Friday, December 01, 2006

Dance Dance


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Gus Andrews writes an interesting piece on Dance Dance Revolution , which she describes as a ‘large-motor, rhythm-based video game’. She uses Actor-Network Theory to make sense of dance game machines , and of a specific discussion thread on DDRFreak.com. There’s also an interesting mapping of the networks and distribution of discussion contributors. Her outline runs: ‘This paper traces successful and unsuccessful attempts to control the meanings of the game, specifically with reference to what dancing means in this context, as the game moves between various interested parties - game developers, players, Internet forum participants, and other media producers. Who decides how DDR players dance, and at what times? Are the decisions about play made in the development meeting, the arcade, competitions, online, or around the home console? Globally, how do some regions or groups emerge as experts or leaders in play style?’ You can find the paper (here) in the journal Fibreculture.

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