Social Ontology of Digital Games

Angelides, Marios C.; Agius, Harry

doi:10.1002/9781118796443.ch23

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…The social reality is still present, for instance, via social objects. Social ontology studies objects that exist “only inasmuch as people believe in them, such as the money value, the State Law, the game rules, or the fictive identities” (Mosca, 2014: 611). It is clear that digital game environments include a lot of social objects, such as game rules and fictive identities.…”

Section: Digital Play—antisocial or Social?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For decades, there have been debates on the active audience which shifted the emphasis from what the media do for people to what people do with media (Ross and Nightingale, 2003: 31). The role of an audience that co-constructs the content of media through various acts (Behrenshausen, 2012: 873; Livingstone, 2003; Mosca, 2014: 625) has been central within media and culture studies since 1990s, and the image of an active child can be located within that discourse.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The moral panic around digital gameplay (see Stephen and Plowman, 2014) suggests that as a medium it is more passive than reading, for instance. On the other hand, games can also be seen as an active medium because games let players use their (fictional) bodies when “a passive medium such as cinema dissociates the body and the mind” (Mosca, 2014: 624).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reconsidering passivity and activity in children’s digital play

Mustola

Koivula

Turja

et al. 2016

New Media & Society

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The discussion around children's digital game culture has resulted in two contradictory images of children: the passive, antisocial children uncritically and mechanically consuming digital game content and the active, social children creatively using and interacting with digital game content. Our aim is to examine how these seemingly contradictory ideas of "active" and "passive" children could be considered. By means of empirical examples of children playing digital dress-up and makeover games, we will point out that for the successful use of these concepts, they need to be thoroughly contextualized. By discussing the context and referent of activity and passivity, it is possible to overcome the unnecessary polarization of the discourses on children's digital game culture. If the purpose is to advance the multidisciplinary discussion on digital games and childhood, the naive or careless use of the concepts of activity and passivity should be avoided.

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Section: Digital Play—antisocial or Social?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Reconsidering passivity and activity in children’s digital play

Mustola

Koivula

Turja

et al. 2016

New Media & Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The third subdomain has been emphasized instead by authors such as Calleja (2011), Consalvo (2011), and Martin (2012), who have analyzed the relation between player and avatar; Björk (2012), who has analyzed the role of the player, and Gregersen (2014), who has analyzed the role of freedom. Lately, some researchers (Deterding, 2009;Mosca, 2014;Sageng, 2009) introduced a philosophical discipline named ''social ontology,'' which can summarize all these subdomains, while revolutionizing one of the central theories of game studies, that is, the nature of game rules.…”

Section: The Nature Of Game Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Is It Like to Be a Player? The Qualia Revolution in Game Studies

Mosca

2016

Games and Culture

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The article aims to explore the reasons why the discipline of game studies requires a shift toward player analysis. This can be done without leaving an object-oriented approach, thanks to the efforts of social ontology, a recent philosophical discipline that investigates social facts. The integration of social ontology into the research on games will be displayed through some mind experiments on the nature of the paradigmatic example of rules. The result of this integration leads to give up the reductionism shared by the majority of game scholars.

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How Do Base Rules Constitute a Virtual World?

Pałosz

2022

Int J Semiot Law

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The classic theory of rules and norms rooted in John Searle’s theory of institutional facts makes it impossible to treat directives encoded in information and communication technologies (ICT) as rules. In the age of increasing dependence on ICTs, it is important to develop a proper ontological framework for discussing previously unknown issues. The aim of the paper is to characterize the rules constituted by the language of the code and show how they differ from purely social institutional rules. The analysis is based mostly on Jaap Hage's theory of rules as constraints on possible worlds. Hage's understanding makes it possible to explain how rules embedded in the code regulate the functioning of a non-intentional computer system. As a useful representation of relations between base rules and institutional rules, the author presents an example of virtual worlds of massive multiplayer online games, which are spaces that facilitate the emergence of complex, normative social orders. They are very illustrative when it comes to the distinction between digital and social dimensions, thus showing how human culture is able to flourish on top of the digital facts that function as observer-independent, physical brute facts. It is possible, because the base rules constrain the system that processes them, by which they constitute digital facts rather than directly guide users’ behavior. The analysis aims to provide tools for the future development of an appropriate legal framework to analyze the digital layer of reality.

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Social Ontology of Digital Games

Cited by 4 publications

References 28 publications

Reconsidering passivity and activity in children’s digital play

Reconsidering passivity and activity in children’s digital play

What Is It Like to Be a Player? The Qualia Revolution in Game Studies

How Do Base Rules Constitute a Virtual World?

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