Game studies, also known as ludology (from ''ludus'', "game", and ''-logia'', "study", "research"), is the study of games, the act of playing them, and the players and cultures surrounding them. It is a field of
cultural studies that deals with all types of games throughout history. This field of research utilizes the tactics of, at least,
folkloristics
Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...
and cultural heritage,
sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...
and
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...
, while examining aspects of the
design of the game, the players in the game, and the role the game plays in its society or culture. Game studies is oftentimes confused with the study of
video games
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedbac ...
, but this is only one area of focus; in reality game studies encompasses all types of gaming, including
sport
Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...
s,
board game
Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well.
Many board games feature a co ...
s, etc.
Before video games, game studies was rooted primarily in anthropology. However, with the development and spread of video games, games studies has diversified methodologically, to include approaches from sociology, psychology, and other fields.
There are now a number of strands within game studies: "
social science
Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of so ...
" approaches explore how games function in society, and their interactions with human psychology, often using empirical methods such as surveys and controlled lab experiments. "
Humanities
Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...
-based" approaches emphasise how games generate meanings and reflect or subvert wider social and cultural discourses. These often use more interpretative methods, such as
close reading
In literary criticism, close reading is the careful, sustained interpretation of a brief passage of a text. A close reading emphasizes the single and the particular over the general, effected by close attention to individual words, the syntax, ...
,
textual analysis
Content analysis is the study of documents and communication artifacts, which might be texts of various formats, pictures, audio or video. Social scientists use content analysis to examine patterns in communication in a replicable and systematic ...
, and
audience theory Audience theory offers explanations of how people encounter media, how they use it, and how it affects them. Although the concept of an audience predates media, most audience theory is concerned with people’s relationship to various forms of medi ...
, methods shared with other media disciplines such as
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
and
film studies
Film studies is an academic discipline that deals with various theoretical, historical, and critical approaches to cinema as an art form and a medium. It is sometimes subsumed within media studies and is often compared to television studies.
...
. Social sciences and humanities approaches can cross over, for example in the case of ethnographic or folkloristic studies, where fieldwork may involve patiently observing games to try to understand their social and cultural meanings. "
Game design
Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in ...
" approaches are closely related to creative practice, analysing game mechanics and aesthetics in order to inform the development of new games. Finally, "industrial" and "engineering" approaches apply mostly to video games and less to games in general, and examine things such as computer graphics, artificial intelligence, and networking.
History
It was not until
Irving Finkel
Irving Leonard Finkel (born 1951) is a British philologist and Assyriologist. He is the Assistant Keeper of Ancient Mesopotamian script, languages and cultures in the Department of the Middle East in the British Museum, where he specialises in c ...
organized a colloquium in 1990 that grew into the
International Board Game Studies Association
The International Board Game Studies Association (IBGSA) is an academic professional association "devoted to the history and development of board games throughout the world". The IBGSA sponsors an annual scholarly conference, the BGSA Colloquium, a ...
,
Gonzalo Frasca Gonzalo Frasca (born 1972) is a game designer and academic researcher focusing on serious and political videogames. His blog, Ludology.org, was cited by NBC News as a popular designation for academic researchers studying video games (see ludology fo ...
popularized the term "ludology" (from the Latin word for game, ''ludus'') in 1999, the publication of the first issues of academic journals like ''Board Game Studies'' in 1998 and ''Game Studies'' in 2001, and the creation of the
Digital Games Research Association
Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) is a nonprofit international learned society whose work focuses on game studies and associated activities. DiGRA was formally established in 2003 in Finland. It is a leading academic organization in th ...
in 2003, that scholars began to get the sense that the study of games could (and should) be considered a field in its own right. As a young field, it gathers scholars from different disciplines that had been broadly studying games, such as psychology, anthropology, economy, education, and sociology. The earliest known use of the term "ludology" occurred in 1982, in
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Mihaly Robert Csikszentmihalyi (, hu, Csíkszentmihályi Mihály Róbert, ; 29 September 1934 – 20 October 2021) was a Hungarian-American psychologist. He recognized and named the psychological concept of "flow", a highly focused mental ...
's "Does Being Human Matter – On Some Interpretive Problems of Comparative Ludology."
Social science
One of the earliest social science theories (1971) about the role of video games in society involved
violence
Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened ...
in video games, later becoming known as the catharsis theory. The theory suggests that playing video games in which you perform violent acts might actually channel latent aggression, resulting in less aggression in the players real lives. However, a
meta-study
A meta-analysis is a statistical analysis that combines the results of multiple scientific studies. Meta-analyses can be performed when there are multiple scientific studies addressing the same question, with each individual study reporting me ...
performed by Craig A. Anderson and Brad J. Bushman, in 2001, examined data starting from the 1980s up until the article was published. The purpose of this study was to examine whether or not playing violent video games led to an increase in aggressive behaviors. They concluded that exposure to violence in video games did indeed cause an increase in aggression. However, it has been pointed out, and even stressed, by psychologist Jonathan Freedman that this research was very limited and even problematic since overly strong claims were made and the authors themselves seemed extremely biased in their writings. More recent studies, such as the one performed by Christopher J. Ferguson at
Texas A&M International University
Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) is a public university in Laredo, Texas. It is part of the Texas A&M University System and home to over 8,500 students each academic semester. TAMIU offers over 70 undergraduate and graduate degrees in f ...
have come to drastically different conclusions. In this study, individuals were either randomly assigned a game, or allowed to choose a game, in both the randomized and the choice conditions exposure to violent video games caused no difference in aggression. A later study (performed by the same people) looked for correlations between trait aggression, violent crimes, and exposure to both real life violence and violence in video games, this study suggests that while family violence and trait aggression are highly correlated with violent crime, exposure to video game violence was not a good predictor of violent crime, having little to no correlation, unless also paired with the above traits that had a much higher correlation. Over the past 15 years, a large number of
meta-studies have been applied to this issue, each coming to its own conclusion, resulting in little consensus in the ludology community. It is also thought that even nonviolent video games may lead to aggressive and violent behaviour. Anderson and Dill seem to believe that it may be due to the frustration of playing video games that could in turn result in violent, aggressive behaviour.
Game designers
Amy Jo Kim
Amy is a female given name, sometimes short for Amanda, Amelia, Amélie, or Amita. In French, the name is spelled ''"Aimée"''.
People A–E
* Amy Acker (born 1976), American actress
* Amy Vera Ackman, also known as Mother Giovanni (1886–1 ...
and
Jane McGonigal
Jane McGonigal (born October 21, 1977) is an American author, game designer, and researcher. McGonigal advocates using mobile and digital technology to channel positive attitudes and collaboration in a real-world context.
Biography Early years ...
have suggested that platforms which leverage the powerful qualities of video games in non-game contexts can maximize learning.
Known as the
gamification of learning
The gamification of learning is an educational approach that seeks to motivate students by using video game design and game elements in learning environments. The goal is to maximize enjoyment and engagement by capturing the interest of learners a ...
, using game elements in non-game contexts extracts the properties of games from within the game context, and applies them to a learning context such as the classroom.
Another positive aspect of video games is its conducive character towards the involvement of a person in other cultural activities. The probability of game playing increases with the consumption of other cultural goods (e.g., listening to music or watching television) or active involvement in artistic activities (e.g., writing or visual arts production). Video games by being complementary towards more traditional forms of cultural consumption, inhibit thus value from a cultural perspective.
More sociologically-informed research has sought to move away from simplistic ideas of gaming as either 'negative' or 'positive', but rather seeking to understand its role and location in the complexities of everyday life.
For example, it has been suggested (Nina Fefferman) that the very popular MMO ''
World of Warcraft
''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. Set in the ''Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of Warcraft'' takes place within the world of Azeroth ...
'' could be used to study the dissemination of infectious diseases because of the
accidental spread of a
plague
Plague or The Plague may refer to:
Agriculture, fauna, and medicine
*Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis''
* An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural)
* A pandemic caused by such a disease
* A swarm of pe ...
-like disease in the gameworld.
"Ludology" vs "narratology"
A major focus in game studies is the debate surrounding
narratology
Narratology is the study of narrative and narrative structure and the ways that these affect human perception. It is an anglicisation of French ''narratologie'', coined by Tzvetan Todorov (''Grammaire du Décaméron'', 1969). Its theoretical li ...
and ludology. Many ludologists believe that the two are unable to exist together,
while others believe that the two fields are similar but should be studied separately. Many narratologists believe that games should be looked at for their stories, like movies or novels. The ludological perspective says that games are not like these other mediums due to the fact that a player is actively taking part in the experience and should therefore be understood on their own terms. The idea that a videogame is "radically different to narratives as a
cognitive and
communicative structure" has led the development of new approaches to criticism that are focused on videogames as well as adapting, repurposing and proposing new ways of studying and theorizing about videogames. A recent approach towards game studies starts with an analysis of interface structures and challenges the keyboard-mouse paradigm with what is called a "
ludic interface
A ludic interface is a type of computer interface. In the field of human–computer interaction (HCI), the term ludic Interfaces describes a discipline that focuses on user interfaces that are inherently "playful". This field of interface researc ...
".
Academics across both fields provide scholarly insight into the different sides of this debate. Gonzalo Frasca, a notable ludologist due to his many publications regarding game studies, argues that while games share many similar elements with narrative stories, that should not prevent games to be studied as games.
He seeks not "to replace the narratologic approach, but to complement it."
Jesper Juul, another notable ludologist, argues for a stricter separation of ludology and narratology. Juul argues that games "for all practicality ''can not'' tell stories."
This argument holds that narratology and ludology cannot exist together because they are inherently different. Juul claims that the most significant difference between the two is that in a narrative, events "have to" follow each other, whereas in a game the player has control over what happens.
Garry Crawford and Victoria K. Gosling argue in favor of narratives being an essential part of games as these will contribute to, and be informed by, a gamer's personal life and identity narratives. As they write "it is impossible to isolate play from the social influences of everyday life, and in turn, play will have both intended and unintended consequences for the individual and society."
Janet Murray, in support of the narratologist method of video game argues that "stories can be participatory." In this argument, Murray is linking the characteristics of video games to narratives to further her point that video games should be analyzed through narratology.
Michalis Kokonis argues in favor of Gonzalo Frasca's article entitled "Ludologists love stories too: notes from a debate that never took place," which aimed to list and explain the misunderstandings, mistakes, and prejudices surrounding the narratology vs. ludology debate. Kokonis noted that "endorsing
rasca'sconstructivist spirit we will have to agree that the so-called Narratology vs. Ludology Dilemma is a false one and that this debate will have to be resolved, as it is of no help to the cause of establishing Computer Games Study as an autonomous and independent academic field."
Other areas of research
As is common with most academic disciplines, there are a number of more specialized areas or sub-domains of study.
Video game pre-history
An emerging field of study looks at the "pre-history" of video games, suggesting that the origins of modern digital games lie in:
fairground attractions and
sideshow
In North America, a sideshow is an extra, secondary production associated with a circus, carnival, fair, or other such attraction.
Types
There are four main types of classic sideshow attractions:
*The Ten-in-One offers a program of ten ...
s such as shooting games; early "
Coney Island"-style pleasure parks with elements such as large
roller-coaster
A roller coaster, or rollercoaster, is a type of amusement ride that employs a form of elevated railroad track designed with tight turns, steep slopes, and sometimes inversions. Passengers ride along the track in open cars, and the rides are o ...
s and "
haunted house
A haunted house, spook house or ghost house in ghostlore is a house or other building often perceived as being inhabited by disembodied spirits of the deceased who may have been former residents or were otherwise connected with the prope ...
" simulations; nineteenth century landscape simulations such as
dioramas,
panoramas,
planetariums, and
stereographs; and
amusement arcades that had mechanical game machines and also
peep-show
A peep show or peepshow is a presentation of a live sex show or pornographic film which is viewed through a viewing slot.
Several historical media provided voyeuristic entertainment through hidden erotic imagery. Before the development of the c ...
film machines.
Games and aging
In light of
population ageing, there has been an interest into the use of games to improve the overall health and social connectedness of ageing players. For example,
Adam Gazzaley
Adam Gazzaley (born December 29, 1968) is an American neuroscientist, author, photographer, entrepreneur and inventor. He is the founder and executive director of Neuroscape and the David Dolby Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Physiology, a ...
and his team have designed
NeuroRacer (a game that improves cognitive tasks outside of the game among its 60+ year old participants), while the
AARP has organized a
game jam
A game jam is an event where participants try to make a video game from scratch. Depending on the format, participants might work independently, or in teams. The event duration usually ranges from 24 to 72 hours. Participants are generally program ...
to improve older people's social connections. Researchers such as Sarah Mosberg Iversen have argued that most of the academic work on games and ageing has been informed by notions of economical productivity, while
Bob De Schutter
Bob De Schutter is a Belgians, Belgian video game designer and researcher, who is the C. Michael Armstrong professor of Applied Game Design at Miami University (Oxford, Ohio). He is best known for his work on the design of video games for players i ...
and Vero Vanden Abeele have suggested a game design approach that is not focused on age-related decline but instead is rooted in the positive aspects of older age.
Virtual economies in gaming
Massive multiplayer online games can give economists clues about the real world. Markets based on digital information can be fully tracked as they are used by players, and thus real problems in the economy, such as inflation, deflation and even recession. The solutions the game designers come up with can therefore be studied with full information, and experiments can be performed where the economy can be studied as a whole. These games allow the economists to be omniscient, they can find every piece of information they need to study the economy, while in the real world they have to work with presumptions.
Former Finance Minister of Greece and Valve's in-house economist
Yanis Varoufakis
Ioannis "Yanis" Varoufakis ( el, Ιωάννης Γεωργίου "Γιάνης" Βαρουφάκης, Ioánnis Georgíou "Giánis" Varoufákis, ; born 24 March 1961) is a Greek economist and politician. A former academic, he served as the Gree ...
studied ''
EVE Online
''Eve Online'' (stylised ''EVE Online'') is a space-based, persistent world massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by CCP Games. Players of ''Eve Online'' can participate in a number of in-game profes ...
'' as a measure for the Greek economic recovery and argued that video game communities such as ''
Neopets
''Neopets'' is a virtual pet website. Users can own virtual pets ("Neopets") and buy virtual items for them using one of two virtual currencies. One currency, called Neopoints, can be earned within the site, and the other, Neocash, can eithe ...
'' and ''
Fortnite
''Fortnite'' is an online video game developed by Epic Games and released in 2017. It is available in three distinct game mode versions that otherwise share the same general gameplay and game engine: ''Fortnite Battle Royale'', a free-to- ...
'' give economists a venue for experimenting and simulating the economies of the future. Edward Castronova has studied virtual economies within a variety of games including Everquest and World of Warcraft.
Cognitive benefits
The psychological research into games has yielded theories on how playing video games may be advantageous for both children and for adults. Some theories claim that video games in fact help improve cognitive abilities rather than impede their development. These improvement theories include the improvement of visual contrast sensitivity.
Other developments include the ability to locate something specific among various impediments. This is primarily done in first-person shooter games where the protagonist must look at everything in a first person view while playing. By doing this they increase their spatial attention due to having to locate something among an area of diversions.
These games place the player in a high intensity environment where the player must remain observant of their surroundings in order to achieve their goal, e.g., shooting an enemy player, while impediments obstruct their gameplay in the virtual world.
Another cognitive enhancement provided by playing video games would be the improvement of brain functioning speed. This happens as the player is immersed in an unendingly changing environment where they are required to constantly think and problem solve while playing in order to do well in the game. This constant problem solving forces the brain to constantly run and so the speed of thought is sharpened greatly, because the need to think quickly is required to succeed.
The attention span of the player is also benefited. High action video games, such as fighting or racing games, require the user's constant attention and in the process the skill of concentration is sharpened.
The overcoming of the condition known as dyslexia is also considered an improvement due to the continuous utilization of controllers for the video games. This continuous process helps to train the users to overcome their condition which impedes in their abilities of interpretation.
The ability of hand-eye coordination is also improved thanks in part to video games, due to the need to operate the controller and view the screen displaying the content all at the same time.
The coordination of the player is enhanced due to the playing and continuous observation of a video game since the game gives high mental stimulation and coordination is important and therefore enhanced due to the constant visual and physical movement that is produced from the playing of the video game.
The playing of video games can also help increase a player's social skills. This is done by playing online multiplayer games which can require constant communication, this leads to socialization between players in order to achieve the goal within the game they may be playing. In addition it can help the users to meet new friends over their online games and at the same time communicate with friends they have already made in the past; those playing together online would only strengthen their already established bond through constant cooperation. Some video games are specifically designed to aid in learning, because of this another benefit of playing video games could be the educational value provided with the entertainment. Some video games present problem solving questions that the player must think on in order to properly solve, while action orientated video games require strategy in order to successfully complete. This process of being forced to think critically helps to sharpen the mind of the player.
Game culture
One aspect of game studies is the study of gaming culture. People who play video games are a subculture of their own. Gamers will often form communities with their own languages, attend conventions where they will dress up as their favorite characters, and have gaming competitions. One of these conventions, Gamescom 2018, had a record attendance with an estimated 370,000 attendees.
Esports are making a significant impact in gaming culture. In 2018, Newzoo, a marketing analytics company reported that 380 million people will watch esports that year. Many gamers seek to form communities to meet new people and share their love of games. In 2014, Newzoo reported that 81% of gamers attend esport to be a part of the gaming community. "61% of gamers attend live events and tournaments to connect with friends that they've met and played with online."
Throughout the years, there has been much research on the topic of game culture, specifically focusing on video games in relation to thinking, learning, gender, children, and war. When looking at game culture, particularly for early studies, multiplayer online games were usually the basis for research. However, more recent and wider ranging research has sought to understand not just gaming cultures, but in turn, how video games provide important insights into the modern nature of digital and participatory culture, patterns of consumption and identity formation, later modernity and contemporary political rationalities.
Demographics of gamers (in the US)
* 75% of households have a gamer.
* 65% of adults play video games.
* 60% of adults play on smartphones, 52% play on a personal computer, and 49% play on a dedicated game console.
* 32 is the average age of male gamers.
* 34 is the average age of female gamers.
* 54% of gamers are men. 46% are women.
See also
*
Art game
An art game (or arthouse game) is a work of interactive new media digital software art as well as a member of the "art game" subgenre of the serious video game. The term "art game" was first used academically in 2002 and it has come to be un ...
*
Video game art
Video game art is a specialized form of computer art employing video games as the artistic medium. Video game art often involves the use of patched or modified video games or the repurposing of existing games or game structures, however it re ...
*
Video games as an art form
The concept of video games as a form of art is a commonly debated topic within the entertainment industry. Though video games have been afforded legal protection as creative works by the Supreme Court of the United States, the philosophical ...
*
Ludonarrative dissonance
Ludonarrative dissonance is the conflict between a video game's narrative told through the story and the narrative told through the gameplay. Ludonarrative, a compound of ludology and narrative, refers to the intersection in a video game of ludi ...
References
Further reading
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(Table of contents and contributing authors)(Introduction to collection)*
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External links
Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA)*
Tiltfactor Lab
{{DEFAULTSORT:Game Studies