Violence | Perception | Video Games – New Directions in Game Research

Federico Alvarez Igarzábal is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health in Freiburg, Germany, working in the EU-funded project VIRTUALTIMES. His research focuses primarily on the temporality of video games from a formalist and cognitive-scientific perspective. He obtained his PhD at the Institute of Media Culture and Theatre of the University of Cologne and the Cologne Game Lab of the TH Köln in 2018 with his thesis »Time and Space in Video Games«.Michael S. Debus conducted his PhD research as part of the Making Sense of Games project at the Center for Computer Games Research at the IT University of Copenhagen from 2016-2019. His research focuses on the analysis and synthesis of existing game ontologies into a clearer terminology for the study of games. He has published papers about the ontology of navigation in videogames and metagames.Curtis L. Maughan is a PhD candidate in the Department of German, Russian and East European Studies at Vanderbilt University. From 2016-2019, Curtis managed the Master's program in Game Development and Research at the Cologne Game Lab. His research interests include surveillance and interactivity, narratology and digital games, and the novellas of Thomas Mann and Heinrich von Kleist. His dissertation project examines flanerie in the context of open world gameplay trends and game design practices.

• Preface; Introduction; Reframing the Violence and Video Games Debate; Real Violence Versus Imaginary Guns. Why Reframing the Debate on Video Game Violence is Necessary; Avatars Don't Kill People, Players Do! Actor-Network-Theory, Mediation, and Violence in Avatar-Based Videogames; The (American) Way of Experiencing Video Game Violence; Video Game Violence from the Perspective of Cognitive Psychology. Role Identification and Role Distancing in A WAY OUT; The Playing Voyeur. Voyeurism and Affect in the Age of Video Games; The Spectacle of Murder. Over-Aestheticized Depiction of Death in Horror Video Games; Designing Rituals Instead of Ceremonies. The Meaningful Performance of Violence in Video Games; Damage over Time. Structural Violence and Climate Change in Video Games; Perceiving Video Games; A Cyborg, If You Like. Technological Intentionality in Avatar-Based Single Player Video Games; Player Perception of Gameworlds and Game Systems: Load Theory as Game Analytic Tool; On Character Analysis and Blending Theory. Why You Cried at the End of THE LAST OF US; Depression and Digital Games. An Investigation of Existing Uses of Therapy Games; Perceived Behaviors of Personality-Driven; From Pixelated Blood and Fixed Camera Perspectives to VR Experience. Tracing the Diversification of Survival Horror Video Games and Their Altered Mode of Perception; Survival Horror and Masochism. A Digression from the Modern Scopic Regime; Epiphany Through Kinaesthetics. Unfolding Storyworlds in Immersive Analog Spaces; Authors.