The issue features six articles dedicated to contemporary research on digital games, gamer culture and the history and theory of interactive media.
Topics covered in this issue include:
The article focuses on the issue of post-digitality, presenting it as a cultural phenomenon that redefines the relationship between the digital and the analog, and refers to phenomena characteristic of the early stages of media and digital game culture development. The aim of the text is to identify and analyse aesthetic strategies and mechanisms used in contemporary Polish digital games that can be classified as post-digital. In exploring this topic, the author focuses on selected Polish titles (including Papetura, Darkwood, SuperHot, Werewolf: The Apocalypse 鈥� Heart of the Forest, This War of Mine, Observer, The Invincible) and interprets them in light of contemporary media and cultural theories. These games consciously expose their technological constraints and reflect on the condition of digital culture, while proposing alternative forms of aesthetics and player engagement.
In this article, we argue that the Pok茅mon brand manages consumer emotions by creating a specific 鈥渟pace of discomfort鈥� in which market and social mechanisms intersect. By manipulating feelings of comfort and discomfort 鈥� through the introduction of mystery, the control of expectations, and the use of strategic criticism 鈥� the brand enhances consumers鈥� emotional engagement, reinforces their loyalty, and fosters a long-term relationship with the brand. These conclusions are drawn from a reflexive thematic analysis of 6,473 comments posted under five videos on the YouTube platform.
This article examines the phenomenon in the 1980s Japanese gaming industry, labeled 鈥淩eaganoludography鈥� due to its strong reliance on themes directly borrowed from American action cinema, known in Polish film studies as 鈥淩eaganomatography.鈥� Using discourse analysis, the article explores how the U.S. versions of Japanese games Japanese games captured the iconography of Reaganite regressive sociopolitical propaganda and how they reinforced the neoconservative discourse that became a model for generations of players in the United States. This subtle alliance between American politics and Japanese gaming led to self-censorship within the latter. While the Japanese industry eventually emancipated from the U.S. industry, found its own topics, and became a core gaming culture itself, it is important to remember that Japanese Reaganoludography (the censored U.S. releases of Japanese games) perpetuated global capitalism and overshadowed more progressive鈥攖hematically and mechanically鈥攁ttempts at experimenting with the medium in the 1980s.
The article is based on the results of a survey/questionnaire conducted among a group of 30 students of Game and Virtual Space Design at the University of Silesia in Katowice, future computer game designers, in 2023. The aim of the survey was to investigate the design awareness of future game creators, but also their preferences as active users of this form of entertainment. Interfaces were chosen as the research object due to the questions about them that arise during diploma defenses and the answers that give rise to many ambiguities. The survey was therefore an indirect contribution to directing the attention of future designers to this important element of computer games. It was of a qualitative research nature. Students were asked 5 questions about their preferences for interfaces used in games. They had to justify their answers and provide examples of games with well-designed interfaces. The answers provided show that the preferences of the survey participants are quite polarized. Nevertheless, almost all of the answers included a postulate for increasing immersion and some flexibility in the selection of means due to the nature of the game, which were considered the primary features of well-designed interfaces. The answers were also interesting because of the extensive opinions expressed, which testify to the professional awareness of future designers.
This paper explores the reception of intertextuality in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, approached as a cultural text with high semantic and narrative potential. Drawing on the results of an online survey conducted among 200 players, the study investigates how audiences recognize, interpret, and respond to cultural references embedded in the game. The analysis takes into account factors such as cultural competence, play style, reception-related motivations, and players鈥� self-assessment of their intertextual experience. As a result, five distinct player types were identified鈥攁nalytical, intuitive, explorer, immersive, and pragmatic鈥攅ach demonstrating significant differences in their engagement with the game鈥檚 intertextual layer. The findings confirm that The Witcher 3 serves not only aesthetic and entertainment purposes but also plays a cultural and educational role, encouraging many players to explore other cultural texts and enhance their interpretive competencies.
When Pok茅mon Red and Blue (Game Freak, 1998) arrived in North America and Europe, Pok茅mon fever swept across the (gaming) world. However, little scholarly work focuses on how the Game Boy was intrinsic to that success and popularity. This article contributes to the growing field of platform studies through an analysis of the Game Boy as groundbreaking, albeit limited, hardware before examining how those limitations and technical apparatuses defined the ludic and social experience of Pok茅mon Red and Blue. The article offers a new perspective on Pok茅mon鈥檚 origins that both complicates and complements various approaches from previous scholars, collectively reframes those who engage Pok茅mon as active knowledge-seekers, and more broadly contributes to the growing understanding of our past mediascapes, centred upon the Game Boy鈥檚 presence and legacy across the biggest game franchise in the world.
We encourage readers to explore the full issue on the journal鈥檚 website.
Well worth a read!