The Open, the Closed and the Emergent: Theorizing Emergence for Videogame Studies
Emergence has been suggested as one of two basic game structuresthat distinguish between open and closed gaming paradigms: gamesof emergence and games of progression. The first category relates tomost traditional games and also some videogames. It encompassesgames that, starting from a relatively sm...
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| Tipo de documento: | artigo |
| Estado: | Versão publicada |
| Data de publicação: | 2019 |
| País: | España |
| Recursos: | Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) |
| Repositório: | O2, repositorio institucional de la UOC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:openaccess.uoc.edu:10609/151893 |
| Acesso em linha: | http://hdl.handle.net/10609/151893 |
| Access Level: | Acceso aberto |
| Palavra-chave: | Emergence Design Gameplay Videogames Openness Self-organization |
| Resumo: | Emergence has been suggested as one of two basic game structuresthat distinguish between open and closed gaming paradigms: gamesof emergence and games of progression. The first category relates tomost traditional games and also some videogames. It encompassesgames that, starting from a relatively small set of elements and rules,can have a multiplicity of possible outcomes. The second one refers togames in which the player needs to complete a series of predefinedtasks in order to advance. This is the case of some traditional games,such as treasure hunt, but also of the majority of existing videogamesin which solving puzzles and quests, or overcoming obstaclesorganized in screens or levels are the basis for progressing in them.This article argues that the use of emergence in games research fallsshort in capturing the full potential of such an intricate concept.Clarifying the term and its use can help expand this theorization ofgames, separating what refers to -- or is a result of -- an open spaceof possibilities and what is indeed emergence in a strict sense.Distinguishing the notions of open and emergent widens the discourseon game design. It will allow game scholars to account for self-organizing phenomena in digital games on one hand, and for theappearance of emergent novelty on the other, both during the designprocess and in respect to the model player of the game. |
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