The International Journal of Computer Game Research

Our Mission - To explore the rich cultural genre of games; to give scholars a peer-reviewed forum for their ideas and theories; to provide an academic channel for the ongoing discussions on games and gaming.

Game Studies is a non-profit, open-access, crossdisciplinary journal dedicated to games research, web-published several times a year at www.gamestudies.org.

Our primary focus is aesthetic, cultural and communicative aspects of computer games, but any previously unpublished article focused on games and gaming is welcome. Proposed articles should be jargon-free, and should attempt to shed new light on games, rather than simply use games as metaphor or illustration of some other theory or phenomenon.



Game Studies is published with the support of:

The Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet)

The Joint Committee for Nordic Research Councils for the Humanities and the Social Sciences

Blekinge Institute of Technology

IT University of Copenhagen

Lund University

If you would like to make a donation to the Game Studies Foundation, which is a non-profit foundation established for the purpose of ensuring continuous publication of Game Studies, please contact the Editor-in-Chief or send an email to: foundation at gamestudies dot org
“It’s got that power over you”: Negotiating Projective Identities in the English Classroom

by Alexander Bacalja

This paper explores the learning affordances associated with Gee’s notion of the projective identity principle. A case study introducing game-as-text into the English classroom is used to explore how the relationship between virtual and real-world identities is mediated by student habitus, game design, and classroom pedagogy. [more]
"Bursting Circuit Boards": Infrastructures and Technical Practices of Copying in Early Korean Video Game Industry

by Dongwon Jo

This article investigates a foundation of the early video game industry, focusing on technical practices of arcade video game machine-copying at the Cheonggyecheon electronics market as a pirate infrastructure in late-1970s Korea. [more]
A Preliminary Categorization of Techniques for Creating Poetic Gameplay

by Alex Mitchell, Liting Kway, Tiffany Neo, Yuin Theng Sim

This paper explores "poetic gameplay": gameplay deliberately made strange to create a poetic effect. We identify a set of "literary devices" that we categorize in terms of defamiliarization of interaction, gameplay, agency, time, and boundaries. This can provide a foundation for further analysis of poetic gameplay, and inspiration for designers. [more]
Paratextuality in Game Studies: A Theoretical Review and Citation Analysis

by Jan Švelch

This article provides a critical theoretical review of current paratextual scholarship in game studies and uses citation analysis of 235 academic texts written in English and published between 1997 and 2019 to quantify the distribution and impact of three different approaches to paratext: original, expanded, and reduced. [more]
Should the Monster Play Fair?: Reception of Artificial Intelligence in Alien: Isolation

by Jaroslav Švelch

Based on discussion forum material, the article explores the reception of the monster AI in Alien: Isolation. Although the Alien is often conceptualized as a sublime monster, the analysis shows that a significant group of players (simulationists) expect it to be a fair, consistent, and observable opponent that acts only upon its sensory perception. [more]

Book Reviews

How to create different differences in game culture: A review of Future Gaming.

by Paul Martin

Future Gaming: Creative Interventions in Video Game Culture (2018) by Paolo Ruffino. London: Goldsmiths Press. ISBN: 9781906897550. 145 pp. [more]

 

©2001 - 2020 Game Studies Copyright for articles published in this journal is retained by the journal, except for the right to republish in printed paper publications, which belongs to the authors, but with first publication rights granted to the journal. By virtue of their appearance in this open access journal, articles are free to use, with proper attribution, in educational and other non-commercial settings.