Die Ludonarrative Architektur von Computerspielen. Eine Untersuchung von Survival-Computerspielen aus Perspektive des Game Designs
Authors: Mosel Michael 
Published: June 2024

The aim of the dissertation is to make game design patterns accessible for analysis in the field of media culture studies. Game design patterns or game architectures as analytical tools are contrasted with the chronically fuzzy genre concept of game studies. In the context of this work, they serve as a precise and fine-meshed description of the gameplay of computer games. It is argued that game design patterns are better suited to genre classification than game mechanics, which remain an underdeveloped category in the genre theories of computer game research. Certain formations of game design patterns can be summarized into groups that are stable across several individual titles and can be referred to as game architecture with Jonathan Lessard. A further aim of the work is an interdisciplinary linking of game studies approaches, which are primarily characterized by media culture and literary studies, with the practical methods and models of game design. At the beginning of the thesis, the structure, methodology and corpus of the dissertation are presented. A short working definition of survival computer games and a brief differentiation from survival horror games and similar theoretical positions is given. This is followed by a research overview of the genre debate within game studies and a brief overview of characteristics that are often used to typify computer games. Next is a chapter that describes in detail how genres can be viewed from a design perspective and introduces the concepts of game design patterns and game architectures and develops them as analytical tools. It argues that existing genre theories cannot adequately describe the gameplay of game mechanics. Furthermore, approaches from media culture studies and design theory are brought together here by relating and comparing the concepts of game architecture and genre. The relationship between game design patterns and formal-aesthetic and thematic characteristics is also examined in more detail. Based on this, an analysis of the game DayZ (2012) is carried out, which is regarded as a prototype for survival computer games in the context of the dissertation. As a necessary preliminary work, the concept of realism is brought into focus and made usable for the analysis of computer games. In particular, the problems of the concept of realism are discussed and the degree of abstraction of simulations is explained. It is argued that computer games are considered plausible if they avoid ostranenie and are thematically consistent. Using DayZ as an example, the model of ludonarrative architecture for survival computer games is then developed, which is characterized by the fact that on the one hand it establishes the game architecture of the game and on the other hand is also dedicated to the stylized simulation of survival as well as prominent aesthetic and narrative features. This is followed by three detailed analyses of the games StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty (2010), Left 4 Dead (2008) and Frostpunk (2018), whose respective ludonarrative architectures are set up and compared with that of DayZ. The thesis concludes with a conclusion that summarizes the results of the previous chapters and discusses the case studies once again. It also critically discusses methodological problems in conducting the study as well as game design patterns in general and provides an outlook for further research.