Gamestudies.org http://gamestudies.org The international journal of computer game research Michael Burden, Sean Gouglas The Algorithmic Experience: Portal as Art http://gamestudies.org/1202/articles/the_algorithmic_experience Art requires criticism. Portal transcends videogame tropes: it explores the human struggle against algorithmic processes through complex parallels between the player, Chell, the companion cube, and GLaDOS. Increasingly complex frustrations are experienced directly through the game’s aesthetic of play - a freedom bounded by algorithmic control. Sara Mosberg Iversen In the Double Grip of the Game: Challenge and <i>Fallout 3</i>  http://gamestudies.org/1202/articles/in_the_double_grip_of_the_game A broad notion of challenge, conceptualized as both demanding and stimulating situations, is here proposed as a basis for holistic analysis of digital games which takes both the games’ mechanic and semiotic dimensions into equal account. The offered framework is demonstrated through application in an analysis of Fallout 3. Olli Tapio Leino Death Loop as a Feature http://gamestudies.org/1202/articles/death_loop_as_a_feature This essay is a critical examination of the paradigmatic approach of interpreting computer games as games accessible for analysis and critique through 'research-play'. The essay justifies a differentiation between game design research and game studies, and explores the avenues of analysis and critique of single-player computer games for the latter. Sean Targett, Victoria Verlysdonk, Howard J. Hamilton, Daryl Hepting A Study of User Interface Modifications in World of Warcraft http://gamestudies.org/1202/articles/ui_mod_in_wow This paper studies the effect that user created interfaces have had on WoW and its community of users through an online survey issued to WoW players. The survey results illustrate the varied nature of this community and provide information that may aid in the creation of communities dedicated to modifying the interfaces of other software packages Staffan Björk Best Before: The Red Queen Dilemma of Preserving Video Games? http://gamestudies.org/1202/articles/bjork_book_review Best Before: videogames, supersession and obsolescence. James Newman, 2012. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, New York. ISBN-13: 9780415577915 David Myers Circles tend to return http://gamestudies.org/1202/articles/myers_book_review The magic circle: Principles of gaming & simulation. Jan H. G. Klabbers, 2009. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers. ISBN: 978908790 0076 Torill Mortensen Forever a moral subject http://gamestudies.org/1202/articles/mortensen_book_review The Ethics of Computer Games. Miguel Sicart, 2009. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. ISBN-13: 9780262012652