The panel at DiGRA 2015 discusses the evolution of game studies within the context of digital convergence and socio-material theories. It highlights the transition from traditional media consumption to more interactive and diverse game engagement practices. The focus is on understanding how games are produced, consumed, and how they evolve over time and space, encouraging a granular analysis of their components and dynamics.

1. FROM GAME STUDIES TO
STUDIES OF PLAY IN
SOCIETY
Panel, DiGRA 2015
Frans Mäyrä, Sebastian Deterding, Mia Consalvo, Joost Raessens, Seth Giddings,
Torill Elvira Mortensen, Kristine Jørgensen

2. SEBASTIAN DETERDING: “GAME STUDIES,
MEET CONVERGENCE CULTURE”

3. 20th Century Media/Comm. Research:
Naturalizing the Dispositif “TV” (radio, …)
TV stations financing, producing, and
broadcasting scheduled TV shows
watched for entertainment during
leisure time by the family sitting in
front of a TV at home in
the living room.

4. 21st Century Digital Convergence, a.k.a. “Is a
crowdsourced YouTube Series ‘Television’”?
Legislation
Modes of production
Delivery channels
Modes of financing
Content genres
Storage media
End devices
Modes of distribution
Modes of reception

5. Early 21st Century Game Research:
Naturalizing the Dispositif “Games”
AAA publishers financing and
producing COTS games bought and
played for entertainment during
leisure time by 1 person sitting in
front of a computer/console at home.

6. 21st Century Game Convergence
Goldfarming
Freemium
In-game purchases
Crowdfunding
Player-created
content
Gambrian explosion
of genres
Online distribution
VR, touch, holo, …
interfaces
Playful design
E-Sports
Analog game
renaissance
Virtual Item Sales
Editor games
ARGs Artgames
Notgames Pervasive
games
Serious games
Gamification
Ludification

7. Future-Proofing Game Research:
With Socio-Material Theories
• E.g., fields, mangles, actor-networks, assemblages, affordances, frames, dispositifs, ...
• Not: “What is Eternal Essence of Gameness?”, but: “How and from what are local game
and play dispositifs stabilized?”
• Shifting to more granular analytic units: modes of engagement, modes of production, ...
• Understanding how dispositifs emerge, stabilize, change over time and space
• Understanding how components work and interact, e.g. AAA mode of production > AAA
genres, playful mode of engagement > experience
• Tracing obdurate contours of components through empirical historical & cultural
comparison
• Tracing cultural flows of components and dispositifs

8. Added Bonus:
Moving Beyond “Versus”
Agency! Sociology Structure!
Micro! Sociology Macro!
Person! Psychology Situation!
Reader! Literary Theory Text!
Uses! Comm. Research Effects!
Play(er)! Game Studies Game!

9. Added Bonus:
Moving Beyond “Versus”
Agency! Sociology Structure!
Micro! Sociology Macro!
Person! Psychology Situation!
Reader! Literary Theory Text!
Uses! Comm. Research Effects!
Play(er)! Game Studies Game!
(Most)
socio-material
theories are
interactionist