In this article, over 60 definitions of games since the 1930s are reviewed in order to pinpoint what those definitions agree on and, more importantly, what they disagree on. This article is conceived of as a tool game scholars can use to better position themselves in regard to the concept of ''game'' by working out their answers to the 10 questions regarding game definition presented in here.
This article reviews the history of the concept of the magic circle, its criticism and the numerous other metaphors that have been used to capture the zone of play or the border that surrounds it, such as world, frame, bubble, net, screen, reality, membrane, zone, environment, or attitude. The various conceptions of social, mental and cultural borders are reviewed and identified. Finally, a model is put forward where the psychological bubble of playfulness, the social contract of the magic circle and the cultural game forms are separated.
Game jams are intensive events focusing on creation. Their popularity and visibility have soared in recent years. The phenomenon has attracted the attention of scholars interested in education and learning, and the potential of game jams has been studied in various ways. Increasingly, game jams have come to be viewed as a site for learning. They are seen as activities for developing technical skills needed for digital game development, developing so-called soft skills such as collaboration and communication skills and as a way to teach and learn science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics (STEAM) skills. In this article, the educational aspects of game jams are explored from multidisciplinary points of view. Combining education science, design research, and game studies, the authors position game jamming at the intersection of these disciplines to explore its various learning dimensions. This positioning provides a starting point for future studies of game jamming in the context of learning and teaching and invites discussion from diverse fields of study.
Live action role-playing games share a range of characteristics with massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs). Because these games have existed for more than 20 years, players of these games have a substantial amount of experience in handling issues pertinent to MMOGs. Survey and review of live action role-playing games, whose participant count can be in the thousands, reveal that features such as size, theme, game master-to-player ratio, and others interact to form complex systems that require several different groups of control tools to manage. The way that these games are managed offers a variety of venues for further research into how these management techniques can be applied to MMOGs.
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