Week 16 - Reading

 This week, I continued to look for articles and journals about my topic - RPG.

Paper 1: Brehm, A. (2013). Navigating the feminine in massively multiplayer online games: gender in World of Warcraft. [online] p.903. Available at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00903/full [Accessed 18 Feb. 2021].

This paper takes on the topic of how women are treated in RPG online experiences, particularly World & Warcraft. It discusses how gender norms are put on people through media and society and how this isn't just in the obvious places but it also carries over to online games. The author talks about how it's often assumed that video game players are considered more violent as they show these qualities more often, but it's also considered that these kinds of people already have these traits before they pick a game up and possibly gravitate towards games more than others. 

The paper then dives into sexism and how it's quite prevalent in the gaming world. In one instance, a particular situation is recalled where awful jokes were made and it was recalled as such; "As the authors state, those who spoke out against the rape jokes were“belittled, verbally assaulted, and harassed from many areas within the hardcore gaming public” (cited in Salter and Blodgett 2012, p.411). It further explains about how several threats are made to female gamers and this isn't an isolated issue and that there are several kinds of evidence available - screenshots and voice recordings being just two. Interestingly, it also notes that "the researchers found that the female voice received three times the amount of directed negative comments than the male voice," (Brehm, 2013). It was also later stated that this wasn't a skill-based attack for the sheer fact that these women played as males too. It further discusses that games are often built based on a man's perspective and with male ideology, which leads men to be more dominating and them assuming women will be more submissive in gaming - “To see female gamers as in need of help and guidance is a strategy to keep control over the game; to view women as less competent is to make them harmless” (cited in Eklund, 2002, p. 333).

Paper 2: Spinelli, L. (n.d.). Tabletop Role-Playing Games and Social Skills in Young Adults. [online] . Available at: digitalcommons.pace.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1199&context=honorscollege_theses.

In this paper, the author investigates if Tabletop RPG games influence and encourage social skill development. It found that it encouraged creativity in people that played the game. "Participants who played TTRPGs scored statistically significantly higher in measures of creativity than participants who did not play TTRPGs," (Spinelli, n.d.). The study did however find that playing this tabletop RPG did not influence social skills or self-efficacy. It further explains that creativity is often associated with social skills and self-efficacy so it does show some hope. I, personally, would argue that it would need to be studied in younger kids (the study was for 18-24 year olds) and also for longer to actually influence a person. This point is actually mentioned further along in the paper - when talking about the study being done in young adults and it not having similar results to other studies, the author said "however, it may indicate a significant difference in the research methods" (Spinelli, n.d.).

Paper 3: Kao, D. (2020). The effects of juiciness in an action RPG. Entertainment Computing, 34, p.100359. [Accessed 18 Feb. 2021].

This paper discusses what gives an RPG it's 'juiciness'. " 'Juiciness' is a term that has been widely used to describe the positive feedback (both visual/audial) present in digital games," (Kao, 2020). 

This paper consists of different sections, like audio, colour, graphics and more, discussing how each of these contribute to making an RPG a good game. He says of audio "audio can provide specific information to the player, improve the performance of the player, and also generate emotional impact/realism," and explains further that audio has an effect on our immersion in a game and that this effect is a small to medium scale. He also explains how different audios on the same game would still give different perceptions. This description of audio is also carried over for the other elements - colour, feedback, seductive details and then juiciness. 

He talks about 4 levels of juiciness and their effects in certain areas; no juiciness, medium juiciness, high juiciness and extreme juiciness. In many areas, no juiciness and extreme juiciness share the same results - it ruins or diminishes the game for the player. "Specifically, both the No Juiciness and the Extreme Juiciness conditions thwarted player experience as compared to Medium Juiciness and High Juiciness," (Kao, 2020, found in fig. 5). 

Paper 4: Hosch, W.L. (2019). role-playing video game | History & Examples. In: Encyclopædia Britannica. [online] Available at: www.britannica.com/topic/role-playing-video-game. [Accessed 18 Feb. 2021].

This online article is about roleplaying games and where they started, with a brief overview of their history. It talks about how customizable games can be, specifically using the TSR method which is a method used in the game The Sims. It mentions how games often have roles and this comes from the TSR method - it gives us options to be what we want to be.

It further explains about how RPGs are often inspired by board games of the same genre. This is backed up further down when the author mentions that the most commercially successful game in any medium was Pokémon. Pokémon has adapted in several ways - they have an app, game console games, merchandise but they began as books, a tv show and as a card game. Then the author talks about how the fast advancement of games moving to PCs and consoles meant that most multiplayer games had the most basic graphics possible. This later led to a decline in players of early games that couldn't up the graphics - the author cites Sony's Everquest I and II as incredibly popular but soon had dwindling followers when graphics improved elsewhere. 

Paper 5: Elsevier.com. (2019). Computers in Human Behavior. [online] Available at: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/computers-in-human-behavior [Accessed 19 Feb. 2021].

This paper dives into how games make us act and how they influence us. "These video games are designed in ways that promote sociability, communication and collaboration amongst players pursuing missions (quests) in the environment,"(cited in Yu, 2009). It talks about how games include similar dilemmas and challenges to those we may experience in our own real lives. "MMORPGs require players to synthesize, analyze and evaluate information, apply critical thinking and solve problems thus, they may be considered as learning environments that support players in gaining, the so called, 21st century skills which can be potentially transferable in real life," (cited in Dickey, 2007; Susaeta et al., 2010). The paper further explains that players often come across new experiences or are in a different situation in a similar experience and they can explore how they react differently which leads to them building their own character. 

This paper also explores how even though you may be living as an elf or an ogre in your game, the skills and mindset that these games encourage and influence are skills and a mindset that can be used in the 21st century and how they are still relevant to us. This study looked into gaming between 2010 and 2016, it viewed trends and influences and the findings were that there is significant evidence that these games do influence its players even as the gaming community and outreach grows and is more accessible. 

Paper 6: Sundberg, C. (n.d.). Vassar College Digital Window @ Vassar The origins and effects of role-playing games Recommended Citation. [online] . Available at: digitalwindow.vassar.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1618&context=senior_capstone.

This paper takes on a different perspective from the previous papers. It discusses how games are created by us because of our own behaviours. Did we create them to understand ourselves better or to give ourselves a different place to experiment and experience? Somewhere that, if you die you're safe, if you lose all your money you can just restart again. There's a fantastic point made that of all four game genres, 'realism' is the least popular. It makes me wonder, is this because people that turn to games to escape don't want to lead any form of a normal life for an hour or two? 

The author discusses slang and how players often come up with their own slang to communicate. Whether it be amongst a single group within a game for over their microphones or for the general community to share, slang is a huge part of how immersive a game is. 

In the author's conclusion, they explain that humans may not be attracted to the game itself but that many games with different clothing share the same heart and morals and this is often what attracts us. They explain that even though a game may be about fantastical beasts or something otherworldly, the premise of the game is still based on human behaviour. When people can shed their skin and wear another, they come across the ability to expand their mind and increase their empathy. Games give us a reason to connect, whether it be a game shared with friends or a game played at 2am because we're lonely, we can still connect to something.

Paper 7: Liberty, S. (2017). What Are Role-Playing Games Even? How are they that? [online] Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/@SA_Liberty/what-are-role-playing-games-even-how-are-they-that-50071c5552e2 [Accessed 19 Feb. 2021].

This online article discusses what a roleplaying game is. The author compares tabletop RPGs to digital RPGs to narrow down exactly what the characteristics of an RPG is. They list the basics of what we know and further explains and expands on these points. Firstly, a player controls a character - this is true for all kinds of RPGs. They then talk about the other points and argue for and against them;

• The player controls a specific character.*
• That character has game statistics and/or relational attributes with other game objects
• The character has important fictional/narrative relationships with other story elements
• The player makes decisions for the character, stepping into that role and making choices as if they were the character

The author further explains that after looking at these definitions, their favourite RPG games don't fit into this definition. It led me to think that there's two options; tabletop RPGs are different to their video counterpart, or due to other factors like players ages and when these games are created, the definition has changed over time and previous RPGs do not fit into that category anymore and that the term needs to be redefined. 

Then, it's considered that actually it's not what an RPG consists of - characters and an open world and maybe a challenge. Maybe RPGs are about what the player does, how they make the game their own. Therefore, can we truly define an RPG game with a terms and some sentences? Probably not. No one plays a game the exact same as someone else so would everyone define an RPG in the same way? But also, does it matter? The purpose of an RPG, or any game in general, is to escape after all.