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Playing the system: using frame analysis to understand online play

Published: 06 May 2010 Publication History

Abstract

This paper outlines the different ways in which people play in and with digital games, virtual worlds and social media. People engage in play individually, yet it is often social. This paper explores combining the personal with the social and the connections between playfulness on serious social media sites and seriousness when in a game world. Viewed from this angle, grief play, for instance, is not so much a form of deviant play behavior as it is an alternative way of framing the activity of playing, and Google bombs and edit warring can be recognized as the playful activities that they are.

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cover image ACM Other conferences
Futureplay '10: Proceedings of the International Academic Conference on the Future of Game Design and Technology
May 2010
282 pages
ISBN:9781450302357
DOI:10.1145/1920778
  • Conference Chairs:
  • Bill Kapralos,
  • Andrew Hogue,
  • Simon Xu
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Publication History

Published: 06 May 2010

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Author Tags

  1. frame analysis
  2. grief play
  3. online play
  4. play
  5. playing the players
  6. playing the system
  7. social games

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Futureplay '10
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Futureplay '10: Futureplay '10 @ GDC Canada
May 6 - 7, 2010
British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

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Cited By

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  • (2022)Offsetting Game—Framing Environmental Issues in the Design of a Serious GameSimulation & Gaming10.1177/1046878122112678653:6(615-644)Online publication date: 28-Sep-2022
  • (2019)Frame Analysis of Voice Interaction GameplayProceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3290605.3300623(1-14)Online publication date: 2-May-2019
  • (2016)Reimagining Gamification through the Lens of Activity TheoryProceedings of the 2016 49th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS)10.1109/HICSS.2016.168(1328-1337)Online publication date: 5-Jan-2016
  • (2015)Need to touch, wonder of discovery, and social capitalProceedings of the 12th International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology10.1145/2832932.2832959(1-12)Online publication date: 16-Nov-2015
  • (2014)Drafting an ArmyGames and Culture10.1177/15554120135133499:2(122-147)Online publication date: 14-Jan-2014
  • (2014)Challenge Design and Categorization in Video Game DesignProceedings of the Third International Conference on Design, User Experience, and Usability. User Experience Design for Diverse Interaction Platforms and Environments - Volume 851810.1007/978-3-319-07626-3_63(669-677)Online publication date: 22-Jun-2014
  • (2012)When a video game transforms to mobile phone controlled team experienceProceeding of the 16th International Academic MindTrek Conference10.1145/2393132.2393198(302-309)Online publication date: 3-Oct-2012
  • (2011)Giving good 'face'Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments10.1145/2181037.2181062(153-160)Online publication date: 28-Sep-2011

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