La crítica al presente desde el futuro en The Last of us

The Last of Us realiza una crítica a nuestra sociedad presente desde un futuro apocalíptico que sucederá dentro de unos treinta años. A diferencia de videojuegos como Detroit Become Human, que critican nuestro futuro desde uno más lejano, o Grand Theft Auto IV, que analiza con severidad nuestro presente desde uno ficcionado pero siendo también presente, el videojuego de Naughty Dog habla de nuestro hoy desde un mañana en el que todo ha salido mal. Para hacerlo, Ellie, una niña nacida tras el apocalipsis, estudia nuestra era mediante objetos de cultura pop, diarios y carteles que encuentra. Le pregunta sobre ellos a Joel, que ha vivido en nuestro tiempo, para poder sacar conclusiones. Estudiamos cómo este videojuego asume que todo ha salido mal y cómo lo expresa a través de su narración.

La crítica al presente desde el futuro en The Last of us

The Last of Us realiza una crítica a nuestra sociedad presente desde un futuro apocalíptico que sucederá dentro de unos treinta años. A diferencia de videojuegos como Detroit Become Human, que critican nuestro futuro desde uno más lejano, o Grand Theft Auto IV, que analiza con severidad nuestro presente desde uno ficcionado pero siendo también presente, el videojuego de Naughty Dog habla de nuestro hoy desde un mañana en el que todo ha salido mal. Para hacerlo, Ellie, una niña nacida tras el apocalipsis, estudia nuestra era mediante objetos de cultura pop, diarios y carteles que encuentra. Le pregunta sobre ellos a Joel, que ha vivido en nuestro tiempo, para poder sacar conclusiones. Estudiamos cómo este videojuego asume que todo ha salido mal y cómo lo expresa a través de su narración.

Walking the streets of a virtual metropolis. The audiosphere of the game Grand Theft Auto IV

On the basis of works devoted to the topic of sound studies and video games, the author presents ways of processing and using sounds in order to create virtual phonic spaces. He examines the means by which contemporary game developers influence immersivity, i.e., the process of immersing the gamer in virtual environments, as well as indicating the mutual influences of audial and visual spheres. Analysig the video game Grand Theft Auto IV from the perspective of the sound which accompanies the action, he compares in this respect three areas of the game’s Liberty City with their equivalents in New York on which the virtual city is modelled. The similarities and differences between the digital and virtual spaces are identified, and the reasons for them explained. This makes it possible to show how the use of the tools (explained earlier) employed by the developers of the game enable them to create a credible sounding virtual metropolis.

Allusions of Grandeur

This chapter explores how video games can seek to raise their artistic profile by using classical music to allude to cinema history. After describing some of the visual elements that can be incorporated in games to create a cinematic feeling for players, the chapter traces the use of classical compilation scores in games, connecting the practice to early cinema history. It then turns to more specific topics: first, video game versions of the Disney film Fantasia, such as the Atari 2600 title Sorcerer’s Apprentice (1983) and the Sega Genesis platformer Fantasia (1991), followed by the incorporation of Philip Glass’s score to the film Koyaanisqatsi in Grand Theft Auto IV.

Interactive Experience and Identification as Predictors of Attributing Responsibility in Video Games

This study examines the effect of interactivity on the attribution of responsibility for the character’s actions in a violent video game. Through an experiment, we tested the hypothesis that identification with the main character in Grand Theft Auto IV mediates the effect of interactivity on attributions of responsibility for the main character’s antisocial behavior. Using the framework of the fundamental attribution error, we demonstrated that those who actually played the game, as opposed to those who simply watched someone else playing it, identified with the main character. In accordance with the theoretical expectation, those who played the game and came to identify with the main character attributed the responsibility for his actions to external factors such as “living in a violent society.” By contrast, those who did not interact with the game attributed responsibility for the character’s actions to his personality traits. These findings could be viewed as contrasting with psychological research suggesting that respondents should have distanced themselves from the violent protagonist rather than identifying with him, and with Iyengar’s (1991) expectation that more personalized episodic framing would be associated with attributing responsibility to the protagonist.

Os letramentos enquanto transformadores do ciberespaço em ciberlugar: uma análise dos grupos do Facebook sobre o game The Grand Theft Auto V

Resumo: O presente artigo classifica-se como um estudo de cunho etnográfico virtual, cujo objetivo principal é analisar os letramentos exercidos no game comercial "The Grand Theft Auto IV". Essa proposta está situada a partir do entendimento que, atualmente, a escola tradicional enfrenta crise nas práticas letradas que é caracterizada pela exigência de certos letramentos que não são condizentes com o perfil dos alunos. Como resultado desse estudo inicial, pode-se concluir que o referido game que, há muito tempo vem sido visto como algo inadequado pela sociedade, devido às cenas violentas e adultas, oferece a oportunidade de desenvolver uma série de letramentos valorosos à educação linguística que não são desenvolvidos no contexto formal de ensino.Palavras-chave: Literacies. Ciberspace. Ciberplace. The Grand Theft Auto V.

Replacing preconceived accounts of digital games with experience of play: When parents went native in GTA IV

Cautionary frameworks continue to dominate evaluations of games within political contexts, obstructing consideration of the specific conditions and experiences offered by particular game texts. This paper challenges this tendency of prior government-instigated research to promote viewpoints that are not textually evaluative or play-derived when reporting on perceptions of games possessed by the public. Instead, it prioritizes Dovey and Kennedy’s (2006) argument that ‘we cannot have recourse solely to [games] textual characteristics; we have to pay particular attention to the moment of its enactment as it is played.’ More concretely, this paper describes research sparked by the NZ Classification Office’s interest in exploring ‘the extent to which the public’s perception of causal links between game playing and various social ills’ might be ‘moderated or even undermined by [knowledge of] how players actually respond to and negotiate their way through the content and characteristics of the medium’ (OFLC 2009, 24). Using both game-play observation and in-depth interviews, we concluded that the participants’ preconceptions of Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar North, 2008) were drastically reevaluated after experience playing the game, shifting attitudes and beliefs as to how games should be regulated.