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Gaming Theory
and
Game Studies
Game studies

Games as a new area of study
 Academic interest in games took off in the
1980’s

Three ways to look at games academically
 Social sciences approach
 Humanities approach
 Industry approach
Social Sciences
 The
social sciences approach attempts to explore
‘what games do to people’
 They investigate both the positive and negative
impacts of playing games
Positive:
Using games to aid
teaching
Cognitive benefits
Stress relief
Etc.
Negative:
Video game content and
its Potential influences
Humanities
 The
Humanities approach tries to examine ‘what
meanings are made through games’
 What
different play styles might mean
 What
sub-context the game may try to convey
 Video
games are looked at as cultural artifacts that
have embedded meanings, and that can be examined
to explain deeper trends in society and culture.
Games, Gender and Society class here
at UB - DMS 448
Industry and Engineering

The Industry approaches examine what and how to make
successful games, or, what makes a game successful.

The industry approach does not only look at how to make
commercially successful games, but also games that have
deeper intrinsic values, from innovation, affecting different
experiences, and entertainment value.

While the engineering approaches explore the extent to
which video games have promoted and driven engineering
advancements in areas such as computer graphics, artificial
intelligence and networking.
Importance and Prevalence
Of Video Games

The international video game revenue is estimated
to be over $80 billion for 2014, which is more then
double the international film industry in 2013.

55-70% of americans play video games

Nearly 100% of boys and 94% of girls under 18 play
video games.
Sources

http://online.lovetoknow.com/how-many-people-play-videogames

http://www.theesa.com/facts/

http://www.esrb.org/about/video-game-industry-statistics.jsp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_studies