Game Invaders (ePub)

Preface ix Abbreviations xi Part I Why Do People Play Games? 1. You Are the One 3 Tools to Think With 5 Getting Started 8 Summary 12 2. Genre 13 What Are Genres? 14 What Are Genres For? 16 Genre Maps 18 Computer Game Genres 19 A Theory of Computer Game Genres 21 Summary 25 Further Reading and Tasks 26 3. Activity 29 The Story of Activity Groups 29 An Overview of Activity Profiles 33 Three Driving Games 35 Calculating Genres 38 Summary 43 Tasks 44 4. Pleasure 45 Aesthetics and Computer Games 47 Spacewar 51 Zork 52 Pac-Man 56 Comparative Aesthetics 57 Summary 59 Tasks 60 5. Two Rail-Shooters 61 Star Fox and Rez 61 Activity Profiling and Genre Theory 63 Applying Aesthetic Theory 65 The Method of Game Analysis 67 Tetsuya Mizuguchi, Rez, and Beyond 67 Summary 69 Further Reading and Tasks 70 6. Why Don't People Play Games 71 What Do We Mean by Games? 72 Resident Evil 73 Why Not Ask the Players? 75 Emotional Models of Play 76 Player Types 79 Demographic Research 81 Why Don't People Play Games? 82 Conclusions 83 Part II What Is a Game? 7. Just an Ordinary Day 87 The Glass Vial 89 Unrealisms 90 Perceptual Opportunities 91 Sureties 92 Surprises 93 Attractors 93 Connectors 95 Rewards 97 Getting It All Together in SinCity 99 Perceptual Mapping in SinCity 100 AS-OceanFloor 103 Summary 108 Further Reading and Tasks 109 8. Big Bad Streets 111 Driver School 111 Sureties 113 Surprises 114 Driver and SinCity Comparisons 119 Summary 122 Further Reading and Tasks 123 9. Time to Visit Yokosuka 125 Shenmue 125 Genre and Activity Profile 126 Aesthetics 128 Shenmue POs 129 PSAS and Cut Scenes 131 Interactive Storytelling? 133 And On With General Aesthetics 134 Summary 135 Further Reading and Tasks 137 10. Meaning What? 139 Semiotics and Signs 140 Pac-Man's Signs 143 Icons, Indexes, and Symbols 144 Denotation, Connotation, and Myth 146 Syntagms and Paradigms 148 Codes 151 Making Up Pac-Man 154 Filling Gaps 155 Summary 159 Further Reading and Tasks 161 11. All Work and Play 163 The Work of

CLIVE FENCOTT, PhD, is a freelance writer and researcher
in new media. For many years, he taught and researched the theory
of computer games at Teesside University in the UK. He also worked
in the games industry. Dr. Fencott has authored over fifty
publications, including the successful textbook Formal Methods
for Concurrency.

MIKE LOCKYER, BSc, PhD, is a Professor of Web Services at
Teesside University, where he has taught for over twenty-five
years. He has published over thirty journal papers, successfully
supervised more than ten PhDs, and is currently involved with
developments in web services and rich client applications.

JO CLAY completed a multimedia master's degree at
Teesside University, under the supervision of Clive Fencott, before
joining the games analysis team. As a gamer herself and apprentice
semiotician, Jo assisted in the development of the Game Invaders
method for application in computer software.

PAUL MASSEY, CEng, MBCS, CITP, is a senior lecturer in
computing at Teesside University, where he teaches and consults on
databases. Paul believes databases are central to most IT systems
and applies techniques (such as data mining) to a range of
disciplines (such as games analysis and decision support).

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