What are “Walking Simulators,” Ethnographically?
“Gaming” is conceptually branching out. It “virtually” overlaps with museum visuals and actively engages with lived cultures and heritage. Both developments point out that perhaps even with the…
Tag: video games
“Work together, eat bread together”: Stardew Valley and the Dream of the Commons
Farming Fantasies “There will come a day,” proclaims the player character’s grandfather in the popular video game Stardew Valley, “when you feel crushed by the burden of modern…
Chaotic Oscillation: Understanding the Paradoxical Presence of Video Games in Contemporary Society
Common sense tells us that play and work are opposing categories. However, in our society we often encounter situations where the boundaries between these two categories become difficult…
Amanda Cullen takes the page 99 test
Frankly, I was hoping that page 99 of my dissertation would capture the voices of one or more of my participants. Unfortunately, what I arrived at was the…
Becoming the Game: Hardware Hacking, Agency, and Obsolescence
Introduction When I asked my aunt back in 2014 if my old Game Boy Color was still around, she handed it to me, but confirmed that the A…
Translating Truth: Heaven’s Vault and Its Message to Gamers
By Catherine Hill If you’re a gamer, chances are you’ve played, seen, or at least heard of Heaven’s Vault, the newest game from Inkle Studios. In this adventure, players…
Rocket Scientists and Their Games: A Little-Known Slice of History
In the 21st century, game companies are expanding what can be done with 3D interactive tools and virtual spaces. Companies like Epic Games are increasing blurring the lines…
The Server Souvenir: Taking Home Remnants of Virtual Worlds
“It’s amazing to think those little circuits that we can carry around were an entire world to us.” –Diana*, interviewee “We might say that this capacity of objects…
Video Games, Mental Health, and the Complicated Nature of Playing
Young man plays Fortnite at a gaming competition CC BY-SA 4.0 He melted into the shadows, pressing the ‘E’ key on his keyboard, activating his stealth skill, allowing…
Book Review: Archaeogaming and the Wide Wonderful World of Archaeology in Video Games
By Alissa Whitmore Reinhard, Andrew (2018) Archaeogaming: An Introduction to Archaeology in and of Video Games. New York: Berghahn Books. Originally trained in classical archaeology, Andrew Reinhard …
Deepfakes, words vs actions, hatred in anthropology and social dissociation: This month on TFS (Re-Release)
On this month’s panel episode, digital anthropologist Dr Stephanie Betz (5:50) discusses “deepfakes”. It’s been possible to doctor images to a very high degree of believability for a…
White Fans, Liberal Ideologies, and the Erasure of Black Stories in Gaming
Last month, the highly anticipated video game Mortal Kombat 11 (MK11) was released to an excited yet wary fighting game community. Game studio NetherRealm’s newest incarnation received praise…
League of Legends: rituality, interactions and events
In a previous blog post, we mentioned the subcultures originated around the consumption of a particular product or brand. We also mentioned how some events or activities can…
Anthropologists and Dragons
I surprised myself by not hesitating. Spinning around, I headed straight back toward one of those that had followed us into the alley—a woman in dark robes, eyes…
Do We Inherit Abandoned Game Worlds?
When you’re playing an online game and it gets shut down, typically a message flashes on the screen that says something like: “You have been disconnected from the…
Ep. #12 Cultural imaginaries, deepfake videos, hatred in anth, & social dissociation: this month on TFS
This month, Ian (1:12) asks how we should engage when people describe their culture one way, but our observations of their behavior don’t match those descriptions. What is…
Anthropology Blogging 101: Archaeogaming
In this edition of Anthropology Blogging 101, we feature Andrew Reinhard, founder of Archaeogaming. His application of archaeology to virtual worlds and digital gaming platforms like World of…
Pokemon GO comes home: Manners pedagogy in the Japanese linguistic landscape
[This is an invited post by Debra J Occhi, Miyazaki International College (aka Hyuga Natsuko1, yellow team). Debra is a linguistic anthropologist employed at Miyazaki International College. Her…
Pokemon GO comes home: Manners pedagogy in the Japanese linguistic landscape
[This is an invited post by Debra J Occhi, Miyazaki International College (aka Hyuga Natsuko1, yellow team). Debra is a linguistic anthropologist employed at Miyazaki International College. Her…
How is Pokemon Go Changing Our Relationship with People and Places?
By Nick Mizer and Jared Miracle Pokemon Go, the blockbuster new augmented reality game developed by Niantic, hit the US on July 6. By July 13, estimates of…
Notes From the Field: Is this Skyrim?
Anthropologists go through some unique experiences as they conduct fieldwork. From experimenting with drugs to seeing people who have been dead for decades during a ceremony (read about…
Fictional #Fictions between China and Arstotzka
One interesting way to (momentarily) close this thematic week about living fictions (one that could also speak to many other thematic weeks here on ALLEGRA, e.g. smugglers; being…
(Video) Games as Motivation for Japanese High School Students
By Andrew Ross Sushi served on conveyor belts. Robot restaurants and robot theater. Toilets that automatically open themselves upon room entry. For visitors of Tokyo (and to an…
What’s the matter with Ethnography?
Robert Potts is a filmmaker, lecturer, designer, and PhD candidate at the HighWire Centre for Doctoral Training who takes special interest in a diverse range of subjects including shared narr…