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Our primary focus is aesthetic, cultural and communicative aspects of computer games, but any previously unpublished article focused on games and gaming is welcome.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
Myths, Monsters and Markets: Ethos, Identification, and the Video Game Adaptations of The Lord of the Rings

by Mark Rowell Wallin

Marshal McLuhan noted in Understanding Media that there comes a point in the development of a new aesthetic form where the new media attempts to gain legitimation by means of association with previous forms. [more]
Narrative, Games, and Theory

by Jan Simons

During the last quarter of a century, narrativity has been a key concept in the humanities. [more]
Tragedies of the ludic commons - understanding cooperation in multiplayer games

by Jonas Heide Smith

Conflict, it is often assumed, is the essence of games. Modern multiplayer games, however, also rely heavily on the cooperation between players. In fact, given the rapidly increasing popularity and complexity of these games, game designers are arguably engaged in one of the most ambitious experiments with social software in recent years. [more]
Dynamic Lighting for Tension in Games

by Magy Seif El-Nasr, Simon Niedenthal, Igor Knez, Priya Almeida, Joseph Zupko

Video and computer games are among the most complex forms of interactive media. Games simulate many elements of traditional media, such as plot, characters, sound and music, lighting and mise-én-scene. However, games are digital artifacts played through graphic interfaces and controllers. [more]
Adapting the Principles of Ludology to the Method of Video Game Content Analysis

by Steven Malliet

This article focuses on the methodology of qualitative video game content analysis, aiming to complement the insights provided by Konzack (2002) and Consalvo & Dutton (2006) from a media sociology perspective. [more]
Screw the Grue: Mediality, Metalepsis, Recapture

by Terry Harpold

I begin with an assertion that I consider an axiom of videogame studies. Gameplay is the expression of combinations of definite semiotic elements in specific relations to equally definite technical elements. The semiotic plane of a game’s expression draws on the full range of common cultural material available to game designers and players [more]

 

©2001 - 2007 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.