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Our primary focus is aesthetic, cultural and communicative aspects of computer games, but any previously unpublished article focused on games and gaming is welcome.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
Strategy in Games or Strategy Games: Dictionary and Encyclopaedic Definitions for Game Studies

by Simon Dor

Strategy in videogames can bear a lot of meanings; so does strategy games. However, definitions of strategy in videogames are not necessarily linked to strategy games, and vice-versa. Strategy definitions can basically be divided in three different categories, depending on what they take into account: iconic, formal, and experiential definitions. [more]
The Intellectual Structure of Game Research

by Paul Martin

An invisible colleges approach using keyword analysis and co-citation analysis reveals 4 or 5 distinct communities based on theoretical, topical and methodological distinctions. An historical overview of keywords reveals how these communities have developed between 1966 and 2016. Suggestions are made for collaboration between these communities. [more]
Towards a Comprehensive Model of Mediating Frustration in Videogames

by David Melhárt

This article discusses the results of a small-scale qualitative study on player motivation in frustrating scenarios. The study found that players mediate their frustration though moment-to-moment shifts of their motivation from intrinsic to extrinsic while keeping their gameplay level motivation intrinsic and prior interest the same. [more]
Mustaches, Blood Magic and Interspecies Sex: Navigating the Non-Heterosexuality of Dorian Pavus

by Gaspard Pelurson

Through an analysis of forum comments about Dorian, this article maps out the unstable politics of gay male representation within the context of contemporary video game culture, before demonstrating that fan art, and more generally transformative works, enables us to move beyond gay representation and ultimately recuperate Dorian as a queer figure. [more]

Book Reviews

SNES - Not so super after all

by Paweł Grabarczyk

Super Power, Spoony Bards, and Silverware: The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (2017) by Dominic Arsenault. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ISBN: 9780262036566. 240 pp. [more]
It’s Not the Violence, Stupid

by Rune Klevjer

Violent Games: Rules, Realism and Effect (2016) by Gareth Schott. New York: Bloomsbury. ISBN: 9781628925623. 288 pp. [more]

 

©2001 - 2018 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.