The idea of role‐playing makes some people nervous – even some people who play role‐playing games (RPGs). So the idea of immersion is central to understanding how Dungeons Dragons and other aspects of participatory culture work. Phenomenology is a kind of “philosophy of mind” associated with the works of twentieth‐century philosophers Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Jean‐Paul Sartre, and Maurice Merleau‐Ponty, among others. The domain of phenomenology encompasses the entire range of experiences in the world, paying attention to what Husserl called (...) “intentionality,” or how our consciousness is directed toward particular objects in the world. The fact that this is presented as an atypical approach to play, or at least one that requires some effort, invites us to ask about typical modes of play if visualization of in‐game events is not that mode. This chapter concluded by scratch the surface of a complete phenomenological description of role‐playing. (shrink)

I, player : the puzzle of personal identity (MMORPGS and Virtual Communities) -- The game inside the mind, the mind inside the game (The Nintendo Wii Gaming Console) -- Realistic blood and gore : do violent games make violent gamers? (First-person Shooters) -- Games and God's goodness (World-builder and Tycoon Games) -- The metaphysics of interactive art (Puzzle and Adventure Games) -- Artificial and human intelligence (Single-player RPGS) -- Epilogue: Video games and the meaning of life.

Non-player characters (NPCs) are a common feature in contemporary videogames, particularly role-playing games (RPGs). Evidence suggests player relationships with these fictional, digital characters can manifest as deeply emotional experiences that can ‘bleed’ off the screen and affect the daily lives of players. However, research in this area is still in its infancy, and as yet has not been given a thorough conceptual treatment. Applying the sociological phenomenology of Alfred Schütz, this paper will examine the structure of the experiences that players (...) have with NPCs, and how these experiences manifest as meaningful social experiences. By a reconceptualization of the player-NPC relationship as a deeply mediated human-human relationship, this paper aims to build a foundation for further phenomenological study into how players engage with fictional characters in immersive videogame worlds. (shrink)

This article is dedicated to the issue of achieving consensus in tabletop role-playing games and also addresses the question of how exactly play­ers gain power over the interpretation of events within a tabletop RPG. A tabletop role-playing game presupposes that its participants constantly articulate statements which shift the current configuration of in-game elements and also play the role of being artistic descriptions of said shifts. The alternation and interplay of performative and descriptive statements, their convolution and also the fact that, (...) in tabletop RPGs, unlike in the majority of the rest of the games known to humanity, the same words from natural languages are used both in order to produce a shift in abstract, symbolic structure of a game, and to artistically describe said shift, all lead to the situation where participants cannot tell a proper symbolic system of a given game from other symbolic systems which this game refers to. In this article, we propose an analytical model of a tabletop RPG which would make it possible to draw stricter borderlines between a given RPG’s fictional world and its inner symbolic structure. Furthermore, it would allow us to formulate a clearer question regarding the structures of power produced while playing an RPG, and what exactly players gain control over while playing it. Moreover, this model would enable us to explore in detail the processes of the individual and collective interpretation of events in a tabletop RPG, and classify facts within said interpretation in relation to whether they are held to be objectively or subjectively true. (shrink)

O objetivo desse trabalho é relacionar os três princípios, ou prazeres, estéticos de um videogame, isto é, imersão, agência, transformação, com o summum bonum e as categorias fenomenológicas de Charles S. Peirce. O summum bonum pode ser entendido como uma mistura entre sentimento, ação e razão. Os sentimentos, ações e pensamentos do jogador são responsáveis pela concretização e ampliação desse horizonte estético. A imersão é um princípio estético de primeiridade. Podemos entender o ato de imergir como um prazer de primeiridade (...) – pois o jogador, metaforicamente e literalmente, vai para outro lugar, estando sem relação com o que está fora da imersão. O princípio estético da agência é regido pela secundidade. Obtém-se prazer em forçar-se contra o mundo do jogo, controlando-o mecanicamente, agindo e reagindo. Todos os jogos possuem secundidade, mas os jogos de competição, lutas, corridas, e mesmo alguns RPGs online, possuem características marcantes de força mecânica, embate, ação e reação. O terceiro e último princípio estético é a transformação. A transformação é um processo. Jogos que permitem diferentes abordagens costumam ser jogos em que há um processo de crescimento, tanto na questão do gameplay quanto da própria narrativa do jogo. O mundo do jogo e o personagem vão se transformando em algo diferente no decorrer do tempo – há uma evolução, e essa evolução é caracterizada como um fenômeno de terceiridade. Concluiu-se que, embora todos os videogames tenham esses três princípios estéticos, cada jogo individual privilegia um ou dois desses princípios. É justamente esses princípios estéticos que direcionarão a escolha do que vai ser jogado, muito mais do que a temática ou o gênero desse jogo. (shrink)

This is a computer game based on the life of Arthur Schopenhauer. -/- The main character, Arthur, is a student seeking prohibited knowledge. His friend, Hannah, asks him to retrieve a missing paper that she wrote for a seminar taught by the Rector. The task proves more difficult than expected, with Arthur searching the school for the lost paper and discovering a dark secret about the Rector himself. -/- This is an adventure game. Navigate Arthur around campus, make choices in (...) dialogue, and collect items to solve puzzles. The focus of the gameplay is on advancing the story and learning more about the mystery behind the school. -/- Story-focused: Experience the mystery behind the school, the Rector, and the library's vault. -/- Choose your philosophy: Answer several series of questions about the nature of reality. -/- No combat: Instead, rely on your wits to acquire knowledge through solving light puzzles. -/- Two endings: Decide Arthur's future. (shrink)