REPLAYINGJAPAN 2017

AUGUST 21 - 23
THE STRONGROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGYSchedule
August 21st
8:30-9:00
9:00-9:30

Registration (table next to museum admissions desk)
Auditorium
Opening Remarks & History of The Strong (Jon-Paul Dyson)
Auditorium

9:30-10:30

Tom Kalinske Keynote“The Experts are Always Wrong”

10:30-11:00

Coffee break
Activity Room C
Players/Fan Studies
BARNABÉ, Fanny – Narrative Misappropriations of Pokémon: How Fanarts andFanfictions Playfully Feed and Reconfigure a Transmedia Universe
JOHNSON, Daniel – Scripted Laughter in Online Gameplay VideosMONDELLI, Frank – An Ethnographic Sketch of Remix and Fan Culture in Jikkyou Purei

11:00-12:30

Moderator: ROCKWELL, Geoffrey
Activity Room D
Marketing and GamesINOUE, Akito – How Was Local Game History Made?
FUKUDA, Kazufumi – Research on Ontology of Package for Game Software
ROTH, Martin, Leander SEIGE, Konstantin FREYBE, Tracy HOFFMANN, André
LAHMANN –What can data tell us about Japan’s videogame culture?
Moderator: HOSOI, Koichi

12:30-2:00

Lunch break
Activity Room C
Games and Learning
SHIN, Juhyung, JIAO, Yan, JIANG, Yehang, and INABA, Mitsuyuki – Implementing
Collaborative Serious Games on Japanese Culture based on Restored Historical Structuresand Landscapes in the 3D Metaverse

2:00-3:30

KISHIMOTO, Yoshihiro – Game Design Workshops for Children Using an Experimental
Learning Software Program
Moderator: INABA, Mitsuyuki
Activity Room D
History of Video Game Industry

PICARD, Martin – The Media Mix Engine: transmedia synergies in the Japanese video
game industry during the mid-1980s
NAKAMURA, Akinori and Devin Monnens – Comparative Case Studies in Emerging ofthe Digital Game Platforms in North America
Moderator: ROTH, Martin
Activity Room B
Poster Session and Demonstrations
3:30-5:00

Activity Room C/DNetworking Opportunity

5:30-?

Free time for dinner

August 22nd
8:30-9:00

Registration (Main Admissions Desk)
Auditorium

9:00-10:00

Rachael Hutchinson Keynote“Refracted Visions: Transmedia Storytelling in Japanese Games”

10:00-10:15

Coffee break - Outside Activity Rooms C and D
Activity Room C
Business and Production Studies
HUBER, William – The Luminous Commodity: In-game advertising and rhetorics ofglobalisation in Final Fantasy XVSCHEIDING, Ryan, Marc Lajeunesse and Mia Consalvo – Superstar Indies: Understanding
a Japanese Videogame Phenomenon

10:15-11:45

KENNEDY, Morgan – Narratives of Japanese Independent Videogame Developers: A Case
Study at 17-Bit
Moderator: NAKAMURA, Akinori
Activity Room D
Chinese DiGRA Roundtable: Towards an Asian game studies
LIU, Felania, CHUNG, Peichi and NAKAMURA Akinori

11:45-1:15

Lunch
Activity Room C
Situated Gaming

1:15-2:45

AMANO, Keiji and Geoffrey Rockwell – On the Infrastructure of Gaming: The Case ofPachinko
PELLETIER-GAGNON, Jérémie – Playing in Public: Japanese Game Centers Between
Local Culture and National Networks

Moderator: PICARD, Martin
Activity Room D
Augmented Gaming and Sandbox GamesKIMURA, Makoto – Strategic use of tying complementary data services: A case ofPokemon
AARSETH, Espen, BLOM, Johanna – Replaying Minecraft? Sandbox building meets
Action JRPGs
Moderator: NEWMAN, James
2:45-3:00

Coffee break - Outside Activity Rooms C and D
Activity Room C
Gender Issues
STANG, Sarah – Gender and Androgyny in The Legend of Zelda Series

3:00-4:30

deWINTER, Jennifer – Visual Novels & Female Fantasies: BL Transmedia andParticipatory Adaptation Cultural Cross-Pollination
SYMONDS, Shannon – Women in Games: The Strong’s Initiative to Document the Rolesof Women in the Gaming Industry
Moderator: OKABE, Mimi

4:30-5:45

Behind-the-Scenes Tours of The Strong Collections
Leaving from Museum School Bus Entrance

5:45-8:00

Travel to Rochester Institute Technology and Reception

August 23rd
8:30-9:00

Registration (Main Admissions Desk)
Activity Room C
Players Ethnography
van OMMEN, Mattias – Final Fantasy and Ethnography: An Anthropological Approach
Towards Fantasy and VideoBAYLISS, Jessica – Exploring Japanese and North American Player Differences in Final
Fantasy XIV

9:00-10:30

GANZON, Sarah – Sweet Solutions for Female Gamers”: Cheritz, Korean Otome Gamesand Tumblr Otaku Fandoms
Moderator: HUTCHINSON, Rachael
Activity Room DGame Preservation Roundtable
Jon-Paul Dyson, Aki Nakamura, Martin Roth, Hosoi Koichi, Geoffrey Rockwell10:30-11:00

Coffee break - Outside Activity Rooms C and D

Activity Room C
Cross-cultural and Social-Cultural Issues
OKABE, Tsugumi (Mimi) – “The Game is afoot:Transmedia Storytelling in Japanese
Sherlockian Videogames”
ZANESCU, Andrei – Yasumi Matsuno’s Balkanism
ABEL, Jonathan – The Frames of the Game: The Portal as Portable in Steins;Gate
11:00-12:30

Moderator: PELLETIER-GAGNON, Jérémie
Activity Room D
Platform Studies
FUST, Philipp – Transmedia storytelling and theory-visualization in the Xeno-verse’
SMITH, Peter – Transmedia Storytelling in the Game & Watch Series
ALTICE, Nathan – Translating Computer to Cardboard
Moderator: DYSON, Jon-Paul

12:30-2:00

Lunch
Activity Room C
Close Readings – RPG
FUKUCHI, Kentaro – Names of Playable Characters in Video GamesPAYEN, Sylvain – The final Final Fantasy?
BLOM, Johanna – Characters as gateways to the Game World
Moderator: INOUE, Akito

2:00-3:30

Activity Room D
Platform Studies 2
FREEDMAN, Eric – Engine: The Mechanics of PlayNEWMAN, James – “Slower, squashed and six months late.” Playing Japanese videogames
in Europe 1991-2017
ANDLAEIR, Leticia – Transmedia through globalization in otome industry: a reception
study of gender representations in France
Moderator: FUKUDA, Kazafumi

5:30-9:30

Strong Museum Happiest Hour (optional museum public program, extra fee)

Posters and Demos Posters and Demonstrations: August 21st, 3:30-5:30
Activity Room B

Demonstration

SAITOH, Shinya et al

Demonstration

NAKAJIMA, Risa

Demonstration

MORITA, Sosuke

Demonstration

ITOH, Suguru

PosterPosterPosterApplying Game Design Technology in Visualization
Case of VR-Timeline From Digital Humanities
Perspective
Social logs and visual design -Through design andimplementation of “Toilet type UI”“The Digital Game Work Which Is Available a Having
The Re-Experience Japanese Elementary School Cultures– The VR Eraser Duel -“Towards implementation of Persona and Play Arc in aFighting gameBeyond the conflicts: How does transmedia storytelling
MUKAE, Shunsukechange the relation between digital/analog andinteraction/non-interaction in Otome game?
Report on Game Design Work Shop Using “Difficulty
TAKEDA, Shousaku et al.
Adjsutment Engineering” and Narrative Engineering
JUHYUNG, Shin

What Otome Games Can Teach Us? [poster]History of Video Game Industry: Activity Room D, 2:00-3:30
4.1 – The Media Mix Engine: transmedia synergies in the Japanese video game industry during
the mid-1980s
PICARD, Martin
This paper seeks to examine the popularization of the video game console industry in Japan
during the 1980s, which developed in a specific marketing context known as the media mix.
For this presentation, the author will investigate the media mix and video games’ place within itin. Media mix – a term more or less similar to transmedia practices (Jenkins 2008) – is, as Marc
Steinberg demonstrates in Anime’s Media Mix (2012), a marketing practice of releasing
interconnected works for a wide range of media (manga, anime, movies, etc.) and commodity
types, generally through the promotion of a main character (kyara) and an attractive fictional
world (sekai). From their introduction in this media environment at the beginning of the 1980s,
Japanese video games have been increasingly getting both integrated and shaped by this system
while still being understudied in regard to the ways in which its different modes of production
and distribution affect gamers (not only in the actual play activity, but also in their consumption
modes and cultural practices), and games’ content.
After introducing the media mix in relationship with video games, the author will contextualize
the success of two significant video game consoles in Japan during the 1980s, the Nintendo’s
Family Computer (Famicom) and the NEC/Hudson Soft’s PC Engine. These platforms werehighly successful in their use of media mix marketing strategies. It will be argued that theintegration of video games in the media mix environment has climaxed on the Famicom and PCEngine platforms with the works of companies such as Bandai (Kinnikuman Muscle Tag Match,
1985, Famicom Jump Eiyuu Retsuden, 1989), Hudson Soft (Cobra, 1989-1991; Tengai Makyo[Far East of Eden, 1989-1993]), Telenet Japan (Valis, 1989-1992; Mirai Shonen Conan [FutureBoy Conan, 1992]), and NCS (Ranma ½, 1990-1992; Cyber City OEDO 808, 1991). To
understand these implications, the author will examine how these games, integrated and shapedby the media mix system, participated to the transformation of modes of production anddistribution of video games in Japan, especially by being adapted from popular anime andmanga, but also in creating new attractive worlds and characters to enticing “narrativeconsumption” (Ōtsuka and Steinberg 2010). Consequently, these strategies affected Japanesegamers, particularly in their consumption practices, for example in trying to embrace the whole
universe of a franchise by grasping each of its parts (animated movies and series, comics, tie-ins,etc.) or by collecting figures of their favorite characters in dedicated stores (Galbraith 2010).
Synchronously, it altered games’ content by favoring content that appealed to fans of anime,movies (with cut-scenes), and mature content.
References
Galbraith, Patrick W. 2010. “Akihabara: Conditioning a Public ‘Otaku’ Image.” Mechademia 5(1): 210–230.
Jenkins, Henry. 2008. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York,N.Y., [etc.]; New York Universtiy Press.

Ōtsuka, Eiji, and Marc Steinberg. 2010. “World and Variation: The Reproduction andConsumption of Narrative.” Mechademia 5 (1): 99–116.
Steinberg, Marc. 2012. Anime’s Media Mix: Franchising Toys and Characters in Japan.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

History of Video Game Industry: Activity Room D, 2:00-3:30
4.2 – Comparative Case Studies in Emerging of the Digital Game Platforms in North America
NAKAMURA, Akinori and Devin Monnens
This study attempts to clarify the initial formation of the North American digital game industry
from a business management studies perspective by examining various corporate materials
published from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. This paper will compare and analyze thebusiness strategies surrounding Atari’s Video Computer System, later known as the Atari 2600
(henceforth, VCS), and the Nintendo Entertainment System (henceforth, NES).
This study attempts to investigate the concept of “platform.” One of the notable studies inregards to pursuing this concept is the Platform Studies series by MIT Press. In fact, this series
had already dedicated entire volumes to the VCS and NES—the main subjects of the present
comparative analysis. This series aims at “the investigation of underlying computing systems andhow they enable, constrain, shape and support the creative work that is done on them” (The MITPress). This present scrutiny, however, is conducted particularly from the perspective of thesustainability of business operations of both the platform holders and third party developers,
rather than an examination of how the technological constraints of the platform affected thedesign of software products. Such examinations may be able to unravel the reasons behind theprolonged existence of dedicated game platforms despite the continuous evolution anddevelopment of personal computers—which enable more generic and broader platforms fordigital software.
In order to examine the differences between the VCS and NES as platforms, multiple qualitative
case analyses have been conducted. The summary of the results indicate that while Atari tendedto either be resistive or reactive in their relationship with third parties for the VCS, Nintendo ofAmerica (NOA) positioned third parties strategically at the launch of the NES, providing thoseinterested in supplying their products with clear rules and expectations. It also becomes evident
that while certain rules and regulations imposed by NOA on the third parties might have limited
the creativity of potential software producers, NOA also supported products from third parties by
educating vendors at various stores about third party products, which was particularly important,as at that time, most of these companies, such as Capcom, Enix, Konami, and Square, wereunknown to customers. Simultaneously, such imposing rules resulted in the establishment ofcompeting platforms, which in turn presented a different type of offer to third party developers.
These findings reveal that in order to ensure the longevity of a platform, the corporation
developing that platform must focus not only on the software products produced for that
platform, but also on the relationships between their third parties, retailers, and users. rHowever,various limitations apply to the present study. First, little information is available for sales
figures and other quantifiable data, in particular precise weekly sales figures. This limits scholars
from examining the network effect of the subject platforms. The present study also compares thebusiness systems of each platform rather than the platform developer’s leadership style and its
effect on company operations or the role of quality software titles on the penetration of theplatform. This does not, however, imply these elements have no effect on the performance of agiven platform. Rather, these variables may need to be examined together to further clarify how
a firm can sustain and extend its platform in the most optimal manner.

Work Cited
The MIT Press (https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/series/platform-studies) Retrieved Jan 31, 2017
平野敦士・カール・アンドレイ・ハギウ 2011『プラットフォーム戦略』東京:東洋経済新報社