The book review presents the main issues raised in Salomé Voegelin's latest book, Uncurating sound. Knowledge with Voice and Hands, which continues the project of sound philosophy initiated in Listening to Noise and Silence and continued in subsequent book publications. The author of the article presents the questions of the politics of listening and possible sound worlds from Voegelin's works. From her perspective, the book under review emphasizes the need to transform art institutions into caring spaces, critically analyzes contemporary art, argues for the necessity of going beyond institutional frameworks, and postulates the restructuring of both sound knowledge and art institutions, especially in the face of new challenges such as pandemic and postnormality.
This paper introduces a framework for integrating gamification principles into production management education and production via commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software. It synthesizes multidisciplinary insights from management science (logistics), psychology, and computer science to demonstrate how gamified interactions can effectively represent complex management concepts such as lean manufacturing, workflow optimization, TOC, and resource allocation. The framework emphasizes factors like motivation, engagement, and cognitive retention, as well as computational considerations, realistic simulation, adaptive feedback, and comparisons to mathematically optimal solutions. The goal of the study is to outline these games can be repurposed as effective, low-barrier and relatively low-cost tools for teaching complex production systems and developing practical decision-making skills in both academic and professional settings.
This paper presents a conceptual approach for integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into the mechanics of narrative-based educational games. Drawing on theoretical analysis and a comprehensive literature review, the proposed model emphasizes the use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to personalize game worlds, adapt storylines dynamically, and simulate the consequences of players' moral decisions. Rather than offering static scenarios, the system enables real-time narrative adaptation based on decision patterns and player profiles, promoting deeper engagement and ethical reflection. The core contribution lies in demonstrating how AI can support the development of critical thinking and moral sensitivity through interactive storytelling. The proposed solutions may inform the design of educational games and training environments that foster moral development in a socially responsible and pedagogically grounded manner.
Orcs Must Die! (Robot Entertainment, 2011-2025) Franchise presents interesting solutions to design challenges in combining the Tower Defense game genre, which traditionally uses a top-down perspective and long and short-term management of resources and defenses, with a 3rd person control scheme and a focus on individual interactions with enemies. This paper outlines mechanics and design principles core to the Tower Defense genre, and examines their modified and unaltered forms that exist in the Orcs Must Die! Games. These mechanics will be then compared to other similar games, as well as more traditional Tower Defense games. Critical examination of these design decisions is crucial in empowering game developers with useful insides into mixing genres, especially when making similar games.
This paper will analyze a selection of artistic works that deal with the topic of HIV/AIDS and women to determine how art has provided responses to specific issues, from a gendered perspective, which have remained marginal within the global context of studies on the epidemic from an artistic point of view. The objective is to study the specific characteristics of these manifestations and their social and artistic impact. The study of HIV/AIDS and women also involves reflecting on the position of women in contemporary society, which is the basis for many of the works that address this subject and use public spaces to openly condemn the issues that make women more vulnerable to HIV infection. Moreover, a review of these works of art and initiatives entails an engagement with art of recent decades which, both from conceptual and technical standpoints, proves inseparable from the significant scientific advances that have taken place. The methodology implemented focuses on a qualitative study with an interpretative approach, through a multiple-case study strategy. Two frameworks were established for selection. A temporal framework limits the study to practices developed in the 1990, and a geographical framework identifies Spain and South Africa as principal areas of focus. The main findings indicate that women face a dual vulnerability, derived from both biological and social factors, and that the art of the 1990s represented a turning point regarding three fundamental issues. First, artistic activism emerged that fostered and brought to public attention the necessity of addressing a gendered perspective in relation to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Secondly, the proposals of South African artists highlighted the unequal impact of the epidemic, and finally, the artistic practices developed in Spain advocated for active social engagement, with strategies inherited from the mass media that mobilize the political positioning of the social and civic fabric in response to the virus.
This study examines collaboration between museums and video game developers through value co-creation processes, identifying factors that support and limit cross-sector partnerships. Using a mixed-method approach combining literature review with case study analysis of the game "Numiares-A Dark Tale," the research reveals significant tensions between museums' authenticity priorities and developers' entertainment focus. The study finds that museums possess vast untapped potential, with archaeological collections offering cultural artifacts that could enhance game credibility and historical accuracy. Key barriers include institutional isolationism, digital immaturity, and intellectual property concerns. The research develops an open innovation model for creative partnerships, demonstrating how museums can commercialize knowledge while maintaining educational integrity. With gaming reaching 41% of the global population, this collaboration represents a critical pathway for cultural institutions to engage digital audiences and strengthen institutional sustainability. The findings provide practical recommendations for building museum-developer partnerships and contribute to understanding digital transformation in cultural heritage management.
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In 2022, a group of 10 international researchers spanning nine countries published an article on the assessment of a Persian version of an interpersonal mindfulness scale (IMS). That article, published in Frontiers in Psychiatry, was retracted on 4 September 2023. The retraction notice cites, as its main factor, abusive authorship practices that have the hallmarks of paper mill engagement. This study aimed to appreciate the literature that has cited that retracted paper. Two years after its retraction, by 1 September 2025, that article has already accumulated 37 citations, according to Google Scholar, Scopus and Web of Science, search International and Springer Nature's Language Testing in Asia. These journals cited the retracted article 13 and 5 times, respectively. This paper, while recording the literature that has cited that retracted article, notes that IMS researchers need to be mindful of the literature they cite and rely upon.
Bury Me, MyLove (2017, Playdius Entertainment) is an intriguing project addressing a significant social issue: the phenomenon of displacement and refugees. This game serves as an example to illustrate the potential of digital games as a medium for commenting on and interpreting existing realities, showcasing their critical, educational, and even transformative value-concepts collectively described as "social impact gaming". This game, along with other titles mentioned in the article, represents a production that is relatively simple to implement: inexpensive, straightforward, and not demanding in terms of hardware requirements. Yet it simultaneously offers insights into the mechanisms underlying the emergence of significant social issues, thereby holding an advantage over both AAA games and traditional media. A detailed examination of specific elements of this game (case study) will help identify possible strategies for its application in contexts beyond entertainment, which is a critical aspect of "social impact gaming".
The plot of the expansion to Elden Ring, titled Shadow of the Erdtree, extensively uses the central symbol of Christianity, which is the cross, and also the crusade derived from it. This article describes how the creators of the game and its expansion, the Japanese studio FromSoftware, approached these two terms, transferring them to a fictional fantasy world. The game developers explicitly demonstrated one crusade, which gave rise to the plot of the expansion, and this demonstration can serve as an artistic and at the same time critical commentary on the factual Crusades. But implicitly, the developers also described the second crusade, and not so much described it as allowed the player to take part in it. And this procedure may affect the interpretation of a game. Depending on the player's approach, it can serve as a personal complement to a scathing commentary on actual Christian military campaigns, or simply as an entertaining realization of poetic visions of medieval journeys to the Holy Land.
Purpose: Traditional cognitive tasks isolate cognitive parameters but miss how cognition naturally operates. I argue that games can be used to study cognition as it unfolds in ecological settings. Methodology: Drawing from predictive coding and embodied cognition, I show that the very embodiment in the brain also works with tools and virtual tools. An avatar in a game is treated by the brain as a body part, such as a hand. Given this insight, I derive five design principles for games to reinstate ecological settings in virtual worlds: autonomous goal pursuit, embodied avatar control, consistent rules, continuous temporal flow, and complex environments. Results: Commercial games unintentionally include classic cognitive paradigms: racing games demand continuous visuomotor control that can't be accomplished through discrete trials; FIFA leverages executive functions beyond traditional working memory assessments. Main Contribution: Given findings of body schema and peripersonal spaces, and embodied mind and predictive coding frameworks, I provide methodological guidance for behavioural, physiological, and neural measurements during gameplay, offering researchers tools to assess cognition while preserving experimental rigour. Practical Implications: Beyond novel experimental designs that allow for the exploration of unaddressed neural processes, adopting ecological games has the potential to aid neurodegenerative and neurodiverse conditions.
This article examines the educational potential of digital games through a case study of This War of Mine in the Polish institutional context. The analysis argues that game mechanics, interpreted within the framework of procedural rhetoric, generate experiences of didactic value by fostering empathy, critical reflection, and civic awareness. Methodologically, the study combines a genological perspective with selected analytical tools of game design theory, focusing on how rules, challenges, and fairness shape the player's experience. In addition, the article presents three original lesson plans for Polish language and literature, civics, and ethics, developed by the authors, which illustrate how the game can be effectively integrated into interdisciplinary teaching. The findings emphasize both the unique potential of digital games to support humanistic and civic education and the challenges of implementation, including digital exclusion, institutional constraints, and the necessity of careful pedagogical planning.
The development of immersive digital environments has become a significant direction in contemporary information technologies, with the metaverse emerging as a key framework for integrating social interaction and commercial activity within interconnected virtual spaces. This study examines the role of metaverse-based environments in marketing communication and brand management, focusing on how immersive platforms are used to structure consumer engagement and brand experience. Drawing on an analysis of academic literature, industry reports and selected case studies, the article compares global patterns of metaverse adoption with practices observed among Polish brands operating on platforms such as Roblox and Fortnite. The findings indicate that while global implementations increasingly integrate experiential, transactional and data-driven mechanisms, Polish initiatives remain primarily engagement-oriented and exploratory. The analysis highlights key determinants shaping effective metaverse-based brand strategies and identifies structural, organizational and regulatory factors limiting wider adoption in the Polish market.
Established game design frameworks, often adapted from linear engineering disciplines, are fundamentally misaligned with the non-linear, unpredictable, and collaborative reality of game development. This paper diagnoses this misalignment by framing game design as a "wicked problem," a class of challenges that resist traditional, top-down planning. It argues that a more robust foundation can be found in the principles of second-order cybernetics. The paper's contribution is not a rigid new framework, but a foundational rubric of five core principles intended to guide the creation of future design tools. These principles: Systemic Legibility, Emergence Cultivation, Conversational Framing, Authorial Intent as a First-Class Constraint, and Designing for the Player-as-System. Aimed at changing the conceptual understanding of a designer's role from a director of experience to a cultivator of a possibility space. By introducing design concepts rooted in cybernetics and systems thinking, this paper lays the theoretical groundwork for tools that can better support the discovery-driven and emergent nature of game design.
This article argues that the origins of self-awareness are fundamentally embodied and intersubjective, rooted in the infant's earliest tactile encounters with the caregiver. While relational accounts of early self-awareness often highlight mutual gaze or vocal engagement, this paper foregrounds affective touch as the developmentally primary modality through which infants first experience both themselves and others. Drawing on Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology, attachment theory, and recent research on affective touch, the paper proposes that pre-reflective bodily self-awareness emerges within proximal, emotionally attuned dyadic interactions. Affective touch-slow, gentle contact that activates Ctactile afferents and interoceptive pathways-provides the infant with a dual experience: the sensing of the caregiver's bodily presence and the felt modulation of her own internal state. This integration of exteroceptive and interoceptive information supports the emergence of bodily boundaries and early selfother differentiation. Simultaneously, affective touch promotes attachment, emotional regulation, and physiological homeostasis, drawing the infant into sustained social exchanges that scaffold more complex interpersonal capacities. The paper argues that tactile attunement precedes and grounds more elaborated forms of intersubjectivity, particularly those studied through visual joint attention. Before infants can share a visual perspective on external objects, they engage in tactile interactions in which their own body becomes an object of the caregiver's attention and responsiveness. Such experiences support an early "we-experience," a minimal, pre-reflective form of relatedness in which the infant begins to register both the caregiver's subjectivity and her own bodily presence for the other. The article concludes that disruptions in early tactile caregiving can affect how individuals come to inhabit and interpret their bodily states later in life, reinforcing the claim that bodily self-awareness remains relational at its core.
The author comments on Witold Marz & eogon;da's article "Artificial Poetry, or the Shameful Secret of Poetic Bots," and wonders whether artificial intelligence can also write tragedies that preserve its functions and effectiveness.
The author undertakes an interpretation of two mediated soundscapes. The first is a recording by Tomasz Pizio of a women's protest on October 24, 2020, outside the Archcathedral of Christ the King in Katowice (in response to the Constitutional Tribunal's ruling of October 22, 2020), entitled Women's Hell. The second is Xochitl Gonzalez's essay WhyDo Rich People Love Quiet? devoted to the class dimension of the soundscapes of the Ivy League and Brooklyn. Both examples were used by the author in her theoretical reflections on the political possibility of sound, a concept she borrowed from the philosophy of Salom & eacute; Voegelin, widely referenced in the article, and the source book Violence and Civility by Etienn & eacute; Balibar. The aim of the article is to demonstrate the critical potential of engaged sound studies, which understands the listener as a subject of politics.
