Game Studies
This guide explores academic information related to various types of games, including their design, analysis, and criticism.
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Overview
The Game Studies research guide provides an extensive resource for exploring games in various modalities, such as video games, board games, etc. as well as their design, composition, and analysis of their representations in media and popular culture. This guide includes curated links to academic sources, including books, journals, and databases related to this topic. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me using the profile links on the left.
Here are some scholarly associations with a focus on Game Studies:
- International Game Developers Association (IGDA) "... the world’s largest nonprofit membership organization serving all individuals who create games."
- Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) "An international association for academics and professionals who research digital games and associated phenomena."
- Canadian Game Studies Association (CGSA) "... an organization dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of digital games. Its primary goal is to support the work of Canadian researchers, graduate students, artists, game designers, programmers, theorists, and others working in this field."
- University of Waterloo Games Institute (GI) "... an interdisciplinary research centre at the University of Waterloo, advancing the study of interactive and immersive technologies and experiences."
Featured Books in Game Studies
Latest Articles from Games and Culture Journal
- Play and Misinformation: How America's Conspiracy Culture Became GamifiedThis link opens in a new window Games and Culture, Volume 20, Issue 2, Page 255-274, March 2025. <br/>In this article, the author draws upon their own experience as a commercial alternate reality game designer and interviews with other working professionals, examining how the form moved from its origins as outsider art into the realm of commercial ... Sep 20, 2023
- Challenging Heroic Narratives of Polar Exploration in Indie Video GamesThis link opens in a new window Games and Culture, Volume 20, Issue 2, Page 214-230, March 2025. <br/>80 DaysandSouth of the Circlefeature storylines in which polar expeditions are not represented as places for the unfolding of heroized journeys; instead, their protagonists are confronted with the limits of their agency. In contrast to common pop ... Aug 18, 2023
- Gaming Capital on Overwatch's Official ForumsThis link opens in a new window Games and Culture, Volume 20, Issue 2, Page 171-189, March 2025. <br/>This study uses the public discussion boards of Overwatch to see how context-based gaming capital is present, accumulated and expended through the messages. The data consists of a 1-month snapshot from which 50 most viewed threads were analyzed. The ... Sep 14, 2023
- The Use of Games in Citizen Science Based on Findings from the EyeWire User StudyThis link opens in a new window Games and Culture, Volume 20, Issue 2, Page 190-213, March 2025. <br/>The article addresses the use of games for citizen research. Following the results of the EyeWire user research, the authors attempt to answer the question of the impact of introductory game training on task performance, identify the areas with the most ... Aug 30, 2023
- Exoplanetary Exploration and the End of the World in 22 Minutes: Philosofiction in Outer WildsThis link opens in a new window Games and Culture, Volume 20, Issue 2, Page 231-254, March 2025. <br/>In this essay, we work over the imageries of exoplanetary exploration in digital games, observing their connections with concepts from media theories and science fiction studies. This articulation aims to comprehend how, in a philosofictional manner, ... Sep 16, 2023
- Fantasies of Adequacy: Mythologies of Capital in Dark SoulsThis link opens in a new window Games and Culture, Volume 20, Issue 2, Page 151-170, March 2025. <br/>Dark Souls, FromSoftware's 2011 action-RPG, has become synonymous with extreme difficulty. The game's success and influence despite its ostensibly niche appeal make it an outlier in an era of increasingly accessible gaming. Yet in eschewing accessibility... Aug 3, 2023
- Playing With Needles: Technology, Gender and Playful Participation in Online Knitting CommunitiesThis link opens in a new window Games and Culture, Ahead of Print. <br/>Adult women are often considered to be technologically challenged and not playful, traits that make them less interesting for game designers and scholars. They are commonly expected to have quiet and productive hobbies, engage in gender-stereotypically ... Mar 14, 2025
- Serious Games and Game Performance Before and During the Israel-Hamas War: The Case of Fact Finders and PeaceMakerThis link opens in a new window Games and Culture, Ahead of Print. <br/>This study examines the impact of players’ gender and nationality on game performance before and during the Israel-Hamas war. The study focuses on two games for social impact revolving around intractable conflicts: PeaceMaker (Israeli-Palestinian conflict)... Mar 18, 2025
- Czech Appeal: Why and How National Game Productions Use Local Themes and SettingsThis link opens in a new window Games and Culture, Ahead of Print. <br/>In recent years, semi-peripheral industries have produced numerous video games that use local settings but aim at a global audience. We explore this trend using five cases of commercially released Czech indie games that feature local themes and settings. ... Mar 20, 2025
- Variety or Similarity: The Typology and Frequency of Occurrence of Certain Kinds of Puzzles Present in Puzzle-Based GamebooksThis link opens in a new window Games and Culture, Ahead of Print. <br/>This paper presents a research project oriented on the qualitative and quantitative analysis of puzzles present in the modern-day (published after 2015) puzzle-oriented gamebooks (i.e.,Journal 29) and book escape rooms (i.e.,Cypher Files). The research ... Feb 5, 2025