V.E.Ga.S tool, which intends to classify video games, study their nature and to corroborate hypothesis by a pragmatic approach. The approach has been inspired by the methodology of Vladimir Propp, who has classified Russian Tales at the time, as well as on the works and the "iterative" approach of the game designers Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman. The approach consists in studying a significant number of video games in order to index their composit
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Keywords : Classification, Game design, Video Games, Morphology, Taxonomy, Bricks, Experimental Methods
With nearly 1000 pages, this heavy book was baked for you by two of best videogames researchers. I gathers many articles that anyone serious about the study of games must (or at least should) have read. The articles gathers are quite different, ranging from scientific essays about the definition of videogames (Huinzingua, Caillois, Suits, etc.) to players gaming diaries and professional game developers postmortems (Valve Software on how they created Half-Life, Lucasart on their pioneering MMO &q
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Keywords : research, game studies, history, definition
Following the videogame classification project, Gam.B.A.S is a research project aimed to study the deep nature of videogames through formal deconstruction of their inner structure. Gam.B.A.S. - Prototype #1 The first step of this ongoing project is to try to provide answer to the following question: What is gameplay? Demonstation videos of the two prototypes created (2007): Publications related to this project Many analysis have yet to be done,
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Keywords : game design, game creation software
A research project designed to build a classification system suited to videogames. This projet resulted in a website featuring a collaborative classification system based on multiple criterias. The games are classified according to their gameplay, their purposes, their markets and target audience, alongside with user-contributed keywords. http://www.gameclassification.com The classification of videogames, a complex problem... The classification of videogame
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Keywords : classification, videogames
A serious game created the 100th anniversary celebration of the "Gargas caves", a prehistoric site located in France. Famous for its negative wall-paintings of hands and its overlapping engravings of animal figures, part of this cave is unfortunately no longer visitable. Indeed, public access limited to avoid the deterioration (due to lightning and or CO2 rejected by breathing visitors) of its historical treasures. This virtual version of the caves presents you with a wall roc
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Keywords : serious game, prehistory
A great videogame analysis book written by one of the founders of the scientific study of games: the ludology. In this book, Jesper Juul explores the connections between videogames and fictional worlds, and he highlights the special features of videogames when it comes to "tell stories." The first part of the book features an essay about the definitions of "games" and "video games" which were heavily quoted (both endorsed or criticized) by most of the following scie
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Keywords : ludology, game studies, fiction, definition
A book introducing a unique and thought-provoking approach to Game Design. Through a concept they call "Zen Game Design", the two authors emphasize over the fact that many game design methodologies exist, and that these methodologies are many because they suit different needs. The authors thus start form the "needs", and dedicate the first part of the book to a detailed analysis of the different player profiles. This analysis is based on a theoretical model called "Demog
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Keywords : game design, players typology, DGD1, zen game design, psychology, methodology
The french written reference about the history of videogames. This must-have book has know five different editions between 1997 and 2012. It details the story of many famous videogames thanks to interviews with their designers: Pong, Tomb Raider, Tetris, Doom, Myst, Sim City, etc. The book also have a background story with the life of Philippe Ulrich, famous french game designer and founder of Cryo, who have lived through all the stages of the videogames history. A very interesting read with a l
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Keywords : french, history, phillipe ulrich
A scientific book gathering 12 chapters written by different authors who are studying videogames through the lens of sociology.
Keywords : sociology
One of the reference book about the scientific study and design of games. This huge 700 pages book will explore in great details the core concepts related to any kind of games: from outdoor sports to videogames games and TV games. The authors introduce a theoretical framework that defines three level of analysis, which were often cited by many others researchers: "Rules", to study games as artifacts, "Play", to analyze the human experience of playing games, "Culture"
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Keywords : theory, research, games, play, defintitons