History of Video Games

Con Storia del videogioco dagli anni Cinquanta a oggi, anche Marco Accordi Rickards sceglie di focalizzarsi sull’aspetto storico, componendo un volume che ripercorre le evoluzioni del medium dalle origini alle prospettive future, in un testo di 160 pagine complessive, edito da Carocci.

«Homo ludens», scriveva lo storico Johan Huizinga alla fine degli anni Trenta: l'uomo è fatto per giocare. Il gioco ha da sempre svolto un ruolo fondamentale nel plasmare le culture e le società, e alcuni giochi hanno saputo oltrepassare i confini dei popoli e superare le barriere linguistiche. Non solo: gli aspetti ludici hanno accompagnato, in alcuni casi catalizzato, le scoperte scientifiche e le innovazioni. Questo è avvenuto anche agli albori dell'informatica: nei laboratori dove si progettavano i computer, nascevano i primi videogiochi, e con essi un nuovo strumento capace di creare un'esperienza di gioco mediata da uno schermo e da un controller. In altre parole, nasceva un medium che in appena mezzo secolo ha saputo raggiungere ogni continente, spesso spiazzando e spezzando l'opinione pubblica. Il videogioco oggi è utilizzato da due miliardi di uomini e donne, e mantiene un giro d'affari di duecento miliardi di dollari, in costante crescita. Il videogioco è parte della nostra quotidianità. La storia che ha trasformato l'intuizione di un manipolo di nerd annoiati in un'industria multimilionaria è uno di quei racconti punteggiati da successi e fallimenti, morti e rinascite, gioie e dolori. Una storia spesso sommersa, sconosciuta o ignorata, talvolta ai confini della leggenda metropolitana. Una storia che merita di essere raccontata.

This paper addresses the lack of solid historical information concerning early computer game sales and preferences. Two consistent data series from the magazines Softalk and Computer Gaming World (CGW) are analyzed to give an overview of the best selling and best rated games by players for the period of 1980-1984. A “genre palette ” is inferred from the sources, giving a snapshot of how contemporaries framed and interpreted the offer in computer games. A comparison of the series reveals the CGW readership constitutes a distinct “hardcore ” play community amongst general computer game players. It is also observed that genre preferences vary in time: arcade games peak in 1982 and then recede in favor of computer-native genres. A brief comparison with Atari 2600 best sellers reveal the inadequacy of the computer game genre palette to describe home console games. The historical and constructed nature of genres as “horizons of expectations ” is discussed.

En los 90 se escriben las primeras historias del videojuego. Allí se estabilizan una serie de determinismos que reducen la producción discursiva del videojuego a un mero efecto de un estado tecnológico y, en menor medida, socioeconómico. Esas historias operaron como condición de producción de la mayor parte de abordajes historiográficos posteriores de los game studies. La predominancia de las explicaciones deterministas produjo una vacancia: no hay casi periodizaciones que atiendan a las formas del videojuego. En este trabajo se propone una periodización compuesta de cuatro momentos caracterizados por grandes desplazamientos y transformaciones discursivas que inicia con surgimiento mediático en los 70, continúa con el establecimiento de un sistema de géneros en los 80, sigue con la afirmación del realismo tridimensional y fotorrealista como dominante estilística, y llega hasta el presente con los constantes reenvíos al pasado y las nuevas modalidades de desludización.

Videogame history is not just a history of one successful technology replacing the next. It is also a history of platforms and communities that never quite made it; that struggled to make their voices heard; that aggravated against the conventions of the day; and that never enjoyed the commercial success or recognition of their major counterparts.

In Minor Platforms in Videogame History, Benjamin Nicoll argues that 'minor' videogame histories are anything but insignificant. Through an analysis of transitional, decolonial, imaginary, residual, and minor videogame platforms, Nicoll highlights moments of difference and discontinuity in videogame history. From the domestication of vector graphics in the early years of videogame consoles to the 'cloning' of Japanese computer games in South Korea in the 1980s, this book explores case studies that challenge taken-for-granted approaches to videogames, platforms, and their histories.

Focusing particularly on Call of Duty: World at War (Activision, 2008), this article considers how the First Person Shooter (FPS) recalibrates three key elements – the citizen soldier, the war as a visual construct and the notion of the ‘Good War’ - within the American cultural narrative of World War II.    Given that the FPS is a vital presence within the current mediascape, it is no longer sufficient to focus on film and television when studying mediations of World War II.  Analyzing World at War as a simulation reveals not only how the FPS reduces World War II to its most basic components of contested spaces and weaponry, but also that it exposes aspects of the narrative obscured by other mediated representations of the conflict.

“Play” has been a central concept in video game studies for the last several years. Through a close look at the recent Danish-developed game Inside (2016) and an overview of the medium, this paper argues that “work” is an equally productive concept, one that foregrounds the ways that video games simulate capitalist forms of physical and intellectual labour, usually as a means of accumulating digital goods. From the twinkling coins of 1985’s Super Mario Bros. to the outfits, arsenals, and emotes of 2014’s Destiny, gamers trade physical labour—their “work” at a ludic interface—for digital wealth.

Presenting various scenes from the game, I also contend that Inside functions as a compelling subversion. “Work” is still central, and in fact the game’s setting is a kind of self-enclosed industrial wasteland. But here the “work” of the player and her avatar, a young boy, lead not to wealth but to repeated death and horrific transformation, opening the space for a thoughtful exploration of the technocultural nexus of labour, repetition, and death that is so dominate under advanced capitalism. The paper concludes by considering the potential for interactive media to critically investigate how we work and, relatedly, how we die.

The following abstract is aimed to put into question how both the Japanese and Western gaming industries have differentiated themselves so much today, offering game systems and narratives that vary widely from each other. In the history of the medium, this differentiation was initially established because some semiotic and mechanic elements were identified to identifiable Japanese or American market tastes. Most of the time, the reasons that have been made to explain this difference within the medium have relied on either essential cultural differences or market determinism based on historical preferences. However, this paper argues that these differences aren't just  formed  due to  specific  cultural images  or  economic  reasons,  but  mainly because  of  the formation of an identity discourse on the industry that has ghettoized specific formulas of player engagement to some cultural regions or supposedly minority groups. In the case of Japanese video games, we argue that several design conventions on the part of Japanese game designers have led to a paradigm that is unique to their cultural context. This paradigm can be distinguished from the one prevalent in the West because it has usually favored games that rely more heavily on the use of what we call “explicit narratives” to contextualize their rules, which have been solidified into several known “game genres” like the JRPG (Japanese Role Playing Game), the “Visual Novel” and others. This paradigm was also highly influential in creating other genres that are ubiquitous in the medium today, specially during the era of the Japanese industrial dominance of the 80's and 90's. This model also encompass semiotic elements that are either textually related to other forms of Japanese media or have been used almost exclusively on Japanese video games. However, its presence has been reduced significantly today, to the point that it  has become representative of games developed exclusively by the Japanese video game industry, even though it might be found outside that region. More so than that, it has been integrated within a bigger cultural discourse that identifies several forms of cultural artifacts as extensions of Japan into Western popular culture. Throughout this paper, we will explore the main elements that characterize this paradigm, including the concept of explicit narratives, and their manifestation on specific games. Finally, we will analyze its current influence on the development of the modern image of Japan, both in gamer consumer culture and the overall gaming industry today.

Los primeros videojuegos fueron creados a partir de los años 60, pero los orígenes de este fenómeno se sitúan mucho más atrás en el tiempo. Los acontecimientos sociales, culturales y económicos que a partir de la segunda mitad del siglo XIX dieron vida a las sociedades modernas y a las tecnologías de la comunicación e información, también son los antecedentes históricos y culturales de los videojuegos.
Lejos de ser un mero experimento científico o un simple juguete, los
videojuegos son el resultado de la sociedad que los consume y produce, y
constituyen una parte fundamental de la historia de la relación entre las
personas y las máquinas.

The golden age of beat-em-up videogames, in arcade and console gaming in the 1980s and 1990s, has a large but neglected cast of Greek and Roman warriors. Gladiators and centurions represented Italy and Greece in worldwide tournaments such as Fighters History, reflecting the fantastical impressions of casual cultural tourists. There are traces of classical antiquity in the major franchises Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct, Tekken, and above all Soulcalibur, in which the Greek Sophitia is the chosen warrior of Hephaestus. At times the ancient world is literally a mere backdrop, as the Parthenon or Colosseum is incongruously overlaid with more contemporary spectacle. But this genre transforms this cultural background in surprising ways, exposing what it really means to audiences whose attention is focused on the foreground.

This thesis will approach death in video games as a crossroad where different pathways in the study of games converge. Death, be that of the avatar or of a non player character, is a crucial part of video game design and an integral part of the experience of play. As such this text will investigate the nature of death in video games. This text starts with a short historical exploration of death and how its mechanics have changed and evolved over time. Then I will examine the fundamental role that death plays within the design of the game mechanics, how it influences the design of the virtual world, and the way time works. Further I will show how death influences the make-believe and the narrative elements of video games, and the ways game designers include it in the plots of their games and how it influences players’ experiences. Moreover I investigate the quasi obsessive relationship death has with video games, and why it is so present in our minds. I will also examine the relationship between player and avatar, and how the ever lurking presence of death influences it. Additionally, I consider how the potential for avatar death can bring pleasure to the activity of play. Finally, I consider the differences between playing and narrating the experience of play, and how the multiple deaths of the avatar tend to be ignored in this situation.

ΠΕΡΙΛΗΨΗ
Η συγκεκριμένη επιστημονική μελέτη εξετάζει την σχέση μεταξύ της θρησκείας και των βιντεοπαιχνιδιών, όπως αυτή γίνεται αντιληπτή μέσω της θρησκευτικής τέχνης που χρησιμοποιείται σε δύο, διαφορετικών κατηγοριών, παιχνίδια: τα Assassin’s Creed II και Layers of Fear. Κατά την διάρκεια της παρούσας μελέτης ερευνήθηκε η έννοια του παιχνιδιού και η σχέση του με την θρησκεία. Μελετήθηκε επίσης η ιστορία των βιντεοπαιχνιδιών, η σχέση τους με την θρησκεία, καθώς και τα πραγματικά θρησκευτικά έργα τέχνης που εμφανίζονται στα δύο, υπό εξέταση, βιντεοπαιχνίδια. Τα αποτελέσματα της μελέτης έδειξαν πως, ενώ η σχέση μεταξύ θρησκείας και βιντεοπαιχνιδιών βρίσκεται ακόμη σε σχετικά πρώιμο στάδιο, είναι εφικτό ο κόσμος των βιντεοπαιχνιδιών να χρησιμοποιηθεί ως ένα μέσο μετάδοσης, κατανόησης και συζήτησης θρησκευτικών ιδεών. Ως ένας καινούριος, μοντέρνος δίαυλος θρησκευτικής επικοινωνίας και διαθρησκευτικού διαλόγου.
ABSTRACT
This scientific study "Religious Art in Video Games", examines the relationship between religion and video games, as perceived through religious art used in two, of different categories, video games: Assassin's Creed II and Layers of Fear. During the present study the concept of gaming and its relationship with religion were investigated. The history of video games, their relationship with religion, as well as the real, religious art that appears in these two video games were, also, examined. The results of the study showed that, while the relationship between religion and video games is still at a relatively early stage, it is possible for the world of video games to be used for transmitting, understanding, and discussing religious ideas. To be used as a new, modern channel of religious communication and interreligious dialogue.

The present paper examines the first politically motivated computer game controversy in Finland that followed the release of Raid over Moscow (1984), and its subsequent review, published in the MikroBitti magazine in February 1985. The game’s open anti-Sovietism and certain expressions in the review trespassed on the most notable taboo in the Cold War era Finland, and thus, the case quickly gained both interest and notoriety in the Finnish media. The events took a political turn when a leftist MP proposed a written parliamentary question concerning the distribution of the game. It triggered a chain of events that started with an unofficial Soviet entreaty to restrict the marketing and sales of the game, culminating into a diplomatic protest about recurrent anti-Soviet expressions and material presented in the Finnish media. The Soviet officials considered Raid over Moscow as war propaganda that advocated a space war against the USSR and the review as an intentional provocation that harmed the Finno-Soviet relations. The Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) conducted a series of enquiries, but outdated legislation concerning preliminary inspection of computer games prevented the ban. The paper is based on a series of declassified MFA documents that handle the unofficial, political course of the controversy. The documents became open to public in 2010, after their 25 year confidentiality period expired under the freedom of information legislation. The Raid over Moscow controversy was genuinely a Finnish phenomenon. Finland’s geopolitical location, its special status between the Cold War blocks, and the erstwhile tensions between the superpowers makes the case unique in the history of popular culture.

What does it mean for the video game arcade to be proclaimed dead? And, how might we interpret the

arcade’s various lingering – as technology, as memory, as culture? This special issue of Reconstruction

considers the “Undead Arcade” and features articles interrogating the arcade as historical subject and

as artifact. Articles address the collection, preservation, and exhibition of arcade games; the role of

nostalgia in driving the post-arcade industry; the role of arcade game ports in home coding practices;

and the use of arcade-inspired game music.

Αντικείμενο της παρούσας διπλωματικής εργασίας αποτελούν τα ψηφιακά παιχνίδια με ιστορικό περιεχόμενο. Αρχικά γίνεται αναφορά στη δημόσια ιστορία και δίνονται ορισμοί για τα ψηφιακά παιχνίδια, ενώ στη συνέχεια παρατίθενται τα είδη τους καθώς και πληροφορίες για την ιστορική τους εξέλιξη. Έπειτα, τονίζονται οι αλλαγές οι οποίες επήλθαν στην ιστορική επιστήμη, κατά την ψηφιακή εποχή, οι οποίες οδήγησαν στην ανάπτυξή της και στον ψηφιακό χώρο. Ειδικότερα, γίνεται προσπάθεια ανάδειξης των ψηφιακών παιχνιδιών με ιστορικό περιεχόμενο ως μια μορφή δημόσιας ιστορίας. Ακόμη, υπογραμμίζεται ο ρόλος του χρήστη αυτών των παιχνιδιών, αλλά και εκείνος του ιστορικού στη δόμηση τους ως εργαλεία της ιστορικής επιστήμης. Επιπλέον, παρουσιάζεται ο νέος τομέας μελέτης, Historical Games Studies, ο οποίος δομείται γύρω από τη μελέτη τωνψηφιακών παιχνιδιών με ιστορικό περιεχόμενο ως μορφές ιστορίας και τη χρήση τους ως διδακτικά εργαλεία. Στη συνέχεια, παρατίθενται οι πολιτισμικές προεκτάσεις των ψηφιακών παιχνιδιών με ιστορικό περιεχόμενο, ενώ αναφορά γίνεται και στις μορφές αφήγησης και αναπαράστασης του ιστορικού περιεχομένου, εντός αυτών. Τέλος, παρουσιάζεται το ψηφιακό παιχνίδι με ιστορικό περιεχόμενο Civilization VI και αναφέρονται στοιχεία σχετικά με το ιστορικό του περιεχόμενο και τον ρόλο του χρήστη σε αυτό.

Published in : Actes de la journée d’étude Patrimoine musical du XXe siècle – Cité de la Musique – 6 avril 2009
This article describes the various issues encountered by the non-profit organization Mo5.com during the creation and preservation process of its collection of historical computers and video games, the most important one in France and the way Mo5.com managed to address them.

Artikkeli käsittelee Suomen ensimmäistä poliittisesti latautunutta tietokonepelikohua, joka syttyi helmikuussa vuonna 1985 MikroBitissä julkaistusta Raid over Moscow’n peliarvostelusta. Arvostelua seurannut julkinen kritiikki laukaisi tapahtumaketjun, joka kärjistyi eduskuntakyselyn kautta Neuvostoliiton epäviralliseen vetoomukseen pelin markkinoinnin ja myynnin estämiseksi ja lopulta diplomaattiseen protestiin neuvostovastaisesta aineistosta Suomen tiedotusvälineissä. Tässä artikkelissa tarkastellaan pelikohun syntyyn ja ratkaisuun vaikuttaneita poliittisia, oikeudellisia sekä kulttuurisia osatekijöitä. Artikkeli perustuu sarjaan Suomen ulkoasiainministeriön muistioita, jotka käsittelevät Neuvostoliiton vetoomusta ja sitä seurannutta protestia. Muistioiden 25 vuoden salassapitoaika umpeutui julkisuuslain perusteella vuonna 2010.

The present article examines the first politically saturated computer and videogame controversy in Finland, instigated by a game review of Raid over Moscow, published in MikroBitti magazine in February 1985. The public criticism that followed the review triggered a chain of events that started with a written parliamentary question, continued by an unofficial petition from the Soviet Union to restrict the marketing and sales of the game, and ended with a diplomatic protest towards anti-Soviet material and publications in Finnish media. The article focuses on political,
juridical and cultural factors that contributed to the emergence and conclusion of the controversy. The article is based on a series of declassified Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs documents that dealt the Soviet petition and the protest following
it. The documents became open to public in 2010, after their 25 year confidentiality period expired under the freedom of information legislation.

O artigo tem como objetivo apresentar e analisar 3 games com conteúdo sexual lançados para o console Atari 2600, são eles: Custer’s Revenge, Beat ‘em and eat ‘em e X-Man. Apesar do pouco recurso que a tecnologia da época oferecia para o desenvolvimento de games, isso não impediu a criação de jogos com temática sexual. Os pixels eram utilizados de maneira expressiva e caricata, pois naquele momento os desenvolvedores tinham apenas alguns quadrados coloridos ao seu dispor. Uma mistura de experimentalismo, ousadia e sacanagem.

The author asks what has occurred in game history scholarship to warrant the use of the adjective " new " in " New Video Game History " and suggests an awareness of process may now be influencing the study of games. In support of this observation, he organizes the article along two interrelated fronts. The first speaks to the ongoing process of collection development at cultural institutions while the second addresses a shift in how game history is currently being written. The latter, he argues, demonstrates why we ought to consider carefully what " new " might signal for the critical historical study of games. At length, the article concludes by making a case for turning to design history to write a historical study of Atari's coin-operated machines. I cringe when I see the adjective " new " affixed to subjects like media, materialism, museology, heritage, art history, or cultural history. I much prefer to think about paradigm reconstruction as a sensitivity or sensibility in need of further assemblage to better comprehend an intellectual problem or particular moment rather than invoke a word with so much ideological cargo as in " New World " let alone branding power—think laundry detergent. Certainly, in academia, new as a modifier seldom travels alone. The oppor-tunistic " studies " quickly sneaks up from behind so that, for example, in the early 2000s, we had to scratch our heads over what " new media studies " actually meant (at least those not satisfied with the answer " digital " did). The word new harbors loftier goals. We often now expect an object bestowed the status of new to become an academic field, at least a subfield. We gift it with introductions , readers, dictionaries, and journals. Voila! Centers, departments, societies, degrees, graduate students, professional positions, all spring up (not to mention big bucks for academic publishers). Luckily for those of us taking stock of the

Playing the (International) Movie: Intermediality and the Appropriation of Symbolic Capital in Final Fight and the Beat ‘em up Genre

Final Fight (Capcom 1989) is considered one of the most accomplished examples of “beat ‘em up,” a digital game genre that rose to international popularity in the second half of the 1980s. The streets depicted in this genre, appearing as a nearly mythological place where the heroes crush legions of foes in a sort of vigilante-like fantasy, are characterized as corrupted and degraded in compliance with representations of “street violence” in big American cities that were articulated in popular gang movies, such as The Warriors and Streets of Fire, and vigilante movies, such as Death Wish and Dirty Harry.
Final Fight did not found the beat ‘em up genre by itself: it was in fact produced having on the background a specific, however recent, textual tradition and canon. This canon comprised texts produced within the same medium (i.e., other video games, mostly of Japanese production), but also drew from an intermedial corpus. In particular, for its design and narrative tropes, Final Fight inherited and incorporated a number of elements coming from the Hollywood action cinema that had been translated into the newer digital medium of video game.
I argue that the evolution of this Japanese genre, marked by such milestones as Nekketsu kōha Kunio-kun (Technōs Japan 1986) and Double Dragon (Technōs Japan 1987), was intertwined with a process of negotiation with this international canon. The instantiations of the “street violence” discourse offered by Hollywood cinema provided the Japanese designers with a framework rich in aesthetic, narrative and even motivational elements to be appropriated in order to shape the massive and reiterated physical violence that was performed in their games.
Combining historical and intertextual research with an analytical framework based on game studies and Pierre Bourdieu’s theory (1991, 1995), I argue that the classical beat ‘em up games that were produced in Japan carried out at a local level a function of symbolic appropriation and redistribution, because they remediated a cinematic textual canon (which was for a significant part of foreign origin) into the video game medium. Video game was, in other words, the means by which a portion of the Japanese cultural industry became able to appropriate the symbolic capital of Hollywood products, in such a successful way that such games became international hits, and a playground for trans-national symbolic exchange.

https://www.eludamos.org/index.php/eludamos/article/view/vol9no1-4

"Der Kalte Krieg wurde vom allesbestimmenden und allesumgreifenden globalen Konflikt zu einer Marke mit Wiederkennungswert. Eine Marke, die vor allem aufgrund kollektiver Ängste funktioniert, die auch nach dem Krieg noch präsent bleiben. Die Marke bedient dabei eine diffuse nostalgische Verklärung einer "einfacheren Zeit", als man noch problemlos zwischen "gut" und "böse" unterscheiden konnte. Weder in den 1980ern noch heute war also die Darstellung eines real stattfindenden Kalten Krieges das Ziel. Vielmehr handelte es sich von Anfang an um einen fiktiven Kalten Krieg, der unserer Populärkultur entsprungen ist. "

Dispelling the myths that had clouded the history of video games even as early as 1983, this articles uses new interviews with electronics pioneers Willy Higinbotham, Ralph Baer and Allen Alcorn plus previously unreported court documents and other resources to provide a precise popular-press timeline properly crediting all major participants.

This paper addresses the lack of solid historical information concerning early computer game sales and preferences. Two consistent data series from the magazines Softalk and Computer Gaming World (CGW) are analyzed to give an overview of the best selling and best rated games by players for the period of 1980-1984. A “genre palette” is inferred from the sources, giving a snapshot of how contemporaries framed and interpreted the offer in computer games. A comparison of the series reveals the CGW readership constitutes a distinct “hardcore” play community amongst general computer game players. It is also observed that genre preferences vary in time: arcade games peak in 1982 and then recede in favor of computer-native genres. A brief comparison with Atari 2600 best sellers reveal the inadequacy of the computer game genre palette to describe home console games. The historical and constructed nature of genres as “horizons of expectations” is discussed.

Le jeu video a la particularite d’impliquer non pas uniquement des createurs, mais aussi et surtout des joueurs, regroupes parfois en communautes extremement organisees sur Internet. Ces communautes ont souvent une devotion suffisamment forte vis-a-vis de leurs objets qu’ils en deviennent les temoins privilegies, des acteurs de premier plan lorsque vient le temps d’ecrire l’histoire du medium videoludique. Les communautes de joueurs tiennent tres certainement un role de mediateur historiographique dans la conservation memorielle du patrimoine videoludique. Cependant, ce role reste encore a etre mieux compris. Quelle information historique est-elle recoltee par les adeptes de jeux video et entretenue dans leurs archives? Comment les pratiques archivistiques des joueurs nous permettent-elles de preciser l’historiographie du jeu video? Afin d’envisager et de relever les enjeux que represente une historicisation du jeu video elaboree dans la perspective des joueurs, cet article propose ...

After a brief reconstruction of the main stages of video game’s development and the links with military research and strategic simulations, the article analyzes the use of video games as a form of propaganda and questions, within the epistemological reflection on history, the relationship between gaming and communication and violence and explores the possible use of video games both in history teaching and public history. Finally, the essay examines the role that a historical environment plays in the construction and reception of video games and in which way historical video games affect our perception pf the past.

This presentation explores a turning point in the history of licensed video games. These games, particularly those tied to films and television series, have gained a reputation among critics and fans as “bad games.” To combat this reputation, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (WBIE), the video game division of Warner Bros., in 2004 hired Jason Hall of developer Monolith Productions and soon after instituted a policy that penalized licensed developers of poorly reviewed games.

I argue that this policy, despite upsetting licensed developers at the time of its announcement, helped WBIE eventually become – as of this writing – 2015’s top-performing video game publisher. I provide an overview of the complex realities of licensed game development and explore the causes, implementation, and consequences of WBIE’s policy. More broadly, I argue that, among the major film and television studios, Warner Bros. has been the most commercially and artistically successful in the video game space due to its intellectual property management, executive hiring practices, acquisition and establishment of developers, and emphasis on using video games as a distinct medium. I conclude by contrasting this success with the studio’s earlier failed ownership of Atari.

Methodologically, I discuss the policy in relation to three Batman-related games (specifically, Batman: Dark Tomorrow [Kemco, 2003], Batman Begins [Electronic Arts, 2005], and Batman: Arkham Asylum [WBIE/Eidos Interactive, 2009) while drawing from original and published interviews with associated creative and executive personnel (including Hall) as well as from media industry trade and popular press articles.

Vom verrückten Wissenschaftler bis zur Zombie-Apokalypse, vom unterirdischen Post-War-Bunker bis zur Jagd auf ausserirdische Rebellen: Horror Games sind voller politischer Erzählungen. Aber bilden sie auch unser politisches Bewusstsein? Und wenn ja, wie? 
„Digitale Spiele“ sind längst ein Massenmedium unserer digitalisierten Gesellschaft und erreichen weltweit viele Millionen Menschen. In den häufig teuer produzierten Spielen werden kulturelle, gesellschaftliche und politische Identitäten kommuniziert und konstruiert – auf vergleichbare Weise wie in anderen Medien, etwa in Actionfilmen. Dennoch beschränken sich akademische Debatten über Games nach wie vor oft auf eher grundsätzliche methodische Fragen. Das Projekt "Horror – Game – Politics" setzt hier an und will mehr: Die politische Kommunikation in digitalen Spielen soll mit einer interdisziplinären Methode und anhand von anschaulichen, gesellschaftspolitisch relevanten Fragestellungen analysiert werden. 
Konkret wird nach „politischen Mythen“ in Horrorspielen der letzten fünf Jahre (2011– 2016) gefragt, also  nach unbewussten kollektiven Bedeutungen und Deutungsmustern im Sinne der „mythologies“ von Roland Barthes. „Mythos“ meint hier ein Zeichensystem, das eine (politische) Botschaft transportiert, die aber von den RezipientInnen nicht gleich als solche erkannt und daher meist unbewusst aufgenommen wird, also ohne weiter hinterfragt zu werden. Ähnlich wie bei Barthes soll es darum gehen, die rhetorische Logik des Genres zu untersuchen, und nachzuweisen, dass der Kommunikationsprozess und die transportierten politischen Aussagen zu Teilen von der Rhetorik des Mediums und des Genres vorgegeben werden, also auch abseits der bewussten Intention der EntwicklerInnen.   
Die Film- und Literaturwissenschaft hat nachgewiesen, dass gerade in Horror-Genres besonders deutlich gesellschaftliche und politische Tabus und Ängste ausgehandelt werden. Da Horrorgenres aber (unabhängig vom Medium) vielfach noch als „Schund“ wahrgenommen werden, laufen hier Prozesse der politischen Kommunikation unbeobachtet ab. Horrorspiele eignen sich daher besonders gut für die Untersuchung politischer Mythen. Eine systematische Erfassung dieser Mythen sowie eine fundierte qualitative Analyse der oftmals „automatisch“ angewandten rhetorischen Wirkmechanismen (in Narrativ, Ästhetik und Spielmechanik) soll dazu dienen, einen bisher „verborgenen“ politischen Kommunikationsprozess sichtbar zu machen und so eine öffentliche Auseinandersetzung mit dem Phänomen politischer Mythen in digitalen Spielen ermöglichen. 
Der Vortrag stellt mit anschaulichen Beispielen einige der Vorstudien und Überlegungen zu diesem Projekt vor. Ein Leckerbissen nicht nur für GamerInnen! 
Dr. Eugen Pfister ist Historiker und Politikwissenschaftler in Wien, derzeit Gastforscher am Forschungsschwerpunkt Kommunikationsdesign und unter anderem Autor von Aufsätzen wie "Jacques Lacan, Caspar David Friedrich und die Zombie-Apokalypse […]" und "Der Pirat als Demokrat: Assassin‘s Creed IV: Black Fla
Host: Arne Scheuermann, Leiter Forschungsschwerpunkt Kommunikationsdesign
Apéro im Anschluss

Mittwoch, 22. Februar 2017
17.00 Uhr
Fellerstrasse 11 - Auditorium
3027 Bern

Quelle attitude l'Historien i doit-il adopter devant un jeu vidéo historique tel qu'Assassins's Creed ?  Les deux notions « temps et récit » qui caractérisent l'Histoire, comme discipline et méthode, n'ont plus cours. L'historien n'est-il plus qu'un garde-chasse cherchant à préserver un domaine où tout le monde peut braconner à sa guise ?

This book focuses on the history of video games, consoles, and home computers from the very beginning until the mid-nineties, which started a new era in digital entertainment. The text features the most innovative games and introduces the pioneers who developed them. It offers brief analyses of the most relevant games from each time period. An epilogue covers the events and systems that followed this golden age while the appendices include a history of handheld games and an overview of the retro-gaming scene.

This paper addresses the lack of solid historical information concerning early computer game sales and preferences. Two consistent data series from the magazines Softalk and Computer Gaming World (CGW) are analyzed to give an overview of the best selling and best rated games by players for the period of 1980-1984. A “genre palette” is inferred from the sources, giving a snapshot of how contemporaries framed and interpreted the offer in computer games. A comparison of the series reveals the CGW readership constitutes a distinct “hardcore” play community amongst general computer game players. It is also observed that genre preferences vary in time: arcade games peak in 1982 and then recede in favor of computer-native genres. A brief comparison with Atari 2600 best sellers reveal the inadequacy of the computer game genre palette to describe home console games. The historical and constructed nature of genres as “horizons of expectations” is discussed.