The emergence of game studies is provoking a struggle between adapted older disciplines in the effort to forge a new, discrete field of study. This paper reports on a two-year project titled Textuality in Video Games1 and the range of research techniques that were employed in order to begin answering questions about role-play, pleasure, agency and narrative. The paper outlines how narratology and film theory, social psychology and social semiotics were deployed separately and in various combinations to analyse computer role-play games, the interaction between player and text, and the cultural work of player and fan communities.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AarsethE.1997, Cybertext, John Hopkins Press, Baltimore.
2.
AarsethE.2001‘Computer Game Studies, Year One, Game Studies, 1, no. 1, www.gamestudies.org
BanduraA.2001, ‘Social Cognitive Theory: An Agentic Perspective’, Annual Review of Psychology, no. 52, pp. 1–24.
5.
BurnA.2003‘You Believe in Harry Potter: The Modality of Computer Games’, in BurnA.ParkerD. (eds), Analysing Multimodal Texts, Continuum, London.
6.
BurnA.CarrD.2003, ‘Signs from a Strange Planet: Role-play and Social Performance in Anarchy Online’, conference proceedings, COSIGN 2003, 3rd conference on Computational Semiotics for Games and New Media, 10–12 September 2003, University of Teeside, UK, pp. 14–21.
BurnA.SchottG.2004, ‘Heavy Hero or Digital Dummy: Multimodal Player–Avatar Relations in Final Fantasy 7’, in Visual Communications, Sage, London.
9.
CarrD.2003, ‘Play Dead: Genre and Affect in Planescape Torment and Silent Hill’, Game Studies, vol. 3, no. 1, www.gamestudies.org
10.
CarrD.2004a, ‘Character Building; Pleasure Transformation and Flow in Baldur's Gate’, in SwalwellM.WilsonJ. (eds), Gameplay: Pleasures, Engagement, Aesthetics, forthcoming.
11.
CarrD.2004b, ‘Avatar Anatomy: Space, Traits and Semes in Baldur's Gate’, in ButlerH.J. (ed.), In the Mind's Eye, forthcoming.
12.
CarrD.2004c, ‘Modelled Cities, Model Citizens: From Overseer to Occupant’, in BittantiMatteo (ed.), Sim City: The Virtual City, published as part of the Ludologica series by Edizioni Unicopli, forthcoming.
ChatmanS.1978, Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film, Cornell University Press, London.
15.
CopierM.2003, ‘The Other Game Researcher: Participation In and Watching the Construction of Boundaries in Game Studies’, in CopierM.RaessensJ. (eds), Level Up: Digital Game Researchers' Conference, Utrecht University Press, Utrecht.
16.
De CerteauM.1993, ‘Walking in the City’, in DuringS. (ed.), The Cultural Studies Reader, Routledge, London.
17.
EagletonT.1992, Literary Theory: An Introduction, Blackwell, Oxford.
18.
HillsM.2002, Fan Cultures, Routledge, London.
19.
HodgeR.KressK.1988, Social Semiotics, Polity Press, Cambridge.
20.
KressG.Van LeeuwenT.2000, Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication, Arnold, London.
21.
LaveJ.WengerE.1991, Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
22.
MortensenTorill2002, ‘Playing with Players: Potential Methodologies for MUDS’, Games Studiesvol. 2, no. 1, www.gamestudies.org
23.
MurrayJ.1997, Hamlet on the Holodeck, Free Press, London.
24.
PooleS.2000, Trigger Happy: The Inner Life of Video Games, Arcade, New York.
25.
SalenK.ZimmermanE.2003, Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals, MIT Press, Cambridge.
26.
SchottG.BurnA. in press, ‘Art (Re)production as an Expression of Collective Agency Within Oddworld Fan-culture’, in MitchellG.ClarkeA. (eds), Computer Games and Art: Intersections and Interactions, Anomalie, London.
27.
SchottG.HorrellK.2000, ‘Girl Gamers and Their Relationship with the Gaming Culture’, Convergencevol. 6, no. 4, pp. 36–53.
28.
SchottG.KambouriM.2003, ‘Moving Between a Spectral and Material Plane: Interactivity in Social Play with Computer Games’, Convergence, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 41–55.
29.
Sutton-SmithB.1986, Toys as Culture, Gardner Press, New York.
30.
TodorovT.1977, The Poetics of Prose, Blackwell, Oxford.
31.
TurkleS.1984, The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit, Simon and Schuster, New York.
32.
WengerE.1999, Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
