Paper Abstract - Jon Dovey

This page is part of the CRIC web archive

PLAYING WITH THE FUTURE:
DEVELOPMENT AND DIRECTIONS
IN COMPUTER GAMING

HOME | PRESS RELEASE | ABSTRACTS | PROGRAMME | PHOTOS

ABSTRACT

Intertextual Tie Ups: When Narratology Met Ludology

Jon Dovey

This paper will review some of the ways in which existing screen studies have been applied to computer games especially around questions of textual form. It is aimed at disseminating some important new thinking as a way of setting an agenda for the panel. In particular, it will expand on ideas current within the games industry - that games have to find a 'mature' audience for entertainment based forms that are more cinematic - as well as the work undertaken by Henry Jenkins at MIT that argues that the games industry now is analogous to the film industry in the 1920s, poised to become the dominant form of narrative culture. It will touch upon the use of narrative in games and the numerous intertextual tie ups between games and film. However, it is clear that this approach only gets us so far - interactivity, immersion and action are for instance largely unaccounted for within this model. The paper will then review some of the developing positions around ludology, the arguments that rather than being seen as developments or imitations of existing media, games have to be constructed within a specific set of histories and practices that have more in common with play, event and action than they do with existing media forms. This approach calls for a wholly new methodology and argues that it is mistaken to apply existing paradigms to this new field. The conference will use video clips from speakers at the "Games Cultures 2001" Conference, particularly drawing upon the work of Espen Aarseth and Jesper Juul.

Back to Abstracts page

Top

CRIC is now proud to be part of the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (MIoIR)
Centre for Research on Innovation and Competition (CRIC), The University of Manchester,
Harold Hankins Building, Booth Street West, Manchester M13 9QH, England
Phone +44 (0)161 275 7365 Fax: +44 (0) 161 275 7361
Site maintained by: Ishty Hussain