I am the Game Studies Facilitator for the #Metagame Book Club (http://bit.ly/metagamebookclub). This is my Week 3 Lecture on the cultural and social dimensions of games, with study emphasis on the Paratext theory, and on the paratextuality of games. Live Video Lecture - The live recorded youtube video of this lecture is included toward the end of this presentation. Join the Metagame Book Club - We welcome all educators interested in gaming in education, game-based learning, gamification, and game studies to join the #Metagame Book Club. #Metagame Book Club (July 15 - August 16, 2014) http://bit.ly/metagamebookclub Find us on various social media with the hashtag, #Metagame

1. #Metagame Book Club
Track 1: Game Studies
Week 3: “Cultural and Social Dimensions
of Games”
Sherry Jones
Game Studies Facilitator
@autnes
http://bit.ly/metagamebookclub

2. Guiding Questions 1
1. According to narratologist Gerard Genette, what is a paratext? What are
the two spatial components to a paratext?
2. According to Steven E. Jones, how is the show, Lost, a “social text”?
Provide examples from the reading to support your answer. Try to find
Jones’ definition of “social text” before answering this question.
3. Play the game, The Great Gatsby (http://greatgatsbygame.com/), and
conduct research on the novel, The Great Gatsby (on which the game is
loosely based). Given Nick Carraway’s abilities in the game, what is the game’
s claim about Nick Carraway’s role in the story? Does the game support or
contradict the novel’s claim about Nick Carraway?

3. Guiding Questions 2
4. Conduct online research to find examples of fan-made paratexts about a
game (it could be any game you have played in the past). Explain how the fan-
made paratexts would influence the audience’s/gamer’s expectations of the
game itself. Please include the link to the example fan-made paratexts in your
answer.
5. Play the game, 1916 - Der Unbekannte Krieg (http://www.kongregate.
com/games/magnussen81/1916-der-unbekannte-krieg). Identify the 2
subjects being crossed in this game. Then, explain how one subject influences
the meaning of the other subject as peritexts. Why do you think the game
maker crossed the 2 subjects in particular?

4. Game Studies Texts for Analysis
Cultural and Social Dimensions of Games
● [BOOK] The Meaning of Video Games: Gaming and
Textual Strategies by Steven E. Jones (2008)
● [ARTICLE] "This is Not a Game": Immersive
Aesthetic and Collective Play" by Jane McGonigal
(2003)

5. “The Meaning of Video Games:
Gaming and Textual Strategies”
by
Steven E. Jones
(Study of Intro., Ch. 1- 4)

6. Introduction: What is a Paratext?
Super Mario Bros. 25th Anniversary Book (Photo by Ricardo Saramago)

7. The Concept of Paratext
● Literary theorist Gerard Genette introduced the
concept of paratext to the study of printed matter,
such as books and manuals
● Paratext refers to any material that surrounds,
references, or adds to the main text (ex. cover art,
dedication, forward, book review, footnote,
bibliography, etc.)
● Genette argues that paratexts act as "liminals" that
influence main textual meaning

8. On Paratext as Threshold of Meaning
"The paratext is for us the means by which a text makes a
book of itself and proposes itself as such to its readers,
and more generally to the public. Rather than with a limit
or a sealed frontier, we are dealing in this case with a
threshold . . . a "vestibule" which offers to anyone and
everyone the possibility either of entering or of
turning back"
-- Gerard Genette
"Introduction to the Paratext" by Gerard Genette and Marie Maclean (1991)

9. Paratext: 2 Spatial Categories
Genette further distinguishes 2 spatial categories that
constitute the Paratext:
● Peritext - Any text that accompanies (is bundled with)
the book, such as the index, introduction, dedication
pages, etc.
● Epitext - Any text that is situated outside the book,
such as magazine's book review, tv commercials, book
flyers, etc.

10. Relevance of Paratext Theory
to Games?
● Digital Humanities Professor, Steven E. Jones,
introduced paratextual theory to game studies in "The
Meaning of Video Games" (2008)
● Jones argues that games are cultural paratexts with
the purpose of appealing to the contemporary
audience/players/consumers
● Games are also "social texts" given their unique
nature of interactivity

11. Video Games as Paratexts
“A video game, however, is a system designed such that
it only fulfills its potential for meaning when its specific
technical features -- from the code, to the interface, to the
ruleset, to the player stats -- are expressed as the game
makes its way into the world, when it’s played. . . . the
playing is always in the social world, always a complicated,
highly mediated experience, never purely formal, any
more than a text is purely a verbal construct.”
-- Steven E. Jones 9

12. On Meaning of Play in Video Games
“All play means something, yes. In this I fully agree with
Huizinga. But the meanings of play -- of video gameplay in
particular -- are ultimately connected to social and
material realities (rather than offering merely a means to
escape from those realities, as it’s widely believed).
Playing usually involves remaining simulataneously aware
of both the gameworld and of the real world, of yourself
and of other players as performing at the boundary of the
two.” -- Steven E. Jones 16

13. Players as Meaning Makers
“Players make games meaningful, make their meanings, as
they play them, talk about them, reconfigure them, and
play them again. They inevitably do so as members of
various overlapping communities”
-- Steven E. Jones 9

14. Transmedia as Derivative of
Game Culture
“[Marketers and fan communities] are interested for different reasons in
cultivating extensive feedback loops between users and products or forms of
expression, interested in the idea of ‘user-generated content.’ All of this is
old-hat to gamers because in fact a good deal of it is derived in the first place
from video games and their robust and savvy fan communities. . . . The rise in
recent years of the ARG (alternate reality game), a transmedia form of
fictional play that is often (though not always tied into marketing campaigns,
is the most vivid example of this development. ”
-- Steven E. Jones 10

15. Implications: Theory to Games 1
● Paratext theory allows us to study games (both analog
and digital) as text, specifically, a social text of which
its meaning is contributed by group participation.
● The theory also calls on us to study the relationship
between games and social and cultural structures
that surround them, as well as the gaming culture
produced as a result of the creation of games.

16. Implications: Theory to Games 2
● Artifacts of the gaming culture serve as contexts that
mediate our reception of games.
● Games themselves serve as frames or critiques of
social and cultural norms in a given time.
● Games are an important playful and expressive
medium that reveals our thoughts, fears, desires,
and aspirations.

17. Game Paratext: 2 Spatial Categories
● Game Peritext - Any text that accompanies (is
bundled within) the game box, such as the CD disk,
cover art, instruction manual, map, coupons, toys and
game pieces (for analog games), game reviews (back
cover).
● Game Epitext - Any text that is situated outside the
game box, such as online game reviews and criticisms,
game studies, let’s play videos, machinima, google ads,
fan-made art and toys, fan fiction sites, trailers,
#Metagame Book Club Second Life & G+ Community

18. Game Paratexts VS. Metagames 1
Metagame - Any text that affects our game outcomes by
influencing our in-game decision making, or our game
design decisions.
● Game Strategy Site - Read prior to playing a game (for
play advantage).
● Game Design - Game studio changes/adds game
mechanics based on fan-made games.
● In-Game Mechanics - Points/Rewards indicator bars
increase/decrease when player performs certain acts.

19. Game Paratexts VS. Metagames 2
Metagame (Con’t)
● Character Stats - Review a game character’s profile
information in order to decide how to play the game
according to the character’s stats.
Game Paratext - Any text that affects/influences our
understanding of game meaning.
● Game Criticism Article - Read an article from a game
critic to better understand the value of a game.
● Fan Art - Fan creates art that changes the gender of a
game character, and thus changing our perception.

20. On Video Games as Social Texts
"The meaning of video games are functions of their use
within social networks, which link up to other forms of
media, texts, institutions, and groups. The meaning(s) of
video games are constructed and they are
collaborative. They are made by social interactions of
various kinds rather than found in the software and
hardware objects themselves."
-- Steven E. Jones

21. Example of a Game Social Text
Irrational Games (Developer)
+ Ken Levine (Writer)
+ 2K Games (Publisher)
+ Take Two Interactive (Distributor)
+ Game Developers
+ Concept, Graphic, Asset Artists
+ 3D Object Modelers
+ Narrative Designers
+ Typographers
+ Music Composers
+ Beta Testers
+ Playstation 3, Windows, Xbox 360, OS X
Co-Creation/Co-Release of Bioshock Infinite

22. On Game Meaning by Social Function
Argument against a reductive formalist reading of games:
"The meaning of games are not essential or inherent in
their form (though form is a crucial determinant). . . but
are functions of the larger grid of possibilities built by
groups of developers, players, reviewers, critics, and
fans in particular times and places and through specific
acts of gameplay or discourse about games"
-- Steven E. Jones
The Meaning of Video Games (2008)

23. Example of Game's Social Meaning
A Museum Exhibit of
"Big Daddy"
(Character from the
original Bioshock)
http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs21/i/2007/241/5/1/Bioshock_Big_Daddy_Close_up__by_GermanCityGirl.jpg

24. On Game Meaning via History
“Ubisoft has always touted historical accuracy as a way to
introduce unfamiliar settings to their players. . . .
According to lead designer Patrice Desilets, the initial
connection to Prince of Persia ultimately led the game to
take place in medieval Jerusalem, Damascus, and Acre.
Since then, Ubisoft has intentionally focused on
“periods that are underrepresented in gaming.” This
not only requires months of research and historical
consultation, but also allows Ubisoft to promote the
settings as a unique gaming experiences.”
“Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag and Historical Interpretation” by PastPlayer

25. On Games as Cultural Expression
"Cultural expression is a dynamic event, what Genette
characterizes as a 'transaction,' and thus it always
involves more than the text (or game) itself. . . . the full
potential of video games is most fully realized by the kind
of dedicated meaning-making, community-based players
who call themselves fans"
-- Steven E. Jones
The Meaning of Video Games (2008)

26. Ex. of a (Fan-Made) Game Epitext!
Fallout 3 - Vault Boy Latte Art by Kazuki Yamamoto

27. Ex. of a (Fan-Made) Game as Epitext!
Not Tetris by StabYourself.net

28. Ex. of (Studio) Game as Paratext!
The Great Gatsby
(For NES)

29. The Lost Experience (ARG) Lostopia
http://lostpedia.wikia.
com/wiki/The_Lost_Experience
Image Source: http://guides.
gamepressure.
com/lostviadomus/gfx/skin/box.jpg
Ch. 1: The Game of Lost

30. “The paratextual elements of Lost work in just this way, as
Porter and Lavery have suggested, becoming significant
clues for hard-core viewers at least, those ‘engaged in
active interpretation of the ‘text’ (176). The concept of
the paratext helps to make sense of the effects of the
ARG, which often includes intertextual literary allusions,
across the borders of show, game, and the external
world.” -- Steven E. Jones
25
On The Lost Experience (ARG)

31. “Both the game, Myst, and the show, Lost, are based on
open-ended exploration of apparently isolated island
worlds, but both works also end up having hidden agents
manipulating events, and forward momentum in each case
relies on hidden portals as transitional links, elements
that take the player or viewer, as well as the fictional
characters, beyond or outside the apparent limits of those
island worlds, to what amount to new levels with new,
increased challenges.”
-- Steven E. Jones 32
On the Influence of Myst over Lost

32. Ch. 2: Collecting Katamari Damacy

33. “Katamari Damacy begins in a sophisticated self-conscious understanding of
the interesting material relation of digital processing and display with various
kinds of input -- including the blatantly analog or physical input of pushing
thumbsticks. But the game only begins there. Katamari Damacy’s meaning
lies in its implicit parody of the idealization of such activity, its parody of the
sense that gameplay must, in order to count as significant, conceal more
abstract latent meanings (‘a change in being itself’), meaning metaphorically
‘deeper’ than the self-evident ‘surface’ fun of magpie collecting. ”
-- Steven E. Jones 55
On Meaning of Katamari Damacy 1

34. On Japanese arcade capsule vending machines (gashapon)
that is relevant to the design of Katamari Damacy:
“As Chris Kohler points out, the name gashapon (or
gachopon) is onomatopoeia; it derives from the sound
made by the machines as you crank them: ‘gasha gasha’ --
and the plopping sound of the capsule (‘pon’) as it drops
into place.”
-- Steven E. Jones 61
On Meaning of Katamari Damacy 2

35. On Japanese arcade culture and fetishism of commodity:
“Katamari Damacy’s apparently weird or surreal mixture of
live animals, snacks, and toys and other objects is in fact
perfectly normal inside the Japanese arcade where UFO
catchers may grab a plush toy, a plastic game-based
figurine, a bag of chips, or -- as one website reported
complete with posted picture -- a live lobster! It’s hard not
to see this as the inspiration for the crabs waving their
claws around them within the katamari on the Cancer
level of Katamari Damacy.” -- Steven E. Jones 62
On Meaning of Katamari Damacy 3

36. Ch. 3: The Halo Universe

37. “As with the complex verbal texts we study, we need to understand games
such as Halo as existing as the center of a kind of spreading possibility space,
a multidimensional virtual grid running off in many directions, the imagined
vectors of any number of possible moves, performances, or instances of
gameplay, all of which are contained, in potential within the ‘code’ of the
object itself, whether or not any particular state of the game or sector of the
grid is activated any any particular time. The whole possibility space, then,
would be a model of the game’s own reception history waiting to happen
Such a grid of realized and realizable possibilities seems to me the most
accurate way to imagine what we mean when we speak of the Halo universe.”
-- Steven E. Jones 96
On the Possibility Spaces in Halo

38. Ch. 4: The Game Behind Facade

39. Facade Trailer
(00:40)

40. Watch Live Webinar To This Lecture

41. Lecture By:
Sherry Jones
Game Studies Facilitator
Philosophy, Rhetoric, Game Studies
@autnes
Writings & Webinars
Access Slides: http://bit.ly/gamestudies3