videoludica. game culture 

• Journal Cover (lo-res)

Italy's premier semiotics journal E/C has just published a fantastic collection of essays under the title "Computer Games. Between Text and Practice", edited by Patrick Coppock and Dario Compagno. The anthology - available in print form - can be freely accessed online as well (Thank you, Dario!).

Cover (pdf, 488 Kb)

Index and acknowledgements

Introduction (pdf, 108 Kb)
by Dario Compagno and Patrick Coppock

Section one
Playing Games: from Cooperation to Interaction

Gabriele Ferri (pdf, 660 Kb)
Interpretive Cooperation and Procedurality. A Dialogue between Semiotics and Procedural Criticism

Otto Lehto (pdf, 2 Mb)
The Collapse and Reconstitution of the Cinematic Narrative: Interactivity vs Immersion in Game Worlds

Section two
Which Role for Narrativity in Computer Games?

Jack Post (pdf, 588 Kb)
Bridging the Narratology- Ludology Divide. The Tetris Case

Alessandro Catania (pdf, 244 Kb)
Les Jeux sont Faits! Immersiveness and Manageability of Game Narratives

Section three
Revisiting Enunciation: Embodied Players

Agata Meneghelli (pdf, 620 Kb)
Simulacral and Embodied Enunciation in Computer Games

Adriano D’Aloia (pdf, 768 Kb)
Adamant Bodies. The Avatar-Body and the Problem of Autoempathy

Section four
Temporal and Spatial Features of Virtual Environments

Mario Gerosa, Jennifer Grace-Dawson (pdf, 1,0 Mb)
Chronology and Historicization in Virtual Worlds and Video Games

Joaquìn Siabra-Fraile (pdf, 800 Kb)
Manic Miner under the Shadow of the Colossus: A Semiotic Analysis of the Spatial Dimension in Platform Video Games

Alex Wade (pdf, 472 Kb)
Spatial Typologies of Games

Section five
Authorship and Game Creation

Marco Benôit Carbone (pdf, 284 Kb)
The Adam of Videogames. From Invention to Authorship through the Analysis of Primordial Games

Filippo Zanoli (pdf, 505 Kb)
Logos Language in Richard Garriot’s Tabula Rasa: an Analysis of Symbols, Semantics and Textual Implications