Hey everyone! I'm currently doing some research regarding a particular genre of video games, however I find myself with a great lack of academic resources when it comes to some very basic solid game design theory. So I wonder whether or not you know any good sites or journals to find some good academic resources.

Best regards,

Doc Penguin.

Can you be more specific as to what kind of material you're looking for?

Regarding the topic, I search content related to the open-world and sandbox genre as well as related concepts. Regarding the source I pretty much look for anything academic, preferably peer-reviewed articles published in journals but also books which cover some of the aspects slightly. Right now my problem is that I need to find some reliable and solid definitions which help me to further analyze these games.

Definitions of what? Can you be more specific?

I might be biased towards working with clear definitions though. For instance, from what I've read so far nobody makse a clear distinction between the terms "open-world" and "sandbox". Although if you take both terms literally, you just can't take them synonymously. Taking sandbox metaphorically, we think of a little child playing in an enclosed space with his toys and tools, out of a pure enjoyment of curiosity and creativity. Now exploration as can be found in an "open world" might be an aspect of curiosity, but it's not an aspect of the sandbox self. For a sandbox we require a certain level of creative interactivity with the game's world. And this level of interactivity is not given at all in open world games such as Flight Simulators and RPGs. In a similar fashion also nobody seems to use a agreeable definition of emergence. Where for one author, using mines to climb walls in Deus Ex would be an emergent phenomena of the game, the other author would say that this is just a chaining of the game's basic rules and thus does not qualify as emergent phenomena but instead rather emphasizes strategical and social aspects as emergent.

So these are the kind of conflicts I'm currently encountering.

I might be biased towards working with clear definitions though. For instance from what I've read so far, there is no clear distinction between the terms "open-world" and "sandbox".

I think, that you will have a hard time getting clear definition of terms like "open-world" and "sandbox" or any other hip term game developer put on their boxes to appeal more people . Nevertheless, I would start at GDC vault, filter for game design related topics, then look out for source references. This way you might get an overview of academic resources.

I might be biased towards working with clear definitions though. For instance, from what I've read so far nobody makse a clear distinction between the terms "open-world" and "sandbox". Although if you take both terms literally, you just can't take them synonymously. Taking sandbox metaphorically, we think of a little child playing in an enclosed space with his toys and tools, out of a pure enjoyment of curiosity and creativity. Now exploration as can be found in an "open world" might be an aspect of curiosity, but it's not an aspect of the sandbox self. For a sandbox we require a certain level of creative interactivity with the game's world. And this level of interactivity is not given at all in open world games such as Flight Simulators and RPGs. In a similar fashion also nobody seems to use a agreeable definition of emergence.

Thank you. That kind of specificity clears things up, and enables a conversation. As Ashaman said, a challenge you face is that no two speakers or writers will necessarily agree on definitions of terms. Ashaman's suggestion that you check GDC Vault is a good one. The vault is usually open only to attendees of the most recent Game Developers Conference, unless the rules have changed, but money might be a way to unlock the vault too (I'm not sure). Very valuable material within. You should also check Gamasutra, but I assume you know that already. Also see if past issues of Game Developer magazine (gdmag) are accessible.

You can also simply explain (as you did today) what terms you are looking for definitions for, and this community can offer their own divergent opinions for you.

Thank you both for mentioning GDC Vault and GDMag. I'll take look on these asap.

You can also simply explain (as you did today) what terms you are looking for definitions for, and this community can offer their own divergent opinions for you.

I always have enjoyed the conversations I had in this community. So I'm really looking forward for more valuable discussions with you guys. :)

You'll get divergent definitions here (as you would elsewhere), and then you can formulate your own thereby for your research purposes.