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Our primary focus is aesthetic, cultural and communicative aspects of computer games, but any previously unpublished article focused on games and gaming is welcome.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
“This Action Will Have Consequences”: Interactivity and Player Agency

by Sarah Stang

This article discusses interactivity and player agency in video games and uses BioShock and The Walking Dead as case studies to explore ways in which developers connect morality and the illusion of player agency. It also discusses the ways in which players have exercised agency by engaging with fan communities and making demands of game developers. [more]
Novel Subjects: Robinson Crusoe & Minecraft and the Production of Sovereign Selfhood

by Phillip Lobo

A comparative analysis of Robinson Crusoe and Minecraft as works of formal realism, with a focus on subjectivity-generation and sovereignty. [more]
Older adults’ digital gameplay, social capital, social connectedness, and civic participation

by Yu-Hao Lee

Can older adults maintain social connectedness, social capital, and civic participation through playing games? This study found that older adults who played with local and distant ties reported higher social connectedness and social capital. Playing with online friends was associated with more bridging social capital and more civic participation.​ [more]
The right way to play a game

by C. Thi Nguyen

Is there a right way to play a game? Some have argued that, by following the rules, we give too much weight to the author’s intent and destroy the freedom of play. I argue that the rules are essential for shared experience. They make possible the communication of sculpted experiences of activity. [more]

Book Reviews

Venturing into the House of Digital Horrors: A Review of The World of Scary Video Games

by Daniel Vella

The World of Scary Video Games: a Study in Videoludic Horror (2018) by Bernard Perron. New York : Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN: 9781501316210, 1501316214. 488 pp. [more]

 

©2001 - 2019 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.