To Play Game Studies Press the START Button

Логос. 2015. № 1. С. 41–60.

Vetushinskiy A.

The article is dedicated to the origin and history of Game Studies. It starts with an analysis of the ludology/narratology debates. The author claims that these debates are one of the two myths underlying Game Studies. The second myth states that only Game Studies can investigate video games without reduction. The author demonstrates that even the ludological approach is a reductionist one. The author then demonstrates an important shift in Game Studies to a non-reductionist approach. From now on Game Studies are a post-discipline rather than a discipline. Video games have been studied by researchers from media studies, visual studies, cultural studies, etc. Regardless of institutional affiliation, the results of these investigations create an integral part of Game Studies and are easily assigned by it. It is because Game Studies is not about methods, but about an object. It is dealing with the intention to study video games in all their diversity, taking into account different research perspectives. The author discusses the role that game developers and game designers play in Game Studies. He claims that not just practice can produce or change theory, but the theory needs to be practical as well. Then the author proceeds to a current situation in the field and analyzes the most promising areas of contemporary research, e. g. procedural rhetoric and video games criticism.

Keywords: нарратология, game studies, game studies, людология