Reality inspired games: expanding the lens of games' claims to authenticity

Robyn McMillan; Darshana Jayemanne; Iain Donald

Reality inspired games: expanding the lens of games' claims to authenticity

Robyn McMillan^*, Darshana Jayemanne, Iain Donald

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

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Abstract

This paper considers the potentials of contemporary games staking claims to realism through documentary and journalistic techniques as part of a wide-ranging cultural and technological phenomenon– ‘Reality Inspired Games’ or RIGs (Maurin, 2018). We argue that RIGs employ design techniques and strategies of legitimation that are valuable to the reactive development cycles in the indie sector, whilst also being beneficial for academic research and development. Through examining traditional documentary and the concept of Bruzzi’s performative documentary (2006) we highlight how this concept may allow developers to negotiate performativity and authenticity in their videogames.

We discuss examples of such games in the realm of indie productions, such as That Dragon, Cancer (2016), This War of Mine (2014), and My Child Lebensborn (2018) and Bury Me, My Love (2017). All of which represent new ground for game design, documentary and journalistic techniques that have influenced our work on the MacMillan project.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	DiGRA '20
Subtitle of host publication	proceedings of the 2020 DiGRA international conference: play everywhere
Editors	Dale Leorke
Publisher	DiGRA
Number of pages	20
Publication status	Published - 5 Oct 2020
Event	DiGRA 2020: Play everywhere - Tampere, Finland Duration: 2 Jun 2020 → 6 Jun 2020 https://digra2020.org/

Publication series

Name	DiGRA conference proceedings
Publisher	DiGRA
ISSN (Print)	2342-9666

Conference

Conference	DiGRA 2020
Country	Finland
City	Tampere
Period	2/06/20 → 6/06/20
Internet address	https://digra2020.org/

Access to Document

McMillam_RealityInspiredGames_Published_2020Final published version, 326 KB

http://www.digra.org/digital-library/publications/reality-inspired-games-expanding-the-lens-of-games-claims-to-authenticity/

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McMillan, R., Jayemanne, D., & Donald, I. (2020). Reality inspired games: expanding the lens of games' claims to authenticity. In D. Leorke (Ed.), DiGRA '20: proceedings of the 2020 DiGRA international conference: play everywhere (DiGRA conference proceedings). DiGRA. http://www.digra.org/digital-library/publications/reality-inspired-games-expanding-the-lens-of-games-claims-to-authenticity/

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title = "Reality inspired games: expanding the lens of games' claims to authenticity",

abstract = "This paper considers the potentials of contemporary games staking claims to realism through documentary and journalistic techniques as part of a wide-ranging cultural and technological phenomenon– {\textquoteleft}Reality Inspired Games{\textquoteright} or RIGs (Maurin, 2018). We argue that RIGs employ design techniques and strategies of legitimation that are valuable to the reactive development cycles in the indie sector, whilst also being beneficial for academic research and development. Through examining traditional documentary and the concept of Bruzzi{\textquoteright}s performative documentary (2006) we highlight how this concept may allow developers to negotiate performativity and authenticity in their videogames.We discuss examples of such games in the realm of indie productions, such as That Dragon, Cancer (2016), This War of Mine (2014), and My Child Lebensborn (2018) and Bury Me, My Love (2017). All of which represent new ground for game design, documentary and journalistic techniques that have influenced our work on the MacMillan project.",

author = "Robyn McMillan and Darshana Jayemanne and Iain Donald",

year = "2020",

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language = "English",

series = "DiGRA conference proceedings",

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McMillan, R , Jayemanne, D & Donald, I 2020, Reality inspired games: expanding the lens of games' claims to authenticity. in D Leorke (ed.), DiGRA '20: proceedings of the 2020 DiGRA international conference: play everywhere. DiGRA conference proceedings, DiGRA, DiGRA 2020, Tampere, Finland, 2/06/20. <http://www.digra.org/digital-library/publications/reality-inspired-games-expanding-the-lens-of-games-claims-to-authenticity/>

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AB - This paper considers the potentials of contemporary games staking claims to realism through documentary and journalistic techniques as part of a wide-ranging cultural and technological phenomenon– ‘Reality Inspired Games’ or RIGs (Maurin, 2018). We argue that RIGs employ design techniques and strategies of legitimation that are valuable to the reactive development cycles in the indie sector, whilst also being beneficial for academic research and development. Through examining traditional documentary and the concept of Bruzzi’s performative documentary (2006) we highlight how this concept may allow developers to negotiate performativity and authenticity in their videogames.We discuss examples of such games in the realm of indie productions, such as That Dragon, Cancer (2016), This War of Mine (2014), and My Child Lebensborn (2018) and Bury Me, My Love (2017). All of which represent new ground for game design, documentary and journalistic techniques that have influenced our work on the MacMillan project.

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