Emergence of the Ludic Aesthetic in Literature and Digital Cultures Main Menu Emergence of the Ludic Aesthetic in Literature and Digital Cultures Index Table of Contents Introduction Theoretical Approach/Methodology Digital Research Methodology Chapter One Results of the Digital Research Chapter Two Background Theories Chapter Three Evidence of a New Aesthetic Chapter Four Examination of a New Aesthetic Chapter Five Categorisation of the New Aesthetic Conclusion References Media References and Links

Outline

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Cultural products such as art pieces, novels, films, television series and even education are increasingly showing evidence of changing styles of production, layout and time management.  My dissertation addresses the question of whether these changes are representative of a newly emerging digital aesthetic based on videogame styles that I have termed the Ludic Aesthetic. Academics within the field of gaming have attempted to assess changes in gaming culture through the lens of either ludology using scientific experimental means, or narratology through literature-based means.  I argue that both of these means are important to any findings, and joint research is becoming increasingly necessary in the gaming field; my dissertation directly confronts this schism through academic writing based on direct gaming experience as well as theory and literature. I further test the present level of high-profile academic data analysis by conducting a digital research piece within which I aim to generate and examine my findings against established academic data centres; this test was expectedly unsuccessful, so proving that academic data analysis within the booming videogames industry is still sporadic, and unacceptably low when compared to the size of the sector, suggesting that further input is needed from the academic field into videogames generally.  My arguments predominantly examine and analyse cultural products particularly of the last decade against the prevalent digital cultures and gaming theories of the day, to determine and define the solidity of the theoretically suggested Ludic Aesthetic, with positive results. The Ludic Aesthetic is then examined and tested against established requirements of identifying an existing aesthetic category.

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