Game Time

Abstract

Game time is a core feature of game design and study, and forms part of the gaming experience on a variety of levels. It can be viewed from multiple perspectives, for example, the time of the playing of the game or the flow of time in a game world. In this article, a comprehensive game time model based on empirical research as well as recent theory is presented. It proposes various perspectives on game time and integrates them to allow coherent representation of the same events in the different perspectives. The model has been tested across tabletop and digital formats, and its applicability across game formats is demonstrated. Emphasis is placed on multiplayer and massively multiplayer role-playing games because these feature complex game time behavior not previously evaluated. The model considers game time as an interactively created and nonlinear feature of games and game play.

Time as a Heuristic in Serious Games for Education

“…Gaming experiences are shaped by many calibrations of duration, rhythm, speed, synchronization, and players' degree of control of game world time. In the field of video game research, there is a consistent thread of reflection concerning temporal organization (Zagal and Mateas, 2010); (Juul, 2004); (Tychsen and Hitchens, 2008). Of all conceptual distinctions, we have found Zagal's and Mateas' (2010) classification of "time frames" to be most useful for our research, because it facilitates the study of the relationships between a game and its social environment.…”

“…Time is an important concern for game designers (Tychsen and Hitchens, 2008). Gaming experiences are shaped by many calibrations of duration, rhythm, speed, synchronization, and players' degree of control of game world time.…”

Video Game Navigation: A Classification System for Navigational Acts

“…To exemplify this distinction, it is useful to briefly discuss the relationship of time and movement. As discussed earlier, video games can have multiple time frames (Zagal & Mateas 2007) or representations of time (Tychsen & Hitchens 2009). This shows that, if we include time into the definition of movement, we would always have to specify what time we are referring to when analyzing temporal navigation.…”

“…Zagal and Mateas' (2007) approach follows a reductionist tradition of understanding time by analyzing time frames through the relation of events in the real world, the gameworld, their organization in coordination frames and the fictive time frames connoted with them. Tychsen and Hitchens (2009), without explicitly stating it, include the platonist view of time into their model, by considering time's continuous flow in the player's engine, the server, and the real world. While these approaches can be subsumed under what Michael Nitsche calls "formalist approaches" (2007, p. 145), we should not forget the subjective role of the player, as added by Tychsen and Hitchens in their "perceived representation of time" (2009), and more thoroughly discussed by Nitsche (2007).…”

“…Gazzard 2009a;Günzel 2010;Nitsche 2008;Tychsen & Hitchens 2009;Zagal & Mateas 2007). Interestingly, these discussions are limited to the environments in which players play.…”