How game studies are defined in introductory texts

1. Dr. Marcus Leaning
University of Winchester
Paper presented at:
Media Education Summit,
Ravensbourne
6th September 2011

2. Introduction
 What gets studied in British HE is
constantly changing.
 New subjects emerge and old ones decline
and the focus within field shifts.
 Intent here is to look at how one new area,
the study of video games is ‘constructed ‘
through textbooks aimed at UG students.
 Initial presented here are results of stage 1
of a project describing how games are
constructed as an academic field.

3. Games in British Higher
Education
 Currently 226 Foundation
or UG degree programmes
from 79 institutions on offer
for entry in 2012 in the UK
that UCAS identifies as
Games (UCAS, 2011).
 Majority are courses for
students aspiring to work in
industry and 9 of these are
recognized by Skillset.
 Provide training in game
design, programming, art
work, project management
etc.

4. Where?
2% 3%
6%
6%
75%
8%
Russell Group Universities
Red Brick Universities
Plate Glass Universities
Specialist Colleges / University Colleges
Post 1992 Universities
Further Education Colleges offering franchise courses
 Mix of FE colleges
running franchises,
specialist colleges,
post -92s, some
Redbricks, a few
Plateglass and
(ahem) two Russell
Group members.
Percentages of Computer
Games courses offered by type
of institution

5. Not only but also…
 As well as the practical / production side
games are studied from the humanities
and social sciences.
 Currently identified 42 course that do this
(but there must be more…).
 It is these courses I’m interested in.

6. Studying Video Games -
Background
 Quite a lot of debate about how to study
games and what should be the focus.
 Lots of ‘effects’ studies and attendant resistance
from ‘cultural studies’.
 Big debate about narrative vs ludic approaches.
 Several attempts to define a remit for the
study of games (Corliss, 2011; Eskelinen,
2004; Gee, 2006; Malaby, 2007) or a
manifesto for a particular form of study of
games (Pinchbeck, 2010).

7. Consequence
 This is a field very much dominated by a
top-down approach.
 Instead this project is to offer a ‘bottom-
up’ description of the academic field.
 Not a ‘normative’ prescriptive account
but a descriptive one; what is actually
taught.

8. Stage one…
 Interested in how games studies has
been articulated in textbooks for
undergraduate students in the
humanities and social scientific
disciplines.
 A search was done for texts.

9. Search
(“computer” OR “video”) +
(“game” OR “gamer” OR “games”
OR “gaming”) + (“studies” OR
“study”)
After removal of
duplicates 573
texts
Criteria to exclude:
1. Type: must be a book, not a journal
2. Subject audience: game analysis not design.
3. Intent: introductory text books – not research.
4. Academic level: undergraduate audience or just below.
5. Writing style: not be journalistic or populist in nature
Database searched No. of returns on filter
Google books 591
Books in print 328
British library 125
Amazon.com 281

10. Ended up with…
 8 books
 Dovey and Kennedy (2006),
 Egenfeldt, Smith and Tosca (2008)
 Hjorth (2011)
 Mayra, (2008)
 Newman (2004)
 Newman and Oram (2006).
 Rutter and Bryce (2006)

11. Scrutiny
 Identified key topics from each book.
 Developed a composite coding sheet of
topics with definitions.
 All books were then examined against
this coding sheet.

12. Category/ Book Carr,
Buckingham
Burn and Schott
(2006)
Dovey and
Kennedy
(2006)
Egenfeldt,
Smith and
Tosca (2008)
Hjorth
(2011)
Mayra,
(2008)
Newman
(2004)
Newman and
Oram (2006).
Rutter and
Bryce
(2006)
Agency *
Avatars and representation * * * * * *
Cultural factors * * * *
Definition of games * * * * *
Economics, business and
industry of games,
* * * * * *
Game aesthetics and game
space
* * * *
Future games * * *
Game genre * * *
Gamer culture * * * * * *
Games, other media and
adaptation
* *
Games as new media * * * * *
Gender * * * * *
History * * * * *
Interactivity and interface * * * *
Ludic qualities * * * * * * *
Multiplayer and community * * * *
Narrative theory and story * * * * * * *
Players * * * * *
Rationale for and description
of games studies
* * * * * * *
Researching and analysing
games
* *
Social and educational
aspects
* * * *
Negative aspects * *

13. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1
Agency
Negative aspects
Researching and analysing games
Games, other media and
adaptation
Game genre
Future games
Social and educational aspects
Multiplayer and community
Interactivity and interface
Gender
Game aesthetics and game space
Cultural factors
Players
History
Games as new media
Definition of games
Gamer culture
Economics, business and industry
of games,
Avatars and representation
Rationale for and description of
games studies
Narrative theory and story
Ludic qualities

14. Analysis
 3 things leap out:
 There are core topics that nearly all texts
cover but there is also a ‘long tail’ of several
topics that are only covered by a few books.
 Narrative and ludology are in 7/8 texts –
perhaps an echo of the strength of the
debate.
 Gender is only in 4/8 - odd given the
humanities and social scientific background.

15. Conclusion
 Stage 2 will be to identify all
programmes that examine games and
contact them and ask questions.
 What to do with this information? It is
just descriptive, it articulates a
description of the field but does it
reinforce a particular perspective?

16. References
Carr, D. (2006). Computer games: text, narrative and play. Cambridge: Polity.
Corliss, J. (2011). Introduction: The Social Science Study of Video Games. Games and Culture,
6(1), 3-16.
Dovey, J., & Kennedy, H. W. (2006). Game cultures: computer games as new media. Milton
Keynes: Open University Press.
Egenfeldt-Nielsen, S., Smith, J. H., & Tosca, S. P. (2008). Understanding video games: the
essential introduction. London: Routledge.
Eskelinen, M. (2004). Towards computer game studies. In P. Harrigan (Ed.), First person: New
media as story, performance, and game Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Frasca, G. (2003). Ludologists Love Stories, Too: Notes from a Debate that Never Took Place.
Paper presented at the Level Up, Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) Conference
Proceedings.
Gee, J. P. (2006). Why Game Studies Now? Video Games: A New Art Form. Games and Culture,
1(1), 58-61.
Hjorth, L. (2011). Games and Gaming: An Introduction to New Media. Oxford: Berg Publishers.
Malaby, T. M. (2007). Beyond Play. Games and Culture, 2(2), 95-113.
Mäyrä, F. (2008). An introduction to games studies: games in culture. London: SAGE.
Newman, J. (2004). Videogames. London and New York: Routledge.
Newman, J., & Oram, B. (2006). Teaching videogames. London: BFI.
Pinchbeck, D. (2010). Adventures in the Chinese room: doing practice-based research in games.
Paper presented at the Under The Mask: Perspectives on the Gamer. Retrieved 31 May
2011, from http://www.thechineseroom.co.uk/pinchbeckbuild.pdf
Rutter, J., & Bryce, J. (2006). Understanding digital games. London: SAGE Publications.
UCAS. (2011). UCAS course search - search results. Retrieved 31 May, 2011, from
http://search.ucas.com/cgi-
bin/hsrun/search/search/StateId/QJQNColqK6rS95X0u5upTBe6TGRzI-
VYz8/HAHTpage/search.HsKeywordSuggestion.whereNext?query=277&word=GAME&single
=N