Lecture

Introduction to Game Studies

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In course

HUM-380: Video games and gamification

Ce cours propose d'acquérir des compétences en création de jeux vidéo, en invitant les étudiant·e·s à mettre leurs connaissances au service d'un projet collectif de recherche-création centré sur la ludification (gamification) d'un contenu scientifique. ...

Description

This lecture introduces the field of game studies, focusing on game analysis tools, creating playable prototypes by 'gamifying' scientific subjects, and fostering critical interdisciplinary group work. Evaluation includes a 'Game Concept Document' and a playable prototype submission.

Instructor

Yannick Rochat

Expertise Digital Humanities, graph theory, social network analysis, character networks, centrality, datavisualisation, social media studies, maritime networks, game studies. Current work I successfully defended a Ph.D. thesis called "Character networks and centrality" in September 2014. It was co-directed by Prof. Henri Volken (UNIL) and Prof. Frédéric Kaplan (EPFL) for a doctoral degree in Applied Mathematics to Humanities and Social Sciences. This research was focused on Les Confessions from Jean-Jacques

Official source

Related concepts (32)

Game studies

Game studies, also known as ludology (from ludus, "game", and -logia, "study", "research"), is the study of games, the act of playing them, and the players and cultures surrounding them. It is a field of cultural studies that deals with all types of games throughout history. This field of research utilizes the tactics of, at least, folkloristics and cultural heritage, sociology and psychology, while examining aspects of the design of the game, the players in the game, and the role the game plays in its society or culture.

Game design

Game design is the process of creating and shaping the mechanics, systems, and rules of a game. Games can be created for entertainment, education, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in the form of gamification.

Collaboration

Collaboration (from Latin com- "with" + laborare "to labor", "to work") is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. Most collaboration requires leadership, although the form of leadership can be social within a decentralized and egalitarian group. Teams that work collaboratively often access greater resources, recognition and rewards when facing competition for finite resources.

Game mechanics

In tabletop games and video games, game mechanics are the rules or ludemes that govern and guide the player's actions, as well as the game's response to them. A rule is an instruction on how to play, a ludeme is an element of play like the L-shaped move of the knight in chess. A game's mechanics thus effectively specify how the game will work for the people who play it. There are no accepted definitions of game mechanics.

Mass collaboration

Mass collaboration is a form of collective action that occurs when large numbers of people work independently on a single project, often modular in its nature. Such projects typically take place on the internet using social software and computer-supported collaboration tools such as wiki technologies, which provide a potentially infinite hypertextual substrate within which the collaboration may be situated. Open source software such as Linux was developed via mass collaboration.

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