by C. Evans
This essay proposes a set of avant-garde models for video game illusions prioritizing artistic goals that do not necessarily function in terms of the market. The author both challenges and builds upon Brenda Laurel’s “Computers as Theatre” analogy by incorporating approaches from 20th Century theatre into video game creation.
Beyond Identification: Defining the Relationships between Player and Avatar
by L. Papale
Do we really identify with our avatar, no matter what? This article deconstructs the notion of identification and tries to determine how and why different kind of characters, points of view, and video game genres convey and allow different relationships between player and avatar.
Do You Feel Like a Hero Yet? Externalised Morality in Video Games
by M. J. Heron & P. H. Belford
Game morality systems are, by and large, incapable of confronting players with meaningful issues of ethical complexity. In this paper, we discuss two titles that present real moral issues while avoiding the classical tropes of in-game karma meters.
BOOK REVIEW
Why Failing in Games is a Positive Aspect of Play: A Review of Jesper Juul’s The Art of Failure
by P. Lorentz
Jesper Juul’s latest book The Art of Failure interrogates the role of failure in video gaming by questioning the paradox between the pain felt when failing and the eagerness to reiterate the experience. Juul displays his thoughts and observations harvested along his experience.
LETTERS
by J. Köller
If player and game are joined together as one, then the activity of playing the game becomes playing with oneself. … The majority of academic work still exists behind such firewalls or paywalls, and you are speaking the same language, which is a barrier of its own.
by G. S. Hubbell & N. A. Hanford
Academia has valuable informal institutions. … We want and value your language—we see your craft of writing as a craft of knowledge.
Journal of Games Criticism 