Bibliography

We were asked to compile a short bibliography - I did not use Zotero to compile the bibliography, because I do not use Mozilla Firefox.


- Brathwaite, B., and Schreiber, I. (2008) - Challenges For Games Designers, [Charles River Media]

- Salen, K. & Zimmerman, E., 2003. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals, The MIT Press.

- Murray, H. J. R. (1952) A History of Board Games Other Than Chess. pp. 19-23.

- Rosenweig, G (2011) -ActionScript 3.0 Game Programming University, Second Edition, Updated for Flash Professional CS5 [Que Publishing]

- Williams, S.M., 1992. Simulation/Games for Learning : Journal of Sagset, Volume 22 No 2 June 1992, Kogan Page Ltd/Sagset.

- Dugan, P. (2005) - Rag Doll Development – An Interview With Rag Doll Kung Fu's Mark Healey [Gamasutra]

- Tristan Donovan (2011) - To Play Or Not To Play? [Gamasutra]

- Costikyan, G. (2006) "I Have No Words & I Must Design". In K. Salen and E. Zimmerman, eds. The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, pp. 192-211.

- Finkel, I. L. (2008) "On the Rules for The Royal Game of Ur". In I. Finkel ed.Ancient Board Games in Perspective. London: British Museum Press. pp. 16-32.

- Bell, R. C. (1979) Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations. Revised edition. pp. 23-25

Gender and Gaming

Originally computer gaming was thought of as a pastime for young males, and one which was just for the geekiest members of the population. Over the years gaming has become more mainstream, allowing it to appeal to a wider audience. Both the popularity of gaming, and the technology behind it, has improved tremendously over time.

The graph below shows the percentage of the uk population that plays video games, and the average number of hours spent per week on video gaming (split into make and female respectively):

As you can see, the percentage of people that play video games is fairly evenly spread between males and females. However, the graph also shows that males tend to play video games a lot more often than females.

So overall,  playing video games does not seem to tend towards one gender over the other, but how about when it comes to making video games?

Only about 4% of people employed in the video games industry are female. And of this 4%, very few of them actually have roles that influence the creation of the video games. As shown in the table above, very few women are employed as programmers or audio engineers. The design and art side of the industry also has a low percentage of female employees - most females tend to be employed in admin and PR roles.

So while video gaming as a whole is currently quite balanced, actually getting into the video games industry is another matter entirely. That won't stop me from trying though!

Remediation

Bolter and Grusin describe remedation as the representation of one medium in another.


Immediacy
Media that aspires to a condition of transparency.

• The aim is to make the viewer forget that they are watching fiction, and also ensures that the viewer is drawn into the experience.
• Examples: Virtual Reality, Photo-Realistic Images etc.

Hypermediacy
Artifacts that are aware of, and wish to display, their own constructed nature.

• They constantly call attention to their own constructed nature all the time.
• Examples: WWW., Video Game HUDs etc.

Technoludic Film as Quotation:
Films that use the concept of video games for illustrative purposes. They are not the central theme of the film but form part of the fictional world that the film is attempting to create.

Games Britannia

The Britannia series is a series of documentaries from BBC Four that began in 2005. The documentaries most often deal with the evolution of a music genre or other aspect of musical culture over a period of decades within the United Kingdom, although occasionally episodes have covered diverse subjects as comic books, games, satirical works and wildlife. The shows are usually presented in a three-episode format, but are often broadcast as one continuous block as part of a schedule of themed programming.

Games Britannia is a three-part series presented by historian Benjamin Woolley about popular games in Britain from the Iron Age to the Information Age, in which he unravels how an apparently trivial pursuit is a rich and entertaining source of cultural and social history.

Part 1: Dicing with Destiny
In part one, Woolley investigates how the instinct to play games is both as universal and elemental as language itself and takes us from 1st-century Britain to the Victorian era. Woolley goes on to talk about various ancient games, such as the Stanway game, Alea Evangeli, Backgammon and Nine Men's Morris.

According to the Libro de Los Juegos (the Book of Games) there are 3 types of games:

• Chance games
• Skill games
• Combination games

Games featured in this episode:

• The Stanway Game
• Alea Evangeli
• Backgammon
• Nine Men's Morris
• Hazard
• Faro
• Game of the Goose
• Gyan Chaupar
• Chess

Part 2: Monopolies and Mergers
In part two, Woolley traces the surprising political and social impact that board games have had in Britain over the last 200 years. 

Games featured in this episode:

• Brer Fox an Brer Rabbit
• Monopoly
• Cluedo
• Scrabble
• Game Shows
• Kensington
• Dungeons and Dragons

Part 3: Joystick Generation
In the final part, Woolley explores the journey games have taken from the board to the screen, reflecting the rapidly changing history of modern Britain.

Games featured in this episode:

• Elite
• Black and White
• Tomb Raider
• Wipeout
• Carmageddon
• Grand Theft Auto
• LittleBigPlanet