Judd Ruggill
The University of Arizona, College of Humanities, Faculty Member
- Game studies, Media Studies, Collaboration, Media Industries, Media and Cultural Studies, Video Games, and 19 moreNew Media, Video Game Theory, Digital Media, Media History, Game Design, Video Games and Learning, Archival Studies, Digital Culture, Digital Humanities, Serious Games, Computer Games, Digital Games, Videogames, Games, Computer Games Technology, Digital Archives, Video Game Design, Video Game Development and Production, and Role Playing Gamesedit
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Two unmarried academic colleagues who live and research together also search for jobs together in academia.
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This dissertation outlines the material and aesthetic origins of the game film in order to show how video and computer games are altering film's role in the media economy specifically, and the form and function of the mass media more... more
This dissertation outlines the material and aesthetic origins of the game film in order to show how video and computer games are altering film's role in the media economy specifically, and the form and function of the mass media more generally. I argue that game cinematization is emblematic of the culture industries' (1) new economic practices and (2) aesthetic and technological convergence. Chapter One introduces the dissertation and offers a precis of the history of film-based licensing in the U.S. In the chapter, I suggest that one of the primary functions of American commercial film is to brand and sell consumer goods, and that understanding the origins of this licensing function is crucial to understanding how games are redefining it. Chapter Two provides a political economy of the institutional and industrial factors that made the game film possible, focusing specifically on a sea change in game business during the late 1980s, and the joint Congressional hearings on game violence in the early 1990s. Chapter Three complements Chapter Two's historical materialist analysis with a textual one, analyzing why game films seem to draw primarily from a single genre--the fighting game. The fighting game's ability to facilitate "safe looking," along with the ways fighting games embody the very essence of genre, have helped ease the transformation of game content into film content. Chapter Four revisits Chapters Two and Three in order to show how the material and aesthetic forces that birthed the game film are among the most influential forces affecting film today. The chapter analyzes the evolution of media makers' attempts to explore and exploit the game medium, and describes the ways games have begun to reshape film business, production, and aesthetics
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The authors discuss the relationship of death and play as illuminated by computer games. Although these games, they argue, do illustrate the value of being—and staying—alive, they are not so much about life per se as they are about... more
The authors discuss the relationship of death and play as illuminated by computer games. Although these games, they argue, do illustrate the value of being—and staying—alive, they are not so much about life per se as they are about providing gamers with a playground at the edge of mortality. Using a range of visual, auditory, and rule-based distractions, computer games both push thoughts of death away from consciousness and cultivate a perception that death—real death—is predictable, controllable, reasonable, and ultimately benign. Thus, computer games provide opportunities for death play that is both mundane and remarkable, humbling and empowering. The authors label this fundamental characteristic of game play thanatoludism.
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Research Interests: Business, Game studies, Media Studies, Media and Cultural Studies, Digital Media, and 15 moreMass Communication, Media Industries, Video Game, Creative Industries, Critical Media Studies, The business of video games, Film and Media Studies, Computer Games, Game Developer, Production studies, Labor Studies, Computer Games Development, Media Industry Studies, Game Studies, and Media and Film Studies
In his 2004 book Game Work, Ken S. McAllister proposed a rigorous critical methodology for the discussion of the “video game complex”—the games themselves, their players, the industry that produces them, and those who review and market... more
In his 2004 book Game Work, Ken S. McAllister proposed a rigorous critical methodology for the discussion of the “video game complex”—the games themselves, their players, the industry that produces them, and those who review and market them. Games, McAllister demonstrated, are viewed and discussed very differently by different factions: as an economic force, as narrative texts, as a facet of popular culture, as a psychological playground, as an ethical and moral force, even as a tool for military training. In Gaming ...
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... Thus in order to go from “doormat to dynasty” (Prima 2), a Madden NFL Football 2004 player must successfully navigate the socio-eco-nomic ... Former big league slugger Wade Boggs likewise had a special game day diet, and pitcher Turk... more
... Thus in order to go from “doormat to dynasty” (Prima 2), a Madden NFL Football 2004 player must successfully navigate the socio-eco-nomic ... Former big league slugger Wade Boggs likewise had a special game day diet, and pitcher Turk Wendell supposedly brush-es his teeth ...
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In helping students become critically engaged in the world and able to communicate effectively, instructors invariably teach a variety of literacies in any classroom. Such literacies include written, verbal, critical–even visual and... more
In helping students become critically engaged in the world and able to communicate effectively, instructors invariably teach a variety of literacies in any classroom. Such literacies include written, verbal, critical–even visual and technological literacies–and thus instructors do more than simply help students learn how to" write good research papers" or" create clear lab reports." Indeed, instructors embody that part of the modern university that opens up" access to participation in public forms of communication...[and imparts] ...
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The brief history of software preservation efforts illustrates one phenomenon repeatedly: not unlike spinning a plate on a broomstick, it is easy to get things going, but difficult to keep them stable and moving. Within the context of... more
The brief history of software preservation efforts illustrates one phenomenon repeatedly: not unlike spinning a plate on a broomstick, it is easy to get things going, but difficult to keep them stable and moving. Within the context of video games and other forms of cultural heritage (where most software preservation efforts have lately been focused), this challenge has several characteristic expressions, some technical (e.g., the difficulty of capturing and emulating protected binary files and proprietary hardware), and some legal (e.g., providing archive users with access to preserved games in the face of variously threatening end user licence agreements). In other contexts, such as the preservation of research-oriented software, there can be additional challenges, including insufficient awareness and training on unusual (or even unique) software and hardware systems, as well as a general lack of incentive for preserving “old data.” We believe that in both contexts, there is a rela...
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In “Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning,” urban planners Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber outline what they term “wicked problems.” According to Rittel and Webber, wicked problems are unavoidably “ill-defined,” that is, unlike... more
In “Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning,” urban planners Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber outline what they term “wicked problems.” According to Rittel and Webber, wicked problems are unavoidably “ill-defined,” that is, unlike “problems in the natural sciences, which are definable and separable and may have solutions that are findable…[wicked problems] are never solved. At best they are only re-solved—over and over again” (160). Rittel and Webber were thinking specifically of the challenges involved in making decisions within immensely complex social circumstances—building highways through cities and designing low income housing projects, for example—but public policy-making and urban design are not the only fields rife with wicked problems. Indeed, the nub of Rittel and Webber’s articulation of wicked problems concerns a phenomenon common to many disciplines: interdisciplinary collaboration. As anyone who has collaborated with people outside her area of expertise will acknowledg...
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In Mardi and a Voyage Thither, novelist Herman Melville writes of the peculiar and startling confluence of memory, objects, valuation, and disfigurement that mark the collector of obsoletia. The story’s antiquary is the picture of... more
In Mardi and a Voyage Thither, novelist Herman Melville writes of the peculiar and startling confluence of memory, objects, valuation, and disfigurement that mark the collector of obsoletia. The story’s antiquary is the picture of perverse depletion, with a body “crooked, and dwarfed, and surmounted by a hump, that sat on his back like a burden” (328), his hut in shambles, and “the precious antiques, and curios, and obsoletes”—the objects of his collection—“strewn about, all dusty and disordered” (329). This unkempt display cum impromptu museum turns out to present a mere fraction of the curator’s collection, the rest of which is host to countless subtle molds and ravenous worms in a vast catacomb below ground. Traversing this darkened vault, one visitor says, is “like going down to posterity” (332). As inveterate accumulators ourselves, we can certainly relate to Mardi’s "extraordinary antiquarian": pursuing obsolete things has transformed us too (though hopefully not qui...
Research Interests: Engineering, Cultural Studies, Archival Studies, Game studies, Collection Development, and 11 moreCultural Theory, Video Games and Learning, Computer Games Technology, Video Games, Archives, Digital Collections, Video Game Theory, Digital Archives, Obsolescence, Communication and media Studies, and Game Studies
Research Interests: Cultural Studies, Psychology, Game studies, Media Studies, New Media, and 13 morePopular Culture, Digital Media, Cultural Theory, Video Games and Learning, Video Games, Commodification of Cutlure, Videogames, Computer Games, Games, Commodity Fetishization, Commodification, IGI Global, and Game Studies
Abstract: This interview is excerpted from a series we conducted in 2009 with William Ryan Kaufman, Project Director at Planet Moon Studios. Kaufman is a fifteen-year veteran of the computer game industry, which, as he notes below, is a... more
Abstract: This interview is excerpted from a series we conducted in 2009 with William Ryan Kaufman, Project Director at Planet Moon Studios. Kaufman is a fifteen-year veteran of the computer game industry, which, as he notes below, is a veritable eternity. In that time he has worked as everything from a tester to a producer, and has shipped all manner of games on all manner of platforms, including Rogue Squadron, INFECTED and After Burner: Black Falcon. In this excerpt, he comments on the state of independent game development, ...
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This article outlines the gamework, a neologism designed to help scholars attend to the various kinds of work involved in computer game development, play and analysis. This work is integral to computer game artifactuality yet tends to be... more
This article outlines the gamework, a neologism designed to help scholars attend to the various kinds of work involved in computer game development, play and analysis. This work is integral to computer game artifactuality yet tends to be obscured by the aesthetic, narratological, mechanical, and economic aspects of games and gaming. We offer the gamework as a means for theorizing computer games as a form of culture that motivates work as much as (if not more than) play. Specifically, we point to how computer games ...
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53 Teaching Media Culture with Computer Games Judd Ethan Ruggill, University of Arizona Ryan Moeller, Utah State University Bryan Pearce, Pearcing Sounds, Ltd. Ken S. McAllister, University of Arizona Introduction A common complaint among... more
53 Teaching Media Culture with Computer Games Judd Ethan Ruggill, University of Arizona Ryan Moeller, Utah State University Bryan Pearce, Pearcing Sounds, Ltd. Ken S. McAllister, University of Arizona Introduction A common complaint among those who teach in wired classrooms ...
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This interview is excerpted from a series we conducted in early 2010 with Brian J. Moriarty, Professor of Practice at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). Moriarty has been developing games for the better part of 30 years, and has... more
This interview is excerpted from a series we conducted in early 2010 with Brian J. Moriarty, Professor of Practice at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). Moriarty has been developing games for the better part of 30 years, and has worked for Analog, Infocom, LucasArts, Rocket Science, Mpath, Hearme, Skotos Tech, and ImaginEngine. He has produced a host of critically and commercially acclaimed titles, including Wishbringer, Trinity, Beyond Zork, and Loom, which earned MacWorld's Adventure Game of the Year in 1990.
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This paper is an edited version of the International Game Developers Association's Game Preservation Special Interest Group's recent white paper. The specific threats to preserving digital games are outlined, as is the... more
This paper is an edited version of the International Game Developers Association's Game Preservation Special Interest Group's recent white paper. The specific threats to preserving digital games are outlined, as is the importance of games as cultural objects. The current strategies for preservation across a range of stakeholders are presented followed by an argument for why preservation matters to industry and what industry can contribute. Finally, the unique potential relationship between academia and industry in this matter is explored ...
Abstract This interview is excerpted from a series we conducted in early 2011 with James Johnson, an independent mobile game developer in the US. Prior to creating his own games, Johnson worked as a programmer for Octopi, FUN... more
Abstract This interview is excerpted from a series we conducted in early 2011 with James Johnson, an independent mobile game developer in the US. Prior to creating his own games, Johnson worked as a programmer for Octopi, FUN Technologies, World Winner, and Sony Online Entertainment on titles such as Snood Deluxe, Makeover Madness, Pox Nora, and The Agency: Covert Ops. In this interview, he talks about the dynamism of mobile game development, the interplay between programmers and designers, the differences between ...
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Among the notable challenges facing computer game scholars is the complexity and changeability of the game industry. Indeed, it can be difficult to deeply understand a game, its play, and the different practices and cultures arising from... more
Among the notable challenges facing computer game scholars is the complexity and changeability of the game industry. Indeed, it can be difficult to deeply understand a game, its play, and the different practices and cultures arising from them without a strong sense of how that game was made. Unfortunately, the business of game making is often veiled-sometimes actively and aggressively-by proprietary and pullulating production practices, labyrinthine corporate structures, fluctuating consumer markets, and incessant ...
Two unmarried academic colleagues who live and research together also search for jobs together in academia.
Research Interests: Interviewing and Hiring
Abstract This interview is excerpted from a series we conducted in 2010 with Michael Thornton Wyman, founder and CEO of Big Splash Games (http://www. bigsplashgames. com/). Big Splash Games is a boutique game design and development studio... more
Abstract This interview is excerpted from a series we conducted in 2010 with Michael Thornton Wyman, founder and CEO of Big Splash Games (http://www. bigsplashgames. com/). Big Splash Games is a boutique game design and development studio well known for its Chocolatier series of casual games. Before founding Big Splash Games, Wyman worked as a Producer for Electronic Arts and Maxis, and a Project Leader for Lucas Learning, contributing to such titles as SSX On Tour, Def Jam Fight For New York, Star Wars Pit ...
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Abstract This interview is excerpted from a series we conducted in 2010 with Quentin Rezin, a scripter/level designer at inXile Entertainment (http://www. inxile-entertainment. com/). Prior to joining inXile, Rezin studied computer... more
Abstract This interview is excerpted from a series we conducted in 2010 with Quentin Rezin, a scripter/level designer at inXile Entertainment (http://www. inxile-entertainment. com/). Prior to joining inXile, Rezin studied computer science at the University of Arkansas and interned at Disney Interactive Studios/Buena Vista Games. He is currently working on Hunted: The Demon's Forge.