The Procedural in Games Journalism
An analysis of journalistic approaches to procedural content generation
Abstract
In this paper, we sought to analyze how Brazilian journalists specializing in the coverage of the games industry approached procedural content generation, a technique that can be applied by game developers using algorithms and predefined rules to create content with little or no human intervention. Using Bardin's (1977) content analysis as a methodology, we examined news articles published in Brazilian media outlets. As a result, we identified three main themes that were present in the journalists' approaches: procedural content generation as a tool to create unique experiences, as a promotional resource, and as a technique used to generate content and games that were infinite.
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