Game studies

Lore & Background

Game studies emerged as a recognized field through several milestones: David Parlett and others organized a colloquium in 1990 that grew into the International Board Game Studies Association; Gonzalo Frasca popularized the term 'ludology' in 1999; academic journals such as Board Game Studies (1998) and Game Studies (2001) were founded; and the Digital Games Research Association was created in 2003. Before video games, game studies were rooted primarily in anthropology, but the development of video games diversified its methodologies to include sociology, psychology, and other fields.

The field contains several strands: social science approaches explore how games function in society and interact with human psychology, often using empirical methods; humanities-based approaches emphasize how games generate meanings and reflect or subvert social discourses, using interpretative methods; game design approaches analyze mechanics and aesthetics to inform new games; and industrial/engineering approaches apply mostly to video games, examining computer graphics, artificial intelligence, and networking.

A major debate within game studies concerns narratology versus ludology. Some ludologists argue that games are radically different from narratives because players actively participate, while narratologists emphasize games' story elements. Gonzalo Frasca argued that games should be studied as games but that ludology should complement narratology, not replace it. Jesper Juul argued for a stricter separation, claiming games cannot tell stories because players control events.

Did You Know?

• The earliest known use of the term 'ludology' occurred in 1982, in Mihai Spariosu's book 'Literature, Mimesis and Play'.
• A meta-study by Craig A. Anderson and Brad J. Bushman (2001) concluded that exposure to violence in video games caused an increase in aggression, but other studies have found no such correlation.
• The popular MMO World of Warcraft has been used to study the dissemination of infectious diseases due to an accidental spread of a plague-like disease in the gameworld.