The Expectable Rise, Pyrrhic Victory, and Designerly Future of Game Studies as an Interdiscipline

the expectable rise, ...pyrrhic victory, and designerly future of game studies as an interdisciplineSebastian DeterdingRochester Institute of TechnologyCritical Evaluation of Game Studies Seminar, Tampere, April 28, 2014

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“Game studies are an interdisciplinary field …”

Aarseth 2001, Krzywinska, Mäyrä & Crogan 2005, Mäyrä 2008, Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Heide Smith & Tosca 2012, Waern & Zagal 2013

Game studies as interdiscipline

• ID seen as logical consequence of the newness of GS

• ID seen as necessity, given overcomplexity of games

• ID seen as primary strength of GS (relative to …?)

• ID seen as major challenge of GS: What’s “core”, how to organize & integrate?

Aarseth 2001, Krzywinska, Mäyrä & Crogan 2005, Mäyrä 2008, Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Heide Smith & Tosca 2012, Waern & Zagal 2013

1 What is ID?2 how ID-y are game studies?3 what are the challenges?4 so what do we do?

<insert data here>

<1>what is

interdisciplinarity?

multidisciplinarityJuxtaposition of disciplines

transdisciplinarityTranscendence of disciplines

interdisciplinarityInteraction & integration of disciplines

partial full

auxiliary supplementary structural

auxiliary supplementary structural

contextualising integrated generalising

theo

rym

eth

od

dat

a

degree of integration

narrow broadscope of disciplines

few disciplines,epistemologically

homogenous

many disciplines,epistemologically

heterogeneous

increasing dissolution of disciplinary boundaries

Adapted from Klein 2010

<2>How interdisciplinary

are game studies?

drivers of interdisciplinary fields

• New epistemic questions give rise to topical IDs: interactive fiction, ...

• New technology creates new societal issues: video game violence, game-based learning

• Social groups legitimise and push their interests through forming life experience IDs: aca/fans

• New vocations create economic demand for professional preparation IDs: game design

Jacobs & Frickel 2009

trajectories of iD fields

• Initial groundswell of young scholars driven by new ground, little competition, freedom from structure, big student & public interest

• As field matures, resistance of traditional disciplines, struggle for institutionalization

• Internal differentiation into sub-communities

• Traditional disciplines develop critical mass of scholars & bodies of work that pull scholars back

Raasch et al. 2013, Pfirman & Martin 2010, Jacobs & Frickel 2009, Holbrook 2010, van Rijnsoever & Kessels 2011

full, broad interdisciplinarity

• Educational: Experiential, collaborative, problem-based learning; support & practicing of perspective-taking, contextualization, critical thinking, synthesis, application across disciplines & theory/practice: ?

• Empirical: Routine & necessary integration of divergent data forms to answer research questions: ?

• Methodological: Unique new methods from mixing old ones: gameplay reviews (Williams), TRUE (Kim)?

• Theoretical: Germane new concepts & theories driven by & valuable for divergent disciplines and social domains; organise new research across epistemically divergent methods, disciplines: procedural rhetorics (Bogost)?

Klein 2010, Huutoniemi et al. 2010, DeZure 2010

multidisciplinarityJuxtaposition of disciplines

transdisciplinarityTranscendence of disciplines

interdisciplinarityInteraction & integration of disciplines

partial full

auxiliary supplementary structural

auxiliary supplementary structural

contextualising integrated generalising

theo

rym

eth

od

dat

a

degree of integration

narrow broadscope of disciplines

few disciplines,epistemicallyhomogenous

many disciplines,epistemically

heterogeneous

increasing dissolution of disciplinary boundaries

Adapted from Klein 2010

game studies

Hermeneutic, formal, qualitative media

studies

gamestudies

Hermeneutic, formal, qualitative media

studies

the phyrric victory of game studies

rele

van

ce o

f g

ames

recog

nitio

n o

f gam

e research

volume of game research(ers), resources

hciPlayability, game UX,

game UR

communicationPresence, MMT, SDT,

Involvement

economicsVirtual economies,

marketing, nudging, IP

psychologyAggression, addiction,

motivation

...

cf. Jacobs & Frickel 2009, van Rijnsoever & Kessels 2011

game studies

Hermeneutic, formal, qualitative media

studies

Boutet, Coavoux & Zabban 2014 (Category “Interdisciplinary” removed from data set)

3%5%5%

6%

7%

10%

11%12%

16%

4%

22%

CommunicationComputer ScienceSocial SciencesMedia StudiesEducationArtGame StudiesLiteratureHumanitiesCultural StudiesDesign

authors in Game studies journals

ludic

paidic

liminalliminoid

cultural formAesthetics, media studies

perfect feedbackNeoclassical economics

nudgesBehavioural economics

exploitationCritical theory

status displayMarketing, social psych.

communal performancePerf. studies, anthrop.

immersive performancePerf. studies, art

reinforcementBehavioural psychology

hedonic wellbeingPositive psychology

eudaimonic wellbeingDesign, philosophy

pleasureUX design, advertising

playfulnessDesign, philosophy

expressive systemsComputer science, rhetorics

microworldsEducation

Deterding, in print

differentiation of rhetorics

“Player studies”

“Formal”game studies

“Second waveColonizers”

“Indigeneous”

<3>what are the challenges?

hurdles for interdisciplinary fields

• Less recognition, doubts over lacking quality/rigour

• Less resources (journals, jobs, funding bodies, teaching materials, political representation)

• Friction of epistemic cultures (e.g. in peer review)

• No overarching theories, epistemic objects

• Unclear/traditional hiring & promotion criteria

• Disciplinarily organized job markets

Raasch et al. 2013, Pfirman & Martin 2010, Jacobs & Frickel 2009, Holbrook 2010, van Rijnsoever & Kessels 2011

<4>so what do we do?

Answer

#1

Boradkar 2010

Answer

#2

game *design* studies

• Design is inherently cross-disciplinary problem-solving, with integrative pedagogies (studio, project) and methods (design-based research, research-design, critical making, carpentry, ...)

• Applied focus gives relevance across social domains, design research gives critical corrective

• Institutionalised through interlocking educational programs, PhD/MFA degrees, and hiring/promotion criteria that create a self-sustaining job market

Jacobs & Frickel 2009, Boradkar 2010

Enable & bridgeepistemological

pluralism

Answer

#3

discourses .

stake-holderframes

media producer

frames

media textframes

audienceframes

with middle range theories/objects… that cut across epistemically divergent sites, theories, operationalizations: like news framing

media studies,comm. research

Close readings,formalization,

content analysis

media studies,comm. researchCorpus analysis,

discourse analysis

media psych.Experiments,

questionnaires

journalism r.Interviews,

studies of work

public relationsInterviews,

document analysis

cf. Merton 2004, Entman 1993, De Vreese 2005

discourses .

stake-holders

game creation games audiences

imagine a procedural rhetorics ...… that cuts across epistemically divergent sites, theories, operationalizations

cs, digital humanitiesClose readings,formalization,

content analysis

media studies,comm. researchCorpus analysis,cultural analytics

media psych.,qual. sociology

Experiments,questionnaires,

interviews,observation

cs, anthropology,digital humanities

Interviews,studies of work, ANT,

code analysis

sociology,media studies

Interviews,document analysis

[email protected]

@dingstweets

codingconduct.cc

Thank you.