Ambivalent Violence in Contemporary Game Design

Maloney, Marcus

doi:10.1177/1555412016647848

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 24 publications

(31 reference statements)

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“…However, by depending on comparisons with media forms that are generically different, they fall prey to a logical fallacy that subjects one media form to the limitations of another. Even though “gameplay systems are no less [or more] suffused with meaning than the more explicitly rhetorical dimensions of narrative and representation” (Maloney, 2019, p. 33), the active ludology against passive cinematic reception debate seems to be “a comparison of apples and oranges”—it depends on a false binary between the two without duly considering different and subjective definitions of “activity,” nor the differing vehicles and generic resources through which horror is created.…”

Section: Conclusion—taxonomy Over Binarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Horror Video Games and the “Active-Passive” Debate

Christopher

Leuszler

2022

Games and Culture

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In Perron’s edited compendium of essays regarding horror video games subtitled Essays on the Fusion of Fear and Play (2009), much of the argumentation orbits debate regarding the definition and creation of the experience of horror compared between an ostensibly passive cinema reception (from whence the games take most of their conventions) and the ostensibly more active reception of ludological horror. As the argument goes, ludic activity creates greater identification with diegetic characters and therefore heightens the player’s experience of horror. But is this true, or is it a specious contention that does not really account for the complex mechanics of identification with characters in the ostensibly “passive” experience of cinema viewing, nor for the fact that lacking realism and “active” gameplay may actually compromise the experience of “transportation”?

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Section: Conclusion—taxonomy Over Binarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Horror Video Games and the “Active-Passive” Debate

Christopher

Leuszler

2022

Games and Culture

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“…With that in mind, in researching this sort of interaction before the advent of video games, Huizinga (1949:46) found that 'culture arises in the form of play, it is played from the very beginning', giving levity to Rodgers' (2016:1302) claim that researching games tells us something about our culture. Directly addressing GTAV through a textual analysis, Maloney (2016) finds that rewarding players for acts of subjective violence furthers a sort of 'ambivalence' where violence becomes normalised. But he also calls upon an ambient ambivalence of narrative that embeds violence implicitly into the background of gameplay -systemic violences can be found in elements of gaming as straightforward as competitiveness.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The reification of structural violence in video games

Denham

Hirschler

Spokes

2019

Crime, Media, Culture

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The Grand Theft Auto franchise features prominently within existing research exploring graphic, virtual, lawless, and damagingly realistic interpersonal violence within video games. Following a review of this literature, we empirically interrogate notions of the ‘realistic’ and the ‘violent’ during gameplay, finding that the undertones of systemic, structural, capitalistic violence are experienced by players as providing the gritty sense of the ‘real’ that the game has been criticised for. Using Galtung’s concept of ‘structural violence’ and Žižek’s notion of the ‘real’, we unpack structural violence as the forerunning violent experience in the open world game. Due to the hidden and subdued nature of this violence, often taken for granted and experienced passively, we argue that it is the most impactful player experience that simultaneously makes the game playable and contextualises violent game activities. For cultural criminology, our data suggest that embedded and discrete forms of violence should be the leading edge of concern when studying the digital economy and playable forms of social harm.

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“…La fantasía de poder es un concepto del que se ha hablado en algunas investigaciones previas sobre videojuegos. Marcus Maloney (2016), por ejemplo, escribe un artículo en el que analiza cómo se desarrolla y va evolucionando la fantasía de poder en videojuegos como Bioshock o Grand Theft Auto V. El autor clasifica y compara las dinámicas violentas entre estos videojuegos y asegura que existen algunas cargas violentas más débiles y otras más fuertes, siendo así las más fuertes las que más complacen a lxs jugadorxs. De esta forma, Maloney (2016) asegura que las cargas violentas más fuertes se relacionan con paradigmas de poder que se ven activados cuando lxs jugadorxs sienten que tienen el dominio sobre el curso del juego.…”

Section: Análisis Socio-digital Deunclassified

Cuerpos digitales en Cyberpunk 2077: Un acercamiento desde la ciberautoetnografía

Ortiz¹

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Ambivalent Violence in Contemporary Game Design

Abstract: Through a textual analysis of three noted examples-Bioshock, Spec Ops: The Line, and Grand

Cited by 7 publications

References 24 publications

Horror Video Games and the “Active-Passive” Debate

Horror Video Games and the “Active-Passive” Debate

The reification of structural violence in video games

Cuerpos digitales en Cyberpunk 2077: Un acercamiento desde la ciberautoetnografía

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