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UNDERSTANDING VIDEO GAMES
THE ESSENTIAL INTRODUCTION
SIMON EGFNFELDT-NIELSEN /JONAS HEIDF SMITH
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1 STUDYING VIDEO GAMES
wHO STUD|ES V|DEO GAMEs?/HOW D0 YOU STUDY VtDEO GAMES?/
0F ANALYSTS/SCHOOL5 0F TH0UGHT?
TYPES
Right at this moment, millions of people around the world are playing video
games. One obvious way in which this matters is financial.The rising popularity of
games translates into astounding amounts of cash. The game industry is quickly
becoming a financial juggernaut. Our research may help make even better games,
may help large companies increase their profits, or may offer a critical perspective
on the soclal workings and effbcts of the game industry. Either way, the very size of
the industry justifies our attention. But it isn't just the money that's important.
Video games warrant attention for their cultural and aesthetic elements. The
aesthetic developments of the gaming industry are intense, and constant, and thriliing;
this explosive evolution of creative possibility is beginning to influence significantly
other types of expression. It is clear by now, after the Motrix trilogy after the Grond Theft
Auto gom€s, that movies and games are borrowing from each other's arsenals. For the
younger generatlons, especially, games are crucial to the way they express themselves
artisticaliy and, presumabiy, in the way they conceive of the world.What does it mean,
for instance, when a person's sellexpression moves away from linear representations,
such as books and {ilms, and they find more meaning in interactive, non-linear
systems where outcomes depend on player choices? Maybe it doesn't mean anything.
Maybe it means a lot of small changes are happening but no revolution should be
expected. And maybe it means that in a decade or tvvo, video games will be so essential to the creation of culture that teenagers will be unable to imagine a world before
video games existed. And most likely perhaps, is some combination of all three
scenarios. Regardless, such questions need to be investigated systematically.
WHO STUDIES VIDEO GAMES?
Science is the building upon a foundation of experience, the abandonment of old
theories and the revision ofearlier hypotheses.
Is game research ascience in this sense? On the one hand, people who claim to
doing game research clearly do not always live up to the highest standards of the
scientific method (true for any field); further, there is even some disagreement
about how to actually do game research. On the other hand, if we take science to
mean the systematic, rigorous and self-critical production of knowledge, game
research ccn and should be a scientific discipline.
So who are game researchers? In general, they are professionals predominantly
occupied with the study of video games. Undergraduates can now major in video
games. PhD programs are emerging. Dedicated journals are available and distinct
conferences are held. All of this is still new, however. Espen Aarseth, editor of the
be
Gome Studies
iournal has noted that
STUDYING VIDEO GAMES
2001 can be seen as theYear One of
international, academic field.
Computer Game Studies as
an emerging, viable,
1
A new generation of researchers consider video games their primary research
interest. But the struggle for acceptance and academic credibllity can still be
considerable. After all, we study video games, not a phenomenon that epitomizes
high-brow culturai expression. While we should acknowledge that our field of
research may be frowned upon, we must also avoid any sort of paranoia. If our
research is not accepted, we should not comfort ourselves with conspiracy theories
nor vlew other fields as populated by enemies.We should instead raise our internal
standards.
A series of very important developments have helped put game studies on the
road to become a viable field. For instance, the last few decades have witnessed a
general rehabilitation of popular culture as a worthy topic of study. Also, many
scholars have grown up with video games and see no reason why they should be
exempt from enquiry. But more importantly, games have grown highly complexas has
their development-inviting serious attention and creating the need for
highly trained game graduates.
It has become quite obvious that many fields can contribute to the study of
games and game researchers are an eclectic bunch with a multidisciplinary background. Humanist scholars with film or literature backgrounds constitute the
Iargest single group, but game research conferences are also attended by social
scientists (mosdy sociologists) and, very importantly, game designers. The presence of the latter group, who are typically not academics, is noteworthy. For
the time being at least, there is a relatively close relationship between
game
researchers and game designers. This may sound obvious, but is in fact quite a
special situation. In older research fields-such as film and literary studies-the
distance between scholars and practitioners can loom 1arge, and it seems at times
that the two groups barely speak the same language. Thls may sometimes seem
to be the case in our Iield as weli, but at least both sides are committed to making
an effbrt.
HOW DO YOU STUDY VIDEO GAMES?
To say that there is more than one way to approach video games is to put it mildly.
Most researchers, at least at present, choose to adopt methods and approaches from
their primary fields. Ethnographers tend to observe players. Those trained in film
studies tend to analyze the games themselves and communication scholars tend to
analyze interactions between players. There is inherently nothing wrong with this
tendency as long as one acknowledges the more general ideal that one should use
the methodology best suited to answer the question at hand.
In order to give you a better sense of how to approach games academically, we
will examine a few noteworthy studies and discuss the methodological approaches
that they represent.
V/e will start with DmitriWilliams's study of how video games have been represented in U.S. news media over a 30 year period.2 In order to understand the function of video games in public discourse and the relationship between the portrayal
of video games and more general cultural currents, Wiliiams searched the archives
of Time, Newsiweek and U.S. News ond Worid Report. He analyzed 1 19 articles which fit his
criteria, and concluded that
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STUDYING VIDEO GAMES
Consistent with prior new media technologles, video games passed through
marked phases of vilification followed by partial redemption. Also consistent
wlth prior media, games served as touchstones for larger struggles within the
culture-so much so that perhaps "lightning rod" is a better term.3
note that Wiliiams tackled not games themselves or even players, but
to content analysis.
In another study, Nicolas Ducheneaut, Robert J. Moore, and Eric Nickell explored
the ways in which Star Wors Golaxies:;4n Empire Divided-a massively multiplayer online
game set in George Lucas's Stor Wors universe-encourages sociability among
players.* In particular, they were interested in how players interacted in the game's
We should
rather secondary texts that he subjected
"cantinas," locations where players could meet and socialize. The observed behavior
to determine if it conformed to sociologist Ray Oldenburg's notlon of
for lnformal public places like bars and general stores.
Ducheneaut, Moore and Nickell chose to combine various methodologies. They
began by conducting a "virtuai ethnography," that is, they spent time in the field (in
the game) systematically observing social interactions in the cantinas. They also
ndeotaped their entire game sessions (with a camera plugged into the graphics
card). Finally, they recorded a log of all the interactions that occurred between
players as tracked by the game, and analyzed it using specially designed software.
Among other things, the authors concluded that while the cantinas did not serve as
particularly sociable spaces, the entire game, due to more subtle mechanics than
just these intentionally designed social spaces was in fact quite sociable.
Susana Tosca performed a "close reading" of Resident lvil X-Code: Veronicc,s a
"survival horror" game, where players have to fight zombies and monsters and
solve puzzles in order to escape from an altogether unpleasant island.Tosca's study
harnessed the techniques of "reader-response criticism." She employed textual
analysls, closely examining the work, looking for noteworthy properties of the
game's structure and teasing out the meaning of the game's story.Tosca's research is
primarily concerned with using this speclfic theoretical toolset to explore the text
of the game. Surprisingly, given the number of humanist scholars ln the field, this
is one of just a few detailed analyses of a concrete game title.
Finaliy, Jesper Juul has pursued the philosophical and ontological foundations of
games.6 One of his main goals has been to provide a definition of video games that
highlights their special properties and to explore the relationship between video
games and traditional games. In order to do this, Juul examlned noteworthy former
attempts and arrived at a "classical game model" (see Chapter 3), which enumerates
the features necessary for an activity to be considered a game. The method employed
by Juul is a mlxture of logical deduction and induction, laying bare the assumptions
which often go unnoticed when games are discussed or studied.
was analyzed
"the third place," a term used
TYPES OF
ANALYSIS
we have seen, games can be approached from a wide range of academic
and by employing a number of different methodoiogies. Salen and
Zimmerman, in their detailed exploration of game design, suggest that games may
be approached with a focus on rules (the design of the game), ploy (the human
experience of playing the game), culture (the larger contexts engaged with and
inhabited by the game).7To these three units of analysis, we add that of ontology, to
arrive at these lour main perspectives:
As
perspectives
10
STUDYING VIDEO GAMES
The game: here, one or more particular games are subjected to analysis. The
point is to look at games in themselves and say something about their structure
and how they employ certain techniques-of piayer reward, of player representation in the gameworld and so on-to achieve the piayer experience which the
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game designer aims for. This is often the type of analysis chosen by those with
a background in comparative literature or other aesthetic disciplines.8
si
The players: sometimes the activity of playing games is more important than
the games themselves. Studies focusing on the players usually wish to explore
how players use games as a type of media or as a social space. Sociologists and
ethnographers tend to favor this type of analysis.e
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The culture: moving still further from the games themselves, we can choose to
focus on the wider culture that games are part of, Here, we wish to understand
how games and gaming interact with wider cultural patterns. For instance, we
may be interested in the subcultures that evolve around gaming or in the
discourses surrounding gaming, looking at public outrage to violent games as
compared to earlier "media panics." Methodologically, such studies often turn
to secondary sources like news media or advertising.l0
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Ontoiogy: finally, some studies examlne the philosophical foundations of
to present general statements that apply to all
games, and may enable us to understand, for example, the relationship between
rules, fiction and the player.ll Such scholarship bullds on loglcal analysis which
is typically grounded in concrete examples but is not interested in the individual titles per se.
games. These studies usually seek
The following table outlines the four major types of analysis:
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Type of
Common
Theoreticol
Common
,4nolysis
Methodologies
Inspirction
Interest
Game
Textual analysis
Comparative iiterature,
Design choices,
meaning
film
studies
Player
Observation,
Sociology, ethnography
Culture
interviews, surveys
Interviews, textual
cultural studies
Cultural studies,
analysis
sociology
Use of games,
game communities
Games as cultural
objects, games as
part of the media
ecology
Ontology Philosophical
enquiry
Various
(e. g.
philosophy,
cultural hlstory, literary
criticism)
gical,/philosophical
foundations of games
Lo
and gaming
Actual studies, of course, often disrespect such neat reductionism and span multipie categories.The scheme above indicates general trends, but we must remember
that a certain set of methodologies and a certain set of theories need not always go
together.
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STUDYING VIDEO GAMES
SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT?
of schools of thought within game studies may be an overstatement, as
groupings do not usually self-identify themselves as groups nor indeed
"schools." Nevertheless, certain perspectives do stand out as particulariy stable.
First of all, two research communities currently perform game research on a
significant scale. The first of these we can call the simulation community. Researchers
wrthin this group focus on all forms of simulations, including non-electronic ones
like the Sumerian Game from 1961 in which the player learned about the
Mesopotamia of 3500 e.c., but also consistently studies video games.This group is
well established and has its orn conferences and journals. The second and much
To speak
these
newer
video gome studia community
sprung into existence around the year 2000; it repre
what we refer to as "game studies" in this book. The video game studies
community presently revolves around the Digital Games Research Association
(DIGRA) and journals like Gome Studies and Gama cnd Culture. Communication and
collaboratlon beh,veen the simulation community and the video game studies
sents
community has so far been scarce.
Within the video game studies community, two general approaches can be
identified, though most researchers do not resort solely to one of the other. A
fornalist group tends to use game analysis or ontological analysis. They represent a
humanistic approach to media and focus on the works themselves or philosophical
questions related to the nature or use of these works. Within the formaiist group
there are two primary subdivisions. One subgroup prioritizes representation
whiie the other prioritizes rules; they are sometimes referred to as norrdtologists and
ludologists respectively (see Chapter 8). These two have so far instigated the most
intense paradigm clashes ofthe field.
The situotionist group is generally interested in analysls of game players or the
culture at large.They are not interested in all-encompassing statements that do not
take context and variation into account. They search less for general patterns or
laws and more for analysis and descriptions of speci{ic events or social practices.
On the whole, however, game studies has so far been an inclusive field. It is
unified by a certain pioneering spirlt, and the understanding that the underexplored nature of games leaves room for all those interested. It is also unified in
the belief that in order to understand most aspects of video games you need to piay
them. So we wholeheartedly encourage you, as someone who wants to understand
video games, to seek out video game classics and to simply famiiiarize yourself
with as many genres as possible. Always ask yourself the following questions. Why
does this work? Why was it done in this manner? How else might it have been
done? And why do players act in this way in this particular game? Love of games
obviously is no requirement but it certainly doesn't hurt when entering the world
of game research.
And it is to this world that we now turn.