Christopher A Paul
Biographic Data
| ID | 92883 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Christopher A Paul |
| GIVEN NAMES | Christopher A |
| FAMILY NAME | Paul |
| SIGNATURE | PAUL C A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Seattle University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 9 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 10 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Optimizing Play: Why Theorycrafting Breaks Games and How to Fix It
An unexpected take on how games work, what the stakes are for them, and how game designers can avoid the traps of optimization. The process of optimization in games seems like a good thing—who wouldn't want to find the most efficient way to play and win? As Christopher Paul argues in Optimizing Play, however, optimization can sometimes risk a tragedy of the commons, where actions that are good for individuals jeopardize the overall state of the g…
Free-to-Play: Mobile Video Games, Bias, and Norms
An examination of free-to-play and mobile games that traces what is valued and what is marginalized in discussions of games Free-to-play and mobile video games are an important and growing part of the video game industry, and yet they are often disparaged by journalists, designers, and players and pronounced inferior to games with more traditional payment models. In this book, Christopher Paul shows that underlying the criticism is a bias against…
Real Games: What's Legitimate and What's Not in Contemporary Videogames
people who create videogames have ranged from lone individuals toiling away in their bedroom to teams of dozens or hundreds of developers who design and build games in AAA studios around the world. That diversity of approach has grown over time as accessible tools to make games proliferate and platforms on which to find games mushroom. In 1982, the US arcade industry newsletter Arcade Express reported on well-established companies such as Atari, …
The End of Casual: Long Live Casual
This special issue is meant to provide an intervention. We are undertaking this project to broaden the corpus of Games Studies by both critiquing casual as a label, yet simultaneously legitimizing it as an important category of both study and play. Additionally, historicizing the terms casual and hardcore as categories uncovers the ways that the video game industry talks about its products and how academic work often replicates biases against cas…
The Toxic Meritocracy of Video Games: Why Gaming Culture Is the Worst
Values at play in digital games
Wordplay and the Discourse of Video Games: Analyzing Words, Design, and Play
In this timely new book, Christopher Paul analyzes how the words we use to talk about video games and the structures that are produced within games shape a particular way of gaming by focusing on how games create meaning, lead to identification and division, persuade, and circulate ideas. Paul examines the broader social discourse about gaming, including: the way players are socialized into games; the impact of the lingering association of video …
Process, Paratexts, and Texts: Rhetorical Analysis and Virtual Worlds
This essay addresses how rhetorical analysis can be applied to the study of virtual worlds. Rhetoric, which focuses on persuasion and ways of knowing, offers a strong, qualitative methodological approach for scholars engaged in virtual worlds research. A background in the history of rhetorical studies is complemented by analysis of how rhetoric has been applied to virtual worlds and game studies to develop a perspective for analysis of three kind…
Welfare Epics? The Rhetoric of Rewards in World of Warcraft
After the Lead Content Designer of World of Warcraft (WoW), Tigole, deemed a new set of rewards ''welfare'' epics, the WoW player community responded in a multitude of fascinating ways. Using rhetorical analysis, gaming studies literature, and a critical analysis of welfare discourse, four rhetorical strategies can be seen in the discourse produced by the playing community. From directly confronting Tigole's statements to lamenting a loss of avat…
Culture and Practice: What We Do, Not Just Where We Are
Arguing that culture is shaped by location and practice, this essay advocates the study of common practices across virtual worlds to better understand how shared practices constitute cultures spanning multiple worlds. Connections among worlds are growing, as world designers borrow from similar influences and player bases gain experience with multiple worlds, leading to cultures potentially defined by the practices they share, rather than the worl…
The End of Casual: Long Live Casual
This special issue is meant to provide an intervention. We are undertaking this project to broaden the corpus of Games Studies by both critiquing casual as a label, yet simultaneously legitimizing it as an important category of both study and play. Additionally, historicizing the terms casual and hardcore as categories uncovers the ways that the video game industry talks about its products and how academic work often replicates biases against cas…
Welfare Epics? The Rhetoric of Rewards in World of Warcraft
After the Lead Content Designer of World of Warcraft (WoW), Tigole, deemed a new set of rewards ''welfare'' epics, the WoW player community responded in a multitude of fascinating ways. Using rhetorical analysis, gaming studies literature, and a critical analysis of welfare discourse, four rhetorical strategies can be seen in the discourse produced by the playing community. From directly confronting Tigole's statements to lamenting a loss of avat…
Culture and Practice: What We Do, Not Just Where We Are
Arguing that culture is shaped by location and practice, this essay advocates the study of common practices across virtual worlds to better understand how shared practices constitute cultures spanning multiple worlds. Connections among worlds are growing, as world designers borrow from similar influences and player bases gain experience with multiple worlds, leading to cultures potentially defined by the practices they share, rather than the worl…
Process, Paratexts, and Texts: Rhetorical Analysis and Virtual Worlds
This essay addresses how rhetorical analysis can be applied to the study of virtual worlds. Rhetoric, which focuses on persuasion and ways of knowing, offers a strong, qualitative methodological approach for scholars engaged in virtual worlds research. A background in the history of rhetorical studies is complemented by analysis of how rhetoric has been applied to virtual worlds and game studies to develop a perspective for analysis of three kind…
Welfare Epics? The Rhetoric of Rewards in World of Warcraft
After the Lead Content Designer of World of Warcraft (WoW), Tigole, deemed a new set of rewards ''welfare'' epics, the WoW player community responded in a multitude of fascinating ways. Using rhetorical analysis, gaming studies literature, and a critical analysis of welfare discourse, four rhetorical strategies can be seen in the discourse produced by the playing community. From directly confronting Tigole's statements to lamenting a loss of avat…
Wordplay and the Discourse of Video Games: Analyzing Words, Design, and Play
In this timely new book, Christopher Paul analyzes how the words we use to talk about video games and the structures that are produced within games shape a particular way of gaming by focusing on how games create meaning, lead to identification and division, persuade, and circulate ideas. Paul examines the broader social discourse about gaming, including: the way players are socialized into games; the impact of the lingering association of video …
Values at play in digital games
The Toxic Meritocracy of Video Games: Why Gaming Culture Is the Worst
Real Games: What's Legitimate and What's Not in Contemporary Videogames
people who create videogames have ranged from lone individuals toiling away in their bedroom to teams of dozens or hundreds of developers who design and build games in AAA studios around the world. That diversity of approach has grown over time as accessible tools to make games proliferate and platforms on which to find games mushroom. In 1982, the US arcade industry newsletter Arcade Express reported on well-established companies such as Atari, …
The End of Casual: Long Live Casual
This special issue is meant to provide an intervention. We are undertaking this project to broaden the corpus of Games Studies by both critiquing casual as a label, yet simultaneously legitimizing it as an important category of both study and play. Additionally, historicizing the terms casual and hardcore as categories uncovers the ways that the video game industry talks about its products and how academic work often replicates biases against cas…
Free-to-Play: Mobile Video Games, Bias, and Norms
An examination of free-to-play and mobile games that traces what is valued and what is marginalized in discussions of games Free-to-play and mobile video games are an important and growing part of the video game industry, and yet they are often disparaged by journalists, designers, and players and pronounced inferior to games with more traditional payment models. In this book, Christopher Paul shows that underlying the criticism is a bias against…
Optimizing Play: Why Theorycrafting Breaks Games and How to Fix It
An unexpected take on how games work, what the stakes are for them, and how game designers can avoid the traps of optimization. The process of optimization in games seems like a good thing—who wouldn't want to find the most efficient way to play and win? As Christopher Paul argues in Optimizing Play, however, optimization can sometimes risk a tragedy of the commons, where actions that are good for individuals jeopardize the overall state of the g…
Computer Science (10 works) · Digital Games and Media (10 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Art (4 works) · Political science (4 works) · Human–computer interaction (3 works) · Impact of Technology on Adolescents (3 works) · Law (3 works) · Linguistics (3 works) · Multimedia (3 works)