Tez Türü: Doktora
Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Hacettepe Üniversitesi, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, İletişim A.B.D., Türkiye
Tez Danışmanı: Burcu Şimşek
Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2025
Tezin Dili: İngilizce
Özet:
Revisiting an earlier gameplay experience is a curious thing. Many modern video games have design features such as procedurally-generated or downloadable content that incentivise the players for another run of the game, and the digital distribution of the video game content makes it relatively easy to return to a game that has just been updated. However, there are instances of replay that are not entirely reliant on expanding previously experienced content. Occasionally, we go back to a game we have previously played, completely or not, to experience it again. It might have to do with a remembrance of an earlier memory (nostalgia), a connection through exposure to a similar narrative (familiarity), or an unrelated cognitive pattern that evokes a yearning for another run of the game (re-experiencing). Although the replayability aspect of video games as a design element (replay value) has been analysed extensively, only a limited number of studies have been done regarding the replaying experiences of games that do not provide additional content. From an autoethnographic perspective, this thesis aims to understand why people replay a game based on intrinsic or extrinsic incentives associated, particularly with the memory of the game or the play experience. While quantitatively exploring the games or types of games that have been preferred to be replayed, this thesis also aims to examine the motivations and emotional connections with a qualitative approach involving players and their recounting gameplay experiences. These explorations will make it possible to understand the place of video games in everyday life, such as their utilisation for identity formation and communication and relationships of production and consumption.
Keywords
Video games, replaying, experience, memory, narrative