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Our primary focus is aesthetic, cultural and communicative aspects of computer games, but any previously unpublished article focused on games and gaming is welcome.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
A Sense of Fear and Anxiety in Digital Games: An Analysis of Cognitive Stimuli in Slender -- The Eight Pages

by Bartosz Dudek

Fear and anxiety induced by games are ubiquitous, but unexplored. This article analyzes fear and anxiety inducing mechanics and modalities found in Slender -- The Eight Pages. It gives a detailed account of how fear and anxiety are induced; later using it to further explain the way they might be activated by several in-game components. [more]
The Liminoid in Single-Player Videogaming: A Critical and Collaborative Response to Recent Work on Liminality and Ritual

by Matthew Horrigan

Many essays in game studies deploy the concept of liminality. The term has become diluted with use. However, Turner and van Gennep developed liminality together with related concepts that suggest a richer account of play than liminality captures on its own. This essay discusses the role of the liminoid in connecting players with characters. [more]
When Seeing is Playing: The History of the Videogame Camera

by Selim Krichane

This article traces the emergence and generalization of the term "camera" in discourses surrounding videogames. The detailed analysis is based on a large corpus of magazines in French and English and on game manuals. This study enables us to renew the traditional narratives on the relationship between cinema and videogames during the 1990s. [more]
“Understanding” Narrative; Applying Poetics to Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

by Eoghain Meakin, Brian Vaughan, Charlie Cullen

An illustration and discussion of the practical uses of Aristotle’s Poetics when describing video game narratives. What emerges from this lens is the articulation of a cognitive arc for both the player and player character and the mechanisms used to make this possible. [more]
The Gamification of Gambling: A case study of the mobile game Final Fantasy Brave Exvius

by Gregory P. Perreault, Emory Daniel Jr., Samuel M. Tham

This study looks at the case of the mobile, loot box-focused game Final Fantasy Brave Exvius to better understand how and why gamers spend real-world money on in-game purchases. Players are motivated by their community, social identity, and nostalgia for the games of their youth. [more]
Separation Anxiety: Plotting and Visualising the Tensions Between Poetry and Videogames

by Jon Stone

Are ‘poetry games’ a paradox? This article considers the problems inherent in mixing what Astrid Ensslin describes as “two entirely different interactive, productive, aesthetic, phenomenological, social, and discursive phenomena,” charting the differences in greater detail. [more]
Parasocial Relationships in Social Contexts: Why do Players View a Game Character as Their Child?

by Nansong Zhou

Many Chinese players relate to the game character in Travel Frog as if it were their child. By conducting interviews with 20 players from major Chinese cities, this article explores how the relationships between players and this character are deeply rooted in player conceptions of their ideal lifestyle and ideal parent- child relationships. [more]

 

©2001 - 2021 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.