Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Organization2 reports
2 reports, presentations and talks by Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Game Industry Library, the newest “Cursed: A Ludic Genealogy of the Myth of El Dorado” (2024).
Documents
Whitepaper4 pages
Cursed: A Ludic Genealogy of the Myth of El Dorado
This paper offers a critical genealogy of the El Dorado myth as it has been remediated across board and video games, drawing on Foucault's approach to history as a series of interpretations shaped by power.
- The paper applies Foucault's view of history as power-shaped interpretation, using interaction criticism to trace how the El Dorado legend was reshaped by Spanish and Indigenous storytellers and later by contemporary tomb-raiding games.
- Close readings of The Quest for El Dorado and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune argue that games carry forward colonial assumptions, presenting El Dorado as a winnable city of gold and framing Western actors as heroes despite appearing to be neutral entertainment.
- The board game is criticized for casting predominantly White expert characters and for treating Colombia's sovereignty as irrelevant to the expedition's claim on the riches.
DiGRASep 2024
Whitepaper3 pages
Playing Disney: Experience and Expression in the Land of Curation
T.L. Taylor's paper examines how regular, everyday visitors to Disney theme parks transform heavily curated commercial spaces into sites of playful agency, self-direction, and social experience.
- Regular Disney park visitors develop their own forms of play that operate alongside and sometimes against the commodified structure of the parks, raising the question of whether this constitutes meaningful agency or play captured within a media company's economic framework.
- The study is based on qualitative fieldwork at multiple Disney parks worldwide, supplemented by analysis of online forums, archives, and interviews with attendees, rather than quantitative measurement of visitor behavior.
- Once novelty fades for repeat visitors, play modes include commercially dependent activities such as pin trading and the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom card game, alongside no-cost activities like locating hidden Mickey designs.
Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyJan 2020