My presentation for Metro State University of Denver's Teaching and Learning with Technology Conference 2014, held on October 24, 2014. Educators! Register now for the #Metagame Book Club! The book club will run from November 1-21, 2014. I will be your Track 1: Game Studies facilitator. We will be reading interesting and enlightening academic papers on current theories and controversies in gaming and game studies. #Metagame Book Club Registration Page http://bit.ly/metagamebooksignup #Metagame Book Club Home Page https://sites.google.com/site/metagamebookclub/

1. Studying Video Games
as Ideological Texts
Sherry Jones
Philosophy, Rhetoric, Game Studies
Metro State University of Denver
Teaching and Learning with Technology Symposium 2014
October 24, 2014
sherryjones.edtech@gmail.com
@autnes
http://bit.ly/studygames14

2. On Video Games and Ideologies

3. Digital games, as
consumer products
primarily designed for
the purpose of
entertainment, always
have reflected the
cultural consciousness
of their consumers.
Like television, film, and
other forms of media
that came before it, the
digital game medium
expresses cultural
values of the societies
that can afford to
consume it.
Before we examine how
digital games reflect
cultural ideologies, we
need to define what
culture is, and what
digital games can do.

4. First, in the Lacanian sense,
culture is a symbolic system with
internal logic and meaning that
influence the thinking and
behavior of those who exist
within its symbolic order.
On the other hand, a digital game
is a logic system that contains
its own sets of rules and
representations, and can sway
the thinking and behavior of
those who play the game.
Both culture and digital games
function to impose logic and
order to maintain their own
system logic and integrity.
Essentially, digital games can be
used to simulate and
demonstrate the meaning of
cultural systems.

5. Mass consumerism has turned digital games into primary vehicles for expressing pop culture ideologies. For example, to create games that the
consumers desire, traditional AAA game developers maintain continual feedback loops of conversations between themselves and their
consumers to gauge interests, and would design games that make pop culture references with which the consumers may be familiar. AAA
games are thus consumer driven products designed to reflect pop culture.

6. However, the recent rise of the independent game developers, aka indie game devs, have expanded game development beyond catering to
consumer-driven ideologies. Indie game devs have created innovative games that address controversial and taboo topics avoided by
conventional game design. As a subversive act, the indie game development casts a self-reflective lens on the gaming industry and as a critic of
the consumerist culture that has dominated digital game development. Indie games are now legitimizing digital games as art.

7. As simulators of cultural systems, digital games present ideologies that we suspect, question, criticize, reject, desire, or even wish to
implement in real life. As ideological machines, digital games are systems that act as arbiters of cultural thinking.

8. Although some argue that other types of digital media, such as ebooks, streaming videos, or apps, provide users with some sense of
engagement and interactivity like digital games, digital games provide more than just engagement and interactivity by calling on users to “play”
within the game environments, to “follow” the game logic, and to “test” the limitations of the systems. As game players, we are challenged to
experience and learn the logic of the simulated culture though the act of playing.

9. Why are digital games important to education? The ability to experience simulated cultural systems, in addition to theoretical discussions
of how systems function, can lead to deeper understanding of how cultural systems promote ideologies, or normative worldviews that can
sway or oppress us. Considering Murray’s concept of the “plasticity of culture,” games can demonstrate how multiple cultures can
interact (even when cultural systems change according to shifting ideologies). The meaning of digital games can be explored through
various disciplinary lenses.

10. Disciplines & Critical Theories in Game Studies

11. The Interdisciplinary Field of Game Studies
A new academic field called “Game Studies” has emerged for
considering the meaning of games. Scholars from various disciplines,
such as Semiotics, Futurism, English Studies, Women Studies,
Sociology, Physics, Engineering, Linguistics, Philosophy, History,
Media Studies, Social Sciences, Cultural Studies, Psychology,
Anthropology, and more, have applied critical theories to analyzing
the meaning of games. Given that each discipline offers its own
lenses for interpretation, and that games are complex theoretical,
narrative, and mathematical systems that should be studied with
multiple lenses, the field of Game Studies is full of interesting
interdisciplinary works regarding games, as well as regarding the
future of gaming. The following section provides example academic
writings about ideologies in games.

12. Game Analysis via English Lit.
Applying Lacan’s Gaze and Foucault’s Panoptic Eye to address the
ideology of institutional control in the horror game, Outlast:
“The game [Outlast] presents, then, the struggle between two
opposing understandings of ‘the gaze’ and spectatorship; the
powerless player inserted into the dangers of the scene being
viewed, after Lacan’s understanding, and the powerful supplier of
security technology, the game’s overarching antagonist, which
exemplifies Foucault’s description of the gaze as a cornerstone of
institutional control.”
-- Hazel Montforton
(October 5, 2014)
http://hazelmonforton.tumblr.com/post/99261706575/watching-and-being-watched-in-outlast-and-outlast

13. Game Analysis via History
On the significance of games to historical studies:
“I use this French expression, best translated as « being historical »,
in contrast with another form of History, l’histoire-connaissance,
the learned study of history. As we will see, these two concepts of
History are two entirely different creatures. The medium of games,
overall biased toward popular history, entertains through l’histoire-action
, with occasional niche crossovers into l’histoire-connaissance
. Finally, though l’histoire-action and popular history
are not the same thing, we will see how games bring out their mutual
affinities to the fore.”
-- Gilles Roy
(September 24, 2014)
http://www.playthepast.org/?p=4952

14. Game Analysis via Psychology
On the psychology of feedback loops and behavior formation in
games:
“In Diablo III, players quickly learn that elite monsters –for example,
color coded foes with unique names– have a much higher chance of
dropping loot. Thus players get excited when they see one and do
their best to smash it open like a gory pinata. It turns playing the
game into a habit. Let’s call that a loot loop”
-- Jamie Madigan
(October 2, 2014)
http://www.psychologyofgames.com/2014/10/the-psychology-of-destinys-loot-systems/

15. Game Analysis via Anthropology
On the player’s role as participant observer anthropologist:
“The player – or, more accurately, the act of engaging in an open-world
game – is anthropological. We – the player – are dropped,
quite like Malinowski, an outsider, into an “other” world a world in
which we must both retain our outsider status and continue to
engage and explore. . . . In Skyrim, we have to do quests, pursue
tasks, work as a soldier or intermediary in disputes. This gains us
new knowledge, markers on our map, status in the world. For
assisting at Whiterun – the first major settlement stumbled upon –
we move from being an outsider to becoming a valued member of its
community. For this, we are granted even more opportunities and
information.” -- Owen Vince
(September 25, 2014)
http://ontologicalgeek.com/malinowskis-beach-notes-on-play-as-anthropology/

16. Game Community Analysis via Sociology
On the Gamergate controversy through the lens of sociology and
feminism:
“For all of GamerGate’s hatred of “[Social Justice Warriors]” they
took no lessons from the threadbare realities that lay behind the
SJW stereotype. The phrase ‘social justice warrior’ was originally
coined on Tumblr to describe a dangerous tendency among some
leftist activists to aggressively and angrily pursue political goals
according to strict ideological codes, often to the detriment of
others, with no clear collective gain, but significant personal
aggrandizement. It is a tendency that I and many others have been
critiquing and thinking about long before GamerGate.”
-- Katherine Cross
(October 8, 2014)
http://www.firstpersonscholar.com/we-will-force-gaming-to-be-free/

17. My Methods for Teaching Philosophy w Digital Games

18. LET’S WATCH! ATUM
Atum
http://atumgame.com

19. ETERNAL RECURRENCE IN ATUM
Ex. Friedrich Nietzsche’s eternal recurrence.
1. Eternal recurrence is the theory that our lives
will repeat infinitely (rebirth). Since the
number of objects in the universe are finite,
and the combinations of those objects are
also finite, events must recur ad infinitum.
Therefore, it is impossible for us to escape
the present world. We exist in loops.
2. How does Atum express this theory? As the
player, are you free from the recurrence?
Why or why not?
3. Why does Atum reference Henri Poincaré’s
recurrence theorem and “The Unbearable
Lightness of Being” by Milan Kundera?
“Deductive Reasoning Time . . .”

20. LET’S WATCH! Gods Will Be Watching
Gods Will Be Watching
http://bit.ly/godswatch

21. EXISTENTIALISM IN Gods Will Be Watching
Ex. Jean-Paul Sartre’s Existentialism.
1. Sartre defines “facticity” as the givens
(language, environment, previous
choices, selves) that constitute our
“situations.” What facticity does one
face in the game situation?
2. How is one “condemned to be free” in
the game?
3. “Bad faith” is to adopt false value and
disown innate freedom. Explain the
concept in terms of the game.
“Deductive Reasoning Time . . .”

22. LET’S WATCH! THE STANLEY PARABLE (2011 MOD)
The Stanley Parable (2011 Mod)
http://bit.ly/stanleyparable2011

23. FREEDOM & DETERMINISM IN THE STANLEY PARABLE
Ex. Which view describes the level of Free
Will in the gameplay?
1. Determinism - All events are determined
by causal laws; freedom is an illusion.
2. Compatibilism - All events are
determined by causal laws; humans can
be free via internal motivations.
3. Indeterminism - Some events may be
random; freedom is possible.
4. Libertarianism - Humans can exercise
free will fully; freedom is possible.
“Deductive Reasoning Time . . .”

24. LET’S WATCH! PERSPECTIVE
Perspective
http://seewithperspective.com

25. SEEING-THAT VS. SEEING-AS IN PERSPECTIVE
Ex. Ludwig Wittgenstein’s “Seeing-As.”
1. Wittgenstein explains we perceive
objects in two ways: Seeing-that
(reporting what we see), vs. Seeing-as
(noticing an aspect of what we see as
something). Seeing-as involves
recognizing the relation between the
object with another object or narrative
(i.e. context matters in perception).
2. How do aspects in the game affect our
“seeing objects as” something else?
“Deductive Reasoning Time . . .”

26. JOIN THE #METAGAME BOOK CLUB!
The #METAGAME BOOK CLUB, supported by the International Society of
Technology in Education (ISTE) Games & Simulations Network, invites K-20
educators to read and discuss books and academic literature about current
theories and trends in Gaming, Game-Based Learning, Gamification of
Education, and Game Studies. Fall 2014 edition of the book club will be held
from November 1-21, 2014. We offer 2 Reading Tracks:
● Reading Track 1: Academic Literature of current theories and trends in
Game Studies with facilitator, Sherry Jones.
● Reading Track 2: World of Warcraft: Rise of the Horde by Christie Holden
and The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell, with facilitated discussions
by The Inevitable Instructors guild.
Join us by registering here!
http://bit.ly/metagamebooksignup

27. QUESTIONS? COMMENTS?
Sherry Jones
Philosophy, Rhetoric, Game Studies
Writings & Webinars
sherryjones.edtech@gmail.com
@autnes
Access Slideshow: http://bit.ly/studygames14