The main assumption of the research project is that the effects of computer games are neither negligible (pure entertainment), nor catastrophic (media panic), but contingent. We assume that computer games do have effects, that these effects matter, and that they are both positive and negative. The effects of games vary dependent on context of reception and individual as well as collective predispositions. Any assessment aiming at such a multi-dimensional understanding of the varying roles and impacts of computer games necessitates a well-integrated interdisciplinary framework that enables a correlation of findings from the different involved disciplines in a comparative framework.
The WARGAME research group will apply for project funding at national and international bodies to assess potential roles, effects, and impacts from such an interdisciplinary perspective. During a first project phase, we approach our subject from the distinct theoretical and methodological vantage points of 1) a combination of narratological and procedural analysis (WP 2), 2) historical and discourse analysis (WP 6), 3) media psychology (WP 3), 4) empirical social psychology (WP 3), 5) empirical social sciences and cultural studies (WP 5), and 6) experimental game design (WP 4). During a second phase, the findings of each respective component are correlated and critically reassessed and theory and methods are developed into an interdisciplinary framework. Produced results will further advance the field of game studies and lead to concrete recommendations to policy makers and game designers.
Objectives:
The primary objective of the project is to conduct a multidisciplinary analysis of a specific corpus of violence-themed narrative computer games and assess their potential individual and collective impacts combining methods from the humanities, social sciences, and practical game design.
The primary objective is realized through a set of secondary objectives:
1. An analysis and formal description of violence-themed narrative computer games' generic narrative and procedural design features,
2. the historico-political contextualisation of the meanings and forms of engagement these aesthetic features invite,
3. the measuring of possible changes in attitudes and outlook of individual players in connection to extended exposure to such features,
4. an assessment of how concrete groups of players actively negotiate and potentially subvert these features in and through the practice of play,
5. the design of a violence-themed narrative computer game that productively incorporates the findings and that critically addresses questions of war, violence, and the enemy in ambiguous moral and ethical terrain, and
6. a development of interdisciplinary approaches that combine the employed theories, models, and methods in an integrated multi-dimensional framework for computer game analysis, media studies, and peace and conflict research.
Presently, the WARGAME research group’s modulated WP-structure looks as follows:
WP 1: Project Management, UiT Tromsø
WP 2: Game Analysis: Narrative Devices, Procedural Rhetoric, and Affective Design, UiT Tromsø
WP 3: Player Experiences and Perceptions: Psychological Approaches, VU University, Amsterdam
WP 4: Experimental War Game Design and Development, London South Bank University and Charles University Prague
WP 5: Player Experiences and Perceptions: Ethnographic Approaches, University of Bergen
WP 6: Computer Games as Cultural Force, Newcastle University and University of Portsmouth