Game studies

Video game studies (Ludology) is the still-young field of analyzing video games from a social science or humanities perspective.

Early frameworks

Although departments of computer science have been studying video games from a functional perspective for years, the study of them in the humanities is still in its infancy. Computer science research aims to aid the making of video games. There was also a strand of research from psychologists, who tried to link violent games to violent behaviour in children. Early attempts were also made by Film Studies to bring video games into their academic field, but these were not successful.

Video game Studies is different; it attempts to understand video games, players, and the complex interactions between them. It also takes into account the wider cultural influences on games and gamers.

Ludology and narratology

Like most academic fields, those who study video games often have differing approaches. While scholars use many different theoretical and research frameworks, the two most visible approaches are ludology and narratology.

The term ludology arose within the context of non-electronic games and board games in particular, but gained popularity after it was featured in an article by Gonzalo Frasca in 1999. The name, however, has not yet caught on fully. Major issues being grappled with in the field are questions of narrative and of simulation, and whether or not video games are either, neither, or both.

The narrativists approach video games in the context of what Janet Murray calls "Cyberdrama." That is to say, their major concern is with video games as a storytelling medium, one that arises out of interactive fiction. Murray puts video games in the context of the Holodeck, a fictional piece of technology from Star Trek, arguing for the video game as a medium in which we get to become another person, and to act out in another world. This image of video games certainly received early widespread popular support, and forms the basis of films such as Tron, eXistenZ, and The Last Starfighter. But it is also criticized by many academics (such as Espen J. Aarseth) for being better suited to some linear science fiction movies than to analysis of interactive video games with multiple narratives.

The narrativist approach can also be found in the works of Lev Manovich, as well as in the works of Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin, which deal more with the concept of new media in general, and its historical roots than with video games as such. But these authors still fundamentally approach video games as 'a text that can be read' - much like a book, poem, or film, and as a media form that has many of the same elements.

The ludologists break sharply and radically from this. Their perspective is that a video game is first and foremost just that, a game, and that it needs to be understood in terms of its rules, interface, and in terms of the concept of play. Ludologists such as Espen J. Aarseth argue that, although games certainly have plots, characters, and aspects of traditional narratives, these aspects are incidental to gameplay. In one essay, he memorably claims that "the dimensions of Lara Croft's body, already analyzed to death by film theorists, are irrelevant to me as a player, because a different-looking body would not make me play differently... When I play, I don't even see her body, but see through it and past it." Stuart Moulthrop, another ludologist, takes a slightly more moderate perspective, arguing that one cannot completely divorce games from their social context, but still fundamentally arguing that games are not narratives in any meaningful sense.

In another opinion, the dualism of a strict division between ludology-narratology is quite artificial. Ludology does not exclude the so-called "narratology" approach.

One can say that some narrativist approaches were useful when examining early strongly narrative-like games such as Zork, Return to Zork, and Myst - but video games have now developed far beyond those early models. One can also point to the way that narrativist approaches may have something to say about where "big world" games have come from historically; immense game-worlds do seem to have roots in narrative pulp and popular fiction (Lord of the Rings, etc) and fantasy film epics (Star Wars trilogy, etc).

Emerging forms

The intersection of emerging film and videogame forms is explored further by Matt Hanson in the book, The End of Celluloid (2004) with chapters dealing with First Person Documentaries (derived from the first-person shooter gaming genre), avatars, synthespians, capsule narratives, and machinima. As large multi-user virtual worlds such as Second Life and World of Warcraft become more common and popular, and as their economies develop, a sound academic understanding of them will be increasingly useful. There is also some interest in the area of social stratification within the gaming community as exhibited by the research projects of Shawn Hoskins, a student at Eureka Colege.

The pre-history of video games

There is now also an emerging field of study (Oliver Grau, 2004, and others) that looks at the "pre-history" of video games, and at the branch of their roots that lie in: fairground attractions and sideshows such as shooting games; early "Coney Island"-style pleasure parks with elements such as large roller-coasters and "haunted house" simulations; 19th century landscape simulations such as dioramas, panoramas, planetariums, and sterographs; and amusement arcades that had mechanical game machines and also peep-show film machines.

See also

• Center for Computer Games Research
• List of books on computer and video games
• Ludography
• Simulated reality

External links

• Gamestudies.org: an online academic journal about video games.
• Videogameology.com: Or "Ludology" for the rest of us.
• PlasmaFire.org How science is used in the design and play of modern video games. User-published informal reports and a discussion forum are some of the foci of this site.
• Ludology.org: online discussion of ludology.
• TheLudologist.com: Ludology, and other video game related articles.
• Gameology.org: commentary and resources for the game studies community.
• Buzzcut.com: critical videogame theory.
• EternalGamer.com: exploring games through philosophy, theory, and criticism.
• Digital Game Research Association
• Joystick101.org: online gaming and education site sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
• Grand Text Auto: about machine narrative, games, poetry, and art.
• Terra Nova: online discussion about virtual worlds.
• Games * Design * Art * Culture
• The Ludologist: Blog on computer game studies.
• Ludonauts: exploring ludic media
• Association for Applied Interactive Multimedia: Software and Game Techniques to Enhance Teaching and Learning
• .brain Critical videogame theory and ludology.
• Sirlin.net Videogame theory site focusing on competitive gaming.
• Thoughts from the Ludologist Blog Chronicling a student's attempts to Bring Ludology to his campus as a Major.
• Ludologica: blog on game studies]
• GamesSound.com - site with studies and resources for educators all dealing with game audio.
• Gamecultura: GameCulture: The Videogame as Culture. (in brazilian portuguese language, with auto-translation)

Further reading

• Aarseth, Espen J. (1997). Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-5579-9.
• Balkin, Jack M. (2006). The State of Play: Law, Games, and Virtual Worlds. New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-9971-0. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Bogost, Ian (2006). Unit Operations: an Approach to Videogame Criticism. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-02599-7.
• Bolter, Jay David (2000). Remediation: Understanding New Media. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-52279-3. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Galloway, Alexander R. (2006). Gaming:Essays on Algorithmic Culture. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 9780816648504.
• Grau, Oliver (2004). Virtual Art. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-57223-1.
• Grau, Oliver (ed.) (2007). MediaArtHistories. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-07279-3. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)
• Hanson, Matt (2004). The End of Celluloid: Film futures in the digital age. Rotovision,. ISBN 2-88046-783-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
• Harrigan, Pat and (2007). Second Person: Role-Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-08356-0. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Juul, Jesper (July 2001). "Games Telling Stories: A brief note on games & Narratives". Games Studies. 1 (1).
• Juul, Jesper (2006). Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-10110-3.
• King, Brad (2003). Dungeons and Dreamers: The Rise of Computer Game Culture from Geek to Chic. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-222888-1. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Manovich, Lev (2001). The Language of New Media. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-63255-3.
• Newman, James (2004). Videogames. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-28192-X.
• Ryan, Marie-Laure (2001). Narrative as Virtual Reality. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-6487-9.
• Salen, Katie (2003). Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-24045-9. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Salen, Katie (2005). The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-19536-2. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Wardrip-Fruin, Noah (2004). First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game'. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-73175-1. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Wolf, Mark J.P. (2003). The Video Game Theory Reader. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-96579-9. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Wolf, Mark J.P (2003). The Medium of the Video Game. University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-79150-X.