Some of you may remember me from a few years back as 'berty' - I was in the process of writing a PhD based around Shmups. I finally got around to finishing it and it has just been printed. I am going to make an electronic version shortly but I want to publish a few articles from it first. I started a blog as well to point to the articles that I am working on. In the meantime, here is a picture of the final product as well as the abstract!
A big thanks to the Shmup community for all of the info over the years!
IMAG0042 by bertybeatle, on Flickr
Abstract:
This study sought to examine the development of video games between 1987 and 2005 to ascertain, on an emotive level, whether video games have changed in that time. It is the contention of this study to demonstrate that video games have remained largely unchanged, bar graphical and other “aesthetic” updates. Based on this, it is apparent that the emotive traits defining effective video games of the past are still valid in the contemporary market.
Another aspect of the study is to demonstrate that nostalgia is one of the most significant reasons why gamers are drawn to certain types of game purchases. The study contends that gamers are getting older and carrying significant gaming experience, and that nostalgia impacted on their purchasing selections, hence informing game design. To support this aspect of the study, two small survey studies have been created. Disseminated and used in 2004 and 2008 these studies are used to support the main contention of the study and also prove the importance of modes of representation when it comes to the consumption habits of consumers. The findings of this aspect of the study demonstrate a pattern between year of birth, and specific nostalgic preferences of gamers.
The study compares the development of mainstream games to that of the Shmup genre, the longest and most prolific genre of gaming. Shmups, a contraction of the term “Shoot-em-up”, are epitomized by games such as Raiden and Ikaruga, which are top down, third person shooting games with fixed scrolling systems. Shmup games are the most appropriate game genre for this study as they are the only commercial game genre to have changed little on both an aesthetic and mechanical level since their inception.
The study undertakes an extensive literature review in order to determine the emotions most commonly associated with effective game design, and how these types of emotions could be produced within game creation using specific heuristics. These heuristics form the basis of a theoretical framework which is then used to compare the development of Shmups against other forms of commercial gaming from 1987 until 2005.
A series of structuralist, post-structuralist and constructivist theories are utilized throughout the study in combination to support new and emerging models of game analysis. This study aims to create a solid methodological framework that could be applied to the analysis of any type of computer and/ or arcade game, regardless of genre.
Findings demonstrate how each of the heuristics needed to be adapted given certain technological and social norms present during a game’s development and subsequent consumption, and that the heuristic sets could not be used in isolation. One of the core variables in this study is identified as being the process of representation. The same emotional responses were at the heart of all effective games, and that these emotional responses could be both implemented and evaluated using a set of specific heuristics. Research findings also demonstrate that specific means of representation provided powerful emotional cues that exploited an end-users sense of familiarity, specifically nostalgia, and that there is a predictable link between birth year and nostalgic peak.
Foreword
The title for this study is not a typographical error, but rather one of the most recognized ‘memes’ in gaming. Taken from the English port of Zero Wing for the Sega Megadrive in 1991, “All of your base…” has become synonymous with gaming culture and how the Japanese dominated the console market during the 1980s and 1990s. The phrase is also pertinent to this study. Not only is the phrase derived from the genre of gaming which is the focus of this study, but the era in which it came about also represents the focus on nostalgia contained within. The phrase embodies the time, culture and genre which this study focuses on and as such, is the most apt way of titling it. Further to this, the title of the study is a sign of “thanks” to the many people who are not associated with academia or the commercial side of Shmup development; you have all been an invaluable source of information for the case studies contained within. As such, when it comes to information about Shmups, “all of your base are belong to us.”
