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Our primary focus is aesthetic, cultural and communicative aspects of computer games, but any previously unpublished article focused on games and gaming is welcome.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
Pastiche and Parody in Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption II

by Robson Bello

In this article I analyze Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption II showing how there are differences in the form of the representations between these games, where in the first game parody is more preeminent, while in the second, pastiche is more pronounced. [more]
Genre, Prototype Theory and the Berlin Interpretation of Roguelikes

by James Cartlidge

This article conceptualizes the “Berlin Interpretation of Roguelikes” as an example of the “prototype theory” of categorization in action, showing how this theory was influenced by the later philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein. Using this case study, it evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of prototype theory for understanding video game genres. [more]
Between Indie and Doujin: The creation of the Japanese indie

by Tomás Grau de Pablos

This article concerns how the "Japanese indie game" developed as a marketing term and category of consumption that eventually caused the concept to stray away from local, i.e. "doujin," spaces of Japanese development. [more]
Gothic Gaming: The Ill Body and the Haunted House in Kitty Horrorshow’s Anatomy

by Amy LeBlanc

This article argues that the game mechanics at work in Anatomy constitute generative forms of Gothicism through the game’s use of found footage, first-person perspective and programmed failure, which can represent the flexible subjectivity of the chronically ill body. [more]
Games Built the Computer: Babbage, Lovelace and the Dawn of the Ludic Age

by Samuel Pizelo

This article examines the early writing of Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace to argue that they used games to model the algorithmic operations, spatialized computation and predictive reasoning necessary for the Analytical Engine. By recognizing the modeling function of games, the historical and epistemological role of games can be better understood. [more]

 

©2001 - 2024 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.