Exciting News: Our Latest Publication in Analog Game Studies Journal!
I am thrilled to announce the publication of our latest paper, A Tri-Heuristic Ontological Approximation of Tabletop RPGs, in the highly regarded Analog Game Studies journal. This research was a collaborative effort with my esteemed colleagues, Edgar Meritano Corrales and Miguel A. Bastarrachea Magnani, and it explores the complex, dynamic, and often elusive nature of Role-Playing Games (RPGs) as an object of academic study.
In this paper, we introduce a tri-heuristic framework to better understand the ontological nature of RPGs, offering insights into how mega-campaigns differ from traditional campaigns. We hope this work provides valuable perspectives for the TTRPG and academic communities, contributing to ongoing discussions in game studies.
Collaborating on this project has been an honor, and I’m excited to share our findings. You can access the full paper (León et al., 2024).
Paper Abstract:
The Role-Playing Games (RPGs) phenomenon entails a complex, changing, fluid, mutable, and yet elusive object of study. Compared with other media, RPGs are something without a final form, such as movies or paintings, and a phenomenon occurring in mental and social representations of experience, complicating their research. Its malleable characteristics impact both their real and nominal definitions, making it challenging to answer the question the object itself asks: “What is an RPG?” In this work, we propose to investigate a set of explanatory principles for developing a discourse of the being of RPG phenomena and what happens when we play them from an ontological point of view. The aim is not to reach an ultimate definition of what an RPG is but to establish a fresh starting point for a multidisciplinary take on the subject, submit it to a discussion, and foster the development of a theoretical framework considering the concrete environment for the object of study. Here, we understand an explanatory principle as an ontological point of departure to describe the phenomenon based on the very characteristics that constitute it. Thus, this contribution aims not to create a list of features or a glossary of terms but a set of heuristics. We present our ideas about the challenges encountered while trying to approximate a definition of RPGs and the insufficiency of creating one. Then, we will move to analyze three heuristics. First, the determination of what RPGs are not via the discussion of how, by using common metaphors as valuable resources to approximate them, one compromises ideas outside the phenomenon. Second, we discuss essential elements of RPGs, namely minimum components (theoretical and practical), to explain what happens when we play role-playing games. This includes simulation-simulacrum, interactive storytelling, diegesis, organicity, ludic character, self-regulation mechanisms, and the palimpsest dimension. Finally, we comment on the RPG’s meta, i.e., their phenomenological capacity to cross borders of both gaming and cognition.
Keywords: Role-Playing Games, ontology, worldview, essential elements, explanatory principles, metaphors, meta, heuristics, game studies.
Presented at Institución Universitaria Pascual Bravo, Bogotá, Colombia:
7mo Coloquio Internacional de Estudios sobre Juegos de Rol (Bastarrachea Magnani et al., 2023)
Read Our Paper
You can access our paper in the Analog Game Studies journal], Vol. XI, No. 3, pp. 1-23], 2024. Read here
Acknowledgments
Cover image photo provided by the authors.
ORCID
Cristo Leon
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0930-0179
Miguel A. Bastarrachea Magnani
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1552-4101
Edgar Meritano Corrales
https://orcid.org/0009-0006-2264-4984
Copyright
Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 © The Authors. AGS, 2024
Sources
Bastarrachea Magnani, M. A., Meritano Corrales, E., & León, C. (2023, noviembre 2). Aplicación del Enfoque Ontológico de las Tres Heurísticas a la Simulación-Simulacro como Elemento Esencial de los Juegos de Rol de Mesa [Presentación] [Conferencia académica]. 7mo Coloquio Internacional de Estudios sobre Juegos de Rol, Institución Universitaria Pascual Bravo, Bogotá, Colombia. https://digitalcommons.njit.edu/stemresources/52/
León, C., Meritano Corrales, E., & Bastarrachea Magnani, M. A. (2024). A Tri-Heuristic Ontological Approximation of Tabletop RPGS [Peer-reviewed journal]. Analog Game Studies, 11(3), 23. /Research/Cultural and Social Studies.
Citation
When citing this paper, use this format:
Bastarrachea-Magnani, Miguel A., Edgar Meritano, and Cristo León. “A Tri-Heuristic Ontological Approximation of Tabletop RPGs.” Analog Game Studies 11, no. 3 (2024), https://analoggamestudies.org/2024/10/a-tri-heuristic-ontological-approximation-of-tabletop-rpgs/.