Sonia Fizek

Technische Hochschule Köln | FH Köln · Cologne Game Lab

This paper examines the youngest video games genre, the so called idle (incremental) game, also referred to as the passive, self-playing or clicker game, which seems to challenge the current understanding of digital games as systems, based on a human-machine interaction where it is the human who actively engages with the system through meaningful c...

Automation of play has become an ever more noticeable phenomenon in the domain of video games, expressed by self-playing game worlds, self-acting characters, and non-human agents traversing multiplayer spaces. This article proposes to look at AI-driven non-human play and, what follows, rethink digital games, taking into consideration their cybernet...

An essential exploration of video game aesthetic that decenters the human player and challenges what it means to play. Do we play video games or do video games play us? Is nonhuman play a mere paradox or the future of gaming? And what do video games have to do with quantum theory? In Playing at a Distance, Sonia Fizek engages with these and many m...

Cases of domestic terrorism have increased in the last few years. Although executed in often remote locations worldwide, they share a lot of resemblances , the most striking ones of which have resulted in their recent gamified character as seen in achievement systems and first-person shooter esthetics. This chapter is an attempt to understand the s...

A growing number of game design and development programs in higher education are beginning to incorporate environmental considerations into their curricula. This aligns with the broader push for more responsible and environmentally conscious practices in game production, consumption, and education. This article introduces two ongoing European inter...

Gaming has never been disconnected from reality. When we engage with ever more lavish virtual worlds, something happens to us. The game imposes itself on us and influences how we feel about it, the world, and ourselves. How do games accomplish this and to what end? The contributors explore the video game as an atmospheric medium of hitherto unimagi...

Gaming has never been disconnected from reality. When we engage with ever more lavish virtual worlds, something happens to us. The game imposes itself on us and influences how we feel about it, the world, and ourselves. How do games accomplish this and to what end? The contributors explore the video game as an atmospheric medium of hitherto unimagi...

Video game analyses have historically focused on the human act of play or on the events resulting from the player's act. Until recently, spectating has remained an analytical domain of film theory and visual arts. In game studies, this perspective has changed, with the arrival of the phenomenon of gameplay spectating and game streaming on a mass sc...

Game studies have started as an international endeavour; a rich field bringing together scholars from all over the world, where national borders hardly played any role. In this spirit, the first international peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the study of computer games was inaugurated in 2003 (gamestudies.org) and the first conference of the Digi...

Cases of domestic terrorism have increased in the last few years. Although executed in often remote locations worldwide, they share a lot of resemblances, the most striking ones of which have resulted in their recent gamified character as seen in achievement systems and first-person shooter esthetics. This chapter is an attempt to understand the so...

Wie hängen Wissen und Spiel miteinander zusammen und welchen historischen Veränderungen unterlag der Zusammenhang von Spiel mit Vorstellungen von Freiheit, Arbeit oder ökonomischen Theorien? Welche Möglichkeiten bietet das Computerspiel im medizinischen Bereich und ist das Computerspiel ein geeignetes Instrument für die Forschung? Die Kulturtechnik...

Currently, at the edge of the new digital frontier, automation and smart algorithms are gaining immense social attention, enticing, as mechanization and machines in the previous centuries, as much wonder as awe. Countless magazine headlines paint a fully automated future and ask question about the social significance of automation driven by artific...

This article offers a critical reflection on automation of play and its significance for the theoretical enquiries into digital games and play. Automation has become an ever more noticeable phenomenon in the domain of video games, expressed by self-playing game worlds, self-acting characters, and non-human agents traversing multiplayer spaces. On t...

Automation of play has become an ever more noticeable phenomenon in the domain of video games, expressed by self-playing game worlds, self-acting characters, and non-human agents traversing multiplayer spaces. This article proposes to look at AI-driven non-human play and, what follows, rethink digital games, taking into consideration their cybernet...

Automation of play has become an ever more noticeable phenomenon in the domain of video games, expressed by self-playing game worlds, self-acting characters, and non-human agents traversing multiplayer spaces. This article proposes to look at AI-driven non-human play and, what follows, rethink digital games, taking into consideration their cybernet...

This paper provides an introduction to the emerging phenomenon of the automation of play. It discusses the roles of human and algorithmic players focusing on so-called crowdsourcing or citizen science games, in which thousands of human players perform various tasks to advance scientific research, and by doing so help train the algorithms that may a...

Von den Ketten der Arbeit befreit? Industrialisierung, Automatisierung und Digitalisierung trugen für viele den menschlichen Traum in sich, weniger, vor allem aber weniger hart zu arbeiten und mehr Zeit mit anderen, etwa spielerischen Tätigkeiten verbringen zu können. Schließlich trat mit der industriellen Revolution die Maschine als Alternative zu...

Niniejszy artykuł stanowi wprowadzenie do badań nad postacią w grach komputerowych. W pierwszej części dokonuję przeglądu najczęściej stosowanych perspektyw badawczych, które można podzielić według pięciu kategorii, definiujących postać w grze (postać jako funkcja, siła sprawcza, sztuczna inteligencja, ikona genderowa i ucieleśnienie gracza). Drugą...

This article discusses the potential of audio games based on the evaluation of three projects: a story-driven audio role-playing game (RPG), an interactive audiobook with RPG elements, and a set of casual sound-based games. The potential is understood, both in popularity and playability terms. The first factor is connected to the degree of players’...

Choć dźwięk zawsze był i jest istotnym elementem gier wideo, w większości produkcji odgrywa jednak rolę drugorzędną i nie wchodzi w skład mechanizmów napędowych rozgrywki. Ponieważ człowiek w 80% odbiera otaczający go świat poprzez zmysł wzroku, nie dziwi fakt, że gry audio pozbawione komponentu wideo, nie należą do produkcji mainstreamowych. Dla w...

This article introduces a theoretical framework for the analysis of the player character (PC) in offline computer role-playing games (cRPGs). It derives from the assumption that the character constitutes the focal point of the game, around which all the other elements revolve. This underlying observation became the foundation of the Player Characte...

The chapter is divided into two parts. The first constitutes a theoretical introduction and places the problem of gender identity and body in a wider cultural context, encompassing postmodern and post-postmodern concepts on identity. We are referring mainly to chosen feminist theories, as they cover the most vivid disputes over the place of gender...