Roles and Worlds in the Hybrid RPG Game of Oblivion

Role-playing is both an important part of cultural learning (Hallford and Hallford 2001 pp231-236), and an important genre in computer games (Tychsen 2006). Roles are intrinsically related to the notion of social worlds, yet exactly how is not clear in the academic literature. There are few grounded...

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Main Author: Champion, Erik
Format: Journal Article
Published: Hogeschool voor de Kunsten 2009
Online Access:http://www.ijrp.subcultures.nl/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/champion_roles__worlds_in_oblivion.pdf
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/26737
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author Champion, Erik
author_facet Champion, Erik
author_sort Champion, Erik
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Role-playing is both an important part of cultural learning (Hallford and Hallford 2001 pp231-236), and an important genre in computer games (Tychsen 2006). Roles are intrinsically related to the notion of social worlds, yet exactly how is not clear in the academic literature. There are few grounded theories in computer game studies on how roleplaying works in sustaining and augmenting a thematic “world”, there are few clear descriptions of what “world” means in this context, and the social versus cultural dimensions of both roles and worlds are seldom delineated. I suggest that the cultural and social dimensions of both real world and virtual world playing are important, and that commercial computer role-playing games (CRPGs) offer more opportunities to support deeper cultural aspects of role-playing. Secondly, I wish to examine the relation of cultural identity to ownership and social purpose and how role-playing can be more fully and richly rounded out by computer-simulated game play. Thirdly, I’ll discuss features for further research agendas to improve Oblivion in particular and CRPGs in general for the gaming public, and to explore their use as vehicles for simulated purposes.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-267372017-01-30T12:54:58Z Roles and Worlds in the Hybrid RPG Game of Oblivion Champion, Erik Role-playing is both an important part of cultural learning (Hallford and Hallford 2001 pp231-236), and an important genre in computer games (Tychsen 2006). Roles are intrinsically related to the notion of social worlds, yet exactly how is not clear in the academic literature. There are few grounded theories in computer game studies on how roleplaying works in sustaining and augmenting a thematic “world”, there are few clear descriptions of what “world” means in this context, and the social versus cultural dimensions of both roles and worlds are seldom delineated. I suggest that the cultural and social dimensions of both real world and virtual world playing are important, and that commercial computer role-playing games (CRPGs) offer more opportunities to support deeper cultural aspects of role-playing. Secondly, I wish to examine the relation of cultural identity to ownership and social purpose and how role-playing can be more fully and richly rounded out by computer-simulated game play. Thirdly, I’ll discuss features for further research agendas to improve Oblivion in particular and CRPGs in general for the gaming public, and to explore their use as vehicles for simulated purposes. 2009 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/26737 http://www.ijrp.subcultures.nl/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/champion_roles__worlds_in_oblivion.pdf Hogeschool voor de Kunsten restricted
spellingShingle Champion, Erik
Roles and Worlds in the Hybrid RPG Game of Oblivion
title Roles and Worlds in the Hybrid RPG Game of Oblivion
title_full Roles and Worlds in the Hybrid RPG Game of Oblivion
title_fullStr Roles and Worlds in the Hybrid RPG Game of Oblivion
title_full_unstemmed Roles and Worlds in the Hybrid RPG Game of Oblivion
title_short Roles and Worlds in the Hybrid RPG Game of Oblivion
title_sort roles and worlds in the hybrid rpg game of oblivion
url http://www.ijrp.subcultures.nl/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/champion_roles__worlds_in_oblivion.pdf
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/26737