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"Ruffino, Paolo"
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Independent Videogames
Independent Videogames investigates the social and cultural implications of contemporary forms of independent videogame development. Through a series of case studies and theoretical investigations, it evaluates the significance of such a multi-faceted phenomenon within videogame and digital cultures.
A diverse team of scholars highlights the specificities of independence within the industry and the culture of digital gaming through case studies and theoretical questions. The chapters focus on labor, gender, distribution models and technologies of production to map the current state of research on independent game development. The authors also identify how the boundaries of independence are becoming opaque in the contemporary game industry – often at the cost of the claims of autonomy, freedom, and emancipation that underlie the indie scene. The book ultimately imagines new and better narratives for a less exploitative and more inclusive videogame industry.
Systematically mapping the current directions of a phenomenon that is becoming increasingly difficult to define and limit, this book will be a crucial resource for scholars and students of game studies, media history, media industries and independent gaming.
eBook
Epigenomic stability assessment during cryopreservation and physiology among various strains of Chromochloris zofingiensis (Chlorophyceae) and their genetic variability revealed by AFLP and MS-AFLP
Chromochloris zofingiensis (Dönz) Fucíková & L.A.Lewis, due to its production of highly valuable carotenoids such as astaxanthin, is a model organism in biotechnology. Since the recognition of this physiological property, many biotechnological applications have only used a single strain (SAG 211-14 = CCAP 211/14 = UTEX 32 = ATCC 30412) to produce biomass and carotenoids. However, multiple acquisitions of strains putatively belonging to the same species raised the question of the conspecificity of those strains and their properties. In this study, the conspecificity of the available strains, which are deposited axenically in SAG, was tested using SSU and ITS rDNA sequencing and AFLP (EcoRI/PstI) analyses. The comparison of SSU and ITS rDNA sequences as well as the AFLP patterns revealed that the investigated strains formed two very similar groups, (1) SAG 211-14, SAG 4.80, SAG 31.80, and SAG 34.80 and (2) SAG 221-2. All strains belonged to one species, C. zofingiensis, and represented one monophyletic lineage within the so-called DO-group of the Chlorophyceae. The robustness to cryopreservation and the subsequent epigenetic variability was detected using the methylation-sensitive AFLP (EcoRI/MspI and EcoRI/HpaII) among the five Chromochloris strains. All strains showed a high rate of survival (54.4–98.1%) during cryopreservation. The methylation patterns varied between precryo and postcryo in all strains detected among three time points (before, shortly after, and 8 weeks after cryopreservation), showing that the MS-AFLP technique has the potential to detect epigenetic effects occurring in response to cryopreservation and other stresses. Finally, the potential of these five strains for usage in biotechnological applications was proven by growing them in aerated cultures with and without additional carbon dioxide supply. The comparison showed that all strains produced high amounts of biomass and carotenoids under aeration with additional CO2 and were therefore suitable in biotechnology.
Journal Article
Future gaming : creative interventions in video game culture
This book is not about the future of video games. It is not an attempt to predict the moods of the market, the changing profile of gamers, the benevolence or malevolence of the medium. There are sufficient bodies dedicated to those predictions – and this book is about them. It is about the ways in which the past, present and future notion of games are narrated and negotiated by a small group of producers, journalists, and gamers, and about how invested these narrators are in telling the story of tomorrow.
eBook
After independence
After independence is divided into two sections. In the first part, Ruffino maps the history and current condition of academic research surrounding independent videogames. After an initial interest toward the meanings of independence in videogame culture, studies around indie games have focused on the broader connections and relations of interdependence that are established through game-making practices. The academic interest toward these issues is now more urgent than ever, as the number of workers involved in independent modalities of labor is becoming an overwhelming majority. The industry is facing a “second wave” of independence, where self-funded and informal labor, as well as temporary and subcontracted jobs, have been fully introduced and legitimized. In turn, these new conditions often make economic and creative fulfillment harder to achieve. In the second part, the sections and chapters forming the present collection are introduced and summarized. The edited collection offers various research strategies and case studies to better understand how independence could return to stand as a signifier for narratives that are more inclusive, liberating, and less exploitative.
Book Chapter