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Our primary focus is aesthetic, cultural and communicative aspects of computer games, but any previously unpublished article focused on games and gaming is welcome.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
Moral Decision Making in Fallout

by Marcus Schulzke

This essay examines the Fallout series, with special attention to Fallout 3, to show how video games facilitate moral reasoning. The games do not promote a particular code of conduct. Instead, they create moral dilemmas and give players practice at making their own judgments, thereby improving the ability to make similar judgments in real life. [more]
The Character of Difference: Procedurality, Rhetoric, and Roleplaying Games

by Gerald Voorhees

The cultural politics of digital games can be difficult to discern. This essay examines the Final Fantasy series in order to show how close reading of procedural, visual and discursive representation, coupled with attention to historical context, can bring the politics of play into focus. [more]
Cheesers, Pullers, and Glitchers: The Rhetoric of Sportsmanship and the Discourse of Online Sports Gamers

by Ryan M. Moeller, Bruce Esplin, Steven Conway

This article examines online sports gamers’ appeals to fair play and sportsmanship in online forums maintained by game developers. These online discussions serve to document and police acceptable behavior and gameplay for the larger community of game players and to stimulate innovation in game development, especially in online ranking systems. [more]
World of Warcraft: Service or Space?

by Adam Ruch

Is World of Warcraft a space or a service? Do players interact with each other, with objects, and participate in events within a venue, or are they browsing content stored in a database? WoW is presented to the player as one thing, but spelled out in the legal documentation as quite another. This paper identifies key areas of this conflict. [more]

 

©2001 - 2009 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.