Presentationslides for paper Ludocriticism -
Steps Towards a Critical Framework for Games by Hartmut Koenitz and Mirjam P Eladhari Presented at DiGRA 2019 Conference, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan, 9 August 2019 2019 08-09-digra19-ludocriticsm 3

1. LUDOCRITICISM -
STEPS TOWARDS A CRITICAL
FRAMEWORK FOR GAMES-
DIGRA KYOTO, 9.8.2019
HARTMUT KOENITZ
@HKOENITZ
MIRJAM PALOSAARI ELADHARI
@MIRJAMPE
SÖDERTÖRNS HÖGSKOLA |
STOCKHOLM

2. LUDOCRITICISM
THE FUNCTION OF CRITIQUE
IMPROVING WORKS OF ART
COMMUNICATING ABOUT ART IN PUBLIC DISCOURSE
TWO ISSUES
RELIANCE ON LEGACY FRAMEWORKS
EXISTING FRAMEWORKS ARE FUNCTIONAL, NOT AESTHETIC
ELEMENTS OF A CRITICAL FRAMEWORK
DIVERSE ELEMENTS EXIST, BUT ARE TOO SPECIFIC
WAYS FORWARD
COMBINE PERSPECTIVES IN A META-FRAMEWORK
TRANSLATION PROCESS TO ENTER THE GENERAL PUBLIC DISCOURSE

3. THE FUNCTION OF
CRITIQUE

4. IN TRADITIONAL
MEDIA, CRITICISM
IS LONG
ESTABLISHED TO
A) IMPROVE THE
WORKS AND
B) TRANSLATE
WORKS TO THE
GENERAL AUDIENCE

5. ROGER EBERT

6. NO EQUIVALENT FOR
GAMES
CRITICISM

7. TWO ISSUES

8. RELIANCE ON LEGACY
FRAMEWORKS
A SCARCITY OF CRITICAL
SEMANTIC/PRAGMATIC/
AESTHETIC FRAMEWORKS FOR
VIDEO GAMES

9. RELIANCE ON LEGACY
FRAMEWORKS

10. UNCRITICAL USE OF LEGACY
FRAMEWORKS
"CLOSE PLAYING”
“FRAMING”
"MIS EN SCENE”
TEXTUAL ANALYSIS
PATTERNS

11. TEXTUAL
ANALYSIS
APPLIED TO
GAMES

12. PATTERNS

13. READING IS
NOT PLAYING A GAME
BUILDING A HOUSE IS
NOT GAME DESIGN

14. AN IMPORTANT
QUESTION

15. DO THEORETICAL CONCEPTS SUCH AS “STORY”, “FICTION”,
“CHARACTER,” “NARRATION” OR “RHETORIC” REMAIN
MEANINGFUL WHEN TRANSPOSED TO A NEW FIELD, [OR ARE
THEY] BLINDING US TO THE EMPIRICAL DIFFERENCES AND
EFFECTIVELY PUNCTURING OUR CHANCES OF PRODUCING
THEORETICAL INNOVATION?
Espen Aarseth, 2012

16. THIS QUESTION APPLIES
IN GENERAL AND IT NEEDS
TO BE DISCUSSED

17. LUDOLOGICAL PROJECT
REMAINS
UNFINISHED

18. A SCARCITY OF CRITICAL
SEMANTIC/PRAGMATIC/
AESTHETIC FRAMEWORKS
FOR VIDEO GAMES

19. EXISTING FRAMEWORKS
FOR GAMES ARE
MOSTLY FUNCTIONAL

20. FUNCTIONAL
FRAMEWORKS
USEFUL IN
DEVELOPMENT
AND ANALYSIS,
BUT…

21. FOR NARRATOLOGY, THERE ARE NO GREAT,
OR BEAUTIFUL, OR PROFOUND
NARRATIVES (THERE ARE ONLY WELL-
FORMED ONES)
Gerald Prince, 1982

22. SEMANTIC/PRAGMATIC/
AESTHETIC FRAMEWORKS
CONCERN THEMSELVES WITH
MEANING, CONTEXT AND
ARTISTIC VALUE.

23. THE COMPLICATION IN
DEVELOPING SUCH
FRAMEWORKS IS
THE LACK OF A GENERAL
THEORY OF MEANING

24. THE COMPLICATION IN
DEVELOPING SUCH
FRAMEWORKS IS
THE LACK OF A GENERAL
THEORY OF MEANING

25. TOWARDS A CRITICAL
FRAMEWORK

26. GENDER (CASSELL AND JENKINS 2000; CONSALVO 2012; RUBERG AND SHAW 2017)
ETHICS (SICART 2011)
RELIGIOUS (BOSMAN 2016)
ETHNOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT PROCESS (O’DONNELL 2014; HAGEN 2010;
ZACKARIASSON 2007), ABOUT PLAYERS (TAYLOR 2003; TAYLOR AND WITKOWSKI 2010).
RE-TELLINGS FOR CRITIQUE, SUCH AS FAN-FICTION (ELADHARI 2018).
BIOGRAPHICAL PERSPECTIVES (ROSENTHAL 2004; NEUSTAEDTER AND SENGERS 2012;
KHALED ET AL. 2018)
SPECIFIC AESTHETIC QUALITIES OF THE MEDIUM (MURRAY 1997, JUUL 2013)

27. STRATEGIES TO
CREATE A CRITICAL
FRAMEWORK

28. BUILD ON EXISTING
WORK AND RE-CAST IT
AS ELEMENTS OF A
CRITICAL META-
FRAMEWORK

29. TRANSLATION PROCESS
TO BE MORE ACCESSIBLE
TO GAME CREATORS AND
THE GENERAL PUBLIC

30. WRAP UP

31. GAMES LACK THE EQUIVALENT
OF HIGH-QUALITY CRITICISM
THAT EXISTS FOR LITERATURE
AND THE CINEMA

32. LEGACY FRAMEWORKS
ARE UNCRITICALLY
RE-APPLIED

33. ELEMENTS TO A
GENERAL CRITICAL
EXIST BUT ARE
DISPERSED

34. BRINGING IT
TOGETHER AND
FRAMING IT IN AN
ACCESSIBLE WAY

35. LET’S WORK ON
THAT TOGETHER

36. MUCH MORE
WORK TO BE DONE

37. THANK YOUHARTMUT.KOENITZ@HKU.NL
@HKOENIT
HTTP://HARTMUTKOENITZ.COM
MIRJAM.PALOSAARI.ELADHARI@SH.SE
@MIRJAMPE
HTTP://MIMMI.NET