Game studies is the still-young field of analyzing games from a multi- and inter-disciplinary perspective. This article is about computer and video games. ...

Introduction

Prior to the late-20th century, the academic study of games was rare and limited to fields such as history and anthropology. For example, in the early 1900’s Stewart Culin wrote a comprehensive catalog of gaming implements and games from Native American tribes north of Mexico ^[1] while Johan Huizinga explored the importance of games and play as a basic human activity that helps define culture ^[2]. As the videogame revolution took off in the early 1980’s, so did academic interest in games. To date, the field of games studies can be characterized not only as multi-disciplinary but also as inter-disciplinary. Over the years, different fields and disciplines have demonstrated an interest in videogames and their study. The approaches taken thus far can be broadly characterized in three ways: For other uses, see Game (disambiguation). ... This article is about the study of the past in human terms. ... This is about the social science. ... For other uses, see Native Americans (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Culture (disambiguation). ... Plato is credited with the inception of academia: the body of knowledge, its development and transmission across generations. ...

1. Social Science Approach
   • Studying the effects of games on people
     • What do games do to people?
       • Ex: Learning, Effects of violence in games
     • How do people create and negotiate a game?
2. Humanities Approach
   • Studying the meaning and context of games
     • What meanings are made through game use?
     • Studying games as artifacts in and of themselves
       • Ex: Affordances of the medium, critical analysis, rhetoric
3. Industry and Engineering Approach
   • Understanding the design and development of games
     • Ex: How to make better games
   • Games as drivers of technological innovations
     • Ex: Graphics, AI, networking, etc.

In addition to asking different kinds of questions, each approach tends to use different methods and tools. A large body of social scientists prefer quantitative tools and methods while a smaller group makes use of qualitative research. Academics from the humanities tend to prefer tools and methods that are qualitative. The industry approach is practice-driven and usually less concerned with theory than the other two. Of course, these approaches are not mutually exclusive, and a significant part of game studies research blends them together. Tracy Fullerton and Kenji Ito’s work are examples of interdisciplinary work being done in games studies^[3][4]. The social sciences are groups of academic disciplines that study the human aspects of the world. ... Learning is the acquisition and development of memories and behaviors, including skills, knowledge, understanding, values, and wisdom. ... For other uses, see Violence (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Humanities (disambiguation). ... Look up meaning in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up Context in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Engineering is the discipline of acquiring and applying knowledge of design, analysis, and/or construction of works for practical purposes. ... A scale for measuring mass A quantitative property is one that exists in a range of magnitudes, and can therefore be measured. ... Qualitative research is one of the two major approaches to research methodology in social sciences. ...

The youth of the field of game studies is also another reason for blurred boundaries between approaches. Williams, in a call for greater inter-disciplinary work in communications-oriented games scholarship, noted how the “study of videogames is poised to repeat the mistakes of past academic inquiry” ^[5]. He argues that the youth of the field means that it is not bound to follow the traditional divisions of scholarly work and that there is an opportunity to rediscover the strengths and contributions that different scholarly traditions can offer.

Social Sciences

Broadly speaking, the social scientific approach has concerned itself with the question of “What do games do to people?” Using tools and methods such as surveys and controlled laboratory experiments, researchers have investigated both the positive and negative impact that playing games could have on people. Statistical surveys are used to collect quantitative information about items in a population. ... In the scientific method, an experiment (Latin: ex- periri, of (or from) trying) is a set of observations performed in the context of solving a particular problem or question, to retain or falsify a hypothesis or research concerning phenomena. ...

Among the possible negative effects of gameplay, perhaps the one most commonly raised by media and the general public has to do with violence in games. What are the possible effects that playing videogames, in particular those that feature aggressive or violent elements, might have on children and youth? Social learning theory (e.g., Bandura, 1986) suggests that playing aggressive videogames would stimulate aggressive behavior in players in particular because the player is an active participant (as opposed to a passive observer as the case of aggression in film and television). On the other hand, catharsis theory (e.g., Feshbach and Singer, 1971) implies that playing aggressive videogames would have the opposite effect by channeling latent aggression resulting in a positive effect on players. Numerous reviews of existing literature have been written and there isn’t a clear picture of the effects of playing violent videogames might have (Griffiths, 1999; Sherry, 2001). For the article on social learning theory in psychology and education see social cognitivism. ... In psychology and other social and behavioral sciences, aggression refers to behavior that is intended to cause harm or pain. ... Catharsis is the Greek Katharsis word meaning purification or cleansing derived from the ancient Greek gerund καθαίρειν transliterated as kathairein to purify, purge, and adjective katharos pure or clean (ancient and modern Greek: καθαρός). // The term in drama refers to a sudden emotional breakdown or climax that constitutes overwhelming feelings of great...

As for positive effects, educators and learning scientists have also debated how to leverage the motivation students had for playing games as well as exploring the medium of videogames for educational and pedagogical purposes. Malone explored the intrinsically motivating qualities that games have and how they might be useful in designing educational games (Malone, 1980; Malone, 1981) while Kafai utilized the design of games by schoolchildren as the context for them to learn computer programming concepts and mathematics (Kafai, 1995; Kafai, 1996). Similarly, Squire has explored the use of commercial games as a means for engaging disenfranchised students in school (Squire, 2005). In addition to their motivational factors, Gee and Shaffer have argued that certain qualities present in the medium of videogames provide valuable opportunities for learning (Gee, 2003; Shaffer, 2006). In her book Life on the Screen, Sherry Turkle explored how people that participated in online multiplayer games such as MUDs used their experiences with the game to explore personal issues of identity (Turkle, 1995). In her book Play Between Worlds, T. L. Taylor recounts her experience playing the massively multiplayer online game Everquest. In doing so, she seeks to understand “the nuanced border relationship that exists between MMOG players and the (game) worlds they inhabit” (Taylor, 2006). Motivation is a word used to refer to the reason or reasons for engaging in a particular behavior, especially human behavior. ... Pedagogy is the art or science of teaching. ... An educational game is a game designed to teach people, typically children, about a certain subject or help them learn a skill as they play. ... Programming redirects here. ... For other meanings of mathematics or uses of math and maths, see Mathematics (disambiguation) and Math (disambiguation). ... Sherry Turkle (born 1948) is a clinical psychologist and a professor of Science, Technology and Society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ... This article is about a type of online computer game. ... Look up Identity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... EverQuest (or colloquially, EQ) is a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that was released on March 16, 1999. ...

Finally, economists have also begun studying games, in particular massively multiplayer online games (MMOG), to better understand human behavior. The economic activity in these games is being studied as one would study the economy of a nation such as Russia or Bulgaria (Castronova, 2001). Different theories, such as coordination game theory, can be put to the test because games can produce contexts for natural experiments: a high number of participants as well as tightly controlled experimental conditions (Castronova, 2006). From this perspective, games provide a unique context in which human activity can be explored and better understood. Alan Greenspan, former chairman, United States Federal Reserve. ... For the Björk song, see Human Behaviour Human behavior is the collection of behaviors exhibited by human beings and influenced by culture, attitudes, emotions, values, ethics, authority, rapport, hypnosis, persuasion, coercion and/or genetics. ...

Humanities

In general terms, the humanities approach has concerned itself with the question of “What meanings are made through games?” Using tools and methods such as interviews, ethnographies and participant observation, researchers have investigated the various roles that videogames play in people’s lives and activities together with the meaning they assign to their experiences. For example, Consalvo explores how players choose to play the games they buy and negotiate how, when, and for what reasons to subvert a game’s rules (Consalvo, 2007). It turns out that “cheating” is a very complex phenomenon whose meaning is continually negotiated by players, the game industry, and various gaming sub-cultures that revolve around specific games. Cheat redirects here. ... In biology, a subculture in a population of a microorganism is when one microbe colony in such a population is transferred onto blank growth medium and allowed to freely reproduce. ...

Other researchers have focused on understanding videogames as cultural artifacts with embedded meaning, exploring what the medium of the videogame is, and situating it in context to other forms of human expression. Laurel’s book Computers as Theatre, while principally focused on applying tenants of dramatic criticism to the design of human-computer interface design, describes how videogames are the natural result of computers “capacity to represent action in which the humans could participate”. (Laurel, 1991). Rather than considering the computer as a highly efficient tool for calculating or computing, she proposed understanding the computer as a medium. The thesis of her book attempts to draw parallels between drama and the computer, with computers allowing their users to play equivalent roles to both the drama performer as well as the audience member. Throughout her book, Laurel uses different videogames as exemplars of many of the ideas and principles she tries to communicate. Jenkins, on the other hand, explores the role that videogames play in a broader context he calls transmedia storytelling. In Jenkin’s view, content moves between different media and videogames are a part of the general ecology of storytelling media that includes movies, novels, and comic books (Jenkins, 2003). Similarly, Janet Murray’s Hamlet on the Holodeck, described the computer as a new medium for the practice of storytelling (Murray, 1997). By analyzing videogames along with other digital artifacts such as hypertext and interactive chat characters, Murray explores the new expressive possibilities allowed by computers. In particular, she views videogames as part of an expanded concept of storytelling she calls cyberdrama. Espen Aarseth, in his book Cybertext, disagrees with Murray’s idea and holds that “to claim there is no difference between games and narratives is to ignore essential qualities of both categories” (Aarseth, 1997). For other uses, see Drama (disambiguation). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

This disagreement has been called the ludology vs. narratology debates. The narratological view is that games should be understood as novel forms of narrative and can thus be studied using theories of narrative (Murray, 1997; Atkins, 2003). The ludological position is that games should be understood on their own terms. Ludologists have proposed that the study of games should concern the analysis of the abstract and formal systems they describe. In other words, the focus of game studies should be on the rules of a game, not on the representational elements which are only incidental (Aarseth, 2001; Eskelinen, 2001; Eskelinen, 2004). The idea that a videogame is “radically different to narratives as a cognitive and communicative structure” (Aarseth, 2001) has led the development of new approaches to criticism that are focused on videogames as well adapting, repurposing and proposing new ways of studying and theorizing about videogames. Video game studies (Lat. ... In logic and mathematics, a formal system consists of two components, a formal language plus a set of inference rules or transformation rules. ... Cognitive The scientific study of how people obtain, retrieve, store and manipulate information. ... For the Bobby Womack album, see Communication (1972 album). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Juul’s Half-Real explores how videogames blend formal rules with the imaginative experiences provided by fictional worlds. He describes the tensions faced by games studies scholars when choosing to focus on the game or the player of the game. “We can examine the rules as they are found mechanically in the game program or in the manual of a board game, or we can examine the rules as something that players negotiate and learn. We can also treat the fictional world as a set of signs that the game presents, and we can treat the fictional world as something that the game cues the player into imagining and that players then imagine in their own ways (Juul, 2005).” Bogost’s comparative approach to videogame criticism also stands out as one of the more recent steps in the direction of proposing new ways of studying and theorizing about games. In Unit Operations, Bogost argues for explicating videogames through a new form of criticism that encompasses the programmatic and algorithmic underpinnings of games together with the cultural and ideological units (2006). Flowcharts are often used to graphically represent algorithms. ...

Ludology and narratology

Like most academic fields, those who study video games often have differing approaches. While scholars use many different theoretical and research frameworks, the two most visible approaches are ludology and narratology. Narratology, a term coined by Professor Edward Maloney from Georgetown University, is the theory and study of narrative and narrative structure and ([1]) the way they affect our perception. ...

The term ludology arose within the context of non-electronic games and board games in particular, but gained popularity after it was featured in an article by Gonzalo Frasca in 1999.^[6] The name, however, has not yet caught on fully. Major issues being grappled with in the field are questions of narrative and of simulation, and whether or not video games are either, neither, or both. A board game is a game played with counters or pieces that are placed on, removed from, or moved across a board (a premarked surface, usually specific to that game). ... Gonzalo Frasca is a game developer from Uruguay who, as of December 2004, studies games at the Center for Computer Game Research at the at the IT University of Copenhagen. ... This article is about the year. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... This article is about the general term. ...

The narrativists approach video games in the context of what Janet Murray calls "Cyberdrama." That is to say, their major concern is with video games as a storytelling medium, one that arises out of interactive fiction. Murray puts video games in the context of the Holodeck, a fictional piece of technology from Star Trek, arguing for the video game as a medium in which we get to become another person, and to act out in another world.^[7] This image of video games certainly received early widespread popular support, and forms the basis of films such as Tron, eXistenZ, and The Last Starfighter. But it is also criticized by some game scholars (such as Espen J. Aarseth) for being better suited to linear narratives than to analysis of interactive video games with multiple, semi-linear or non-linear narratives. Janet Murray is a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she is the director of graduate studies in the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture. ... A holodeck on the Enterprise-D; the arch and exit are prominent. ... This article is about the entire Star Trek franchise. ... Tron is a 1982 science fiction film starring Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn (and his counterpart inside the electronic world, Clu), Bruce Boxleitner as Alan Bradley (and Tron), Cindy Morgan as Lora Baines (and Yori) and Dan Shor as Ram. ... eXistenZ is a 1999 psychological thriller/science fiction film by Canadian director David Cronenberg. ... The Last Starfighter is a 1984 science fiction adventure film. ... Espen J. Aarseth is a major figure in the emerging field of video game studies. ...

The narrativist approach can also be found in the works of Lev Manovich, as well as in the works of Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin, which deal more with the concept of new media in general, and its historical roots than with video games as such. But these authors still fundamentally approach video games as 'a text that can be read' - much like a book, poem, or film, and as a media form that has many of the same elements. Lev Manovich is Professor of Visual Arts, University of California, San Diego, USA where he teaches new media art and theory. ... Jay David Bolter is a professor of Language, Communication and Culture at the Georgia Institute of Technology. ... New Media is the marriage of mediated communications technologies with digital computers. ...

There are some standard arguments that usually are used to claim that games are narratives, as in the explanation from Jesper Juul:

• Everything is narrative
• Most gamers use narratives as introductions and backstories
• Games share certain elements with narratives

The ludologists break sharply and radically from this. Their perspective is that a video game is first and foremost just that, a game, and that it needs to be understood in terms of its rules, interface, and in terms of the concept of play. Ludologists such as Espen J. Aarseth argue that, although games certainly have plots, characters, and aspects of traditional narratives, these aspects are incidental to gameplay. In one essay, he memorably claims that "the dimensions of Lara Croft's body, already analyzed to death by film theorists, are irrelevant to me as a player, because a different-looking body would not make me play differently... When I play, I don't even see her body, but see through it and past it."^[8] Stuart Moulthrop, another ludologist, takes a slightly more moderate perspective, arguing that one cannot completely divorce games from their social context, but still fundamentally arguing that games are not narratives in any meaningful sense. Espen J. Aarseth is a major figure in the emerging field of video game studies. ... Lara Croft is a fictional British video game character and the heroine of the Tomb Raider series of video games, movies, and comic books. ... Film theory debates the essence of the cinema and provides conceptual frameworks for analyzing, among other things, the film image, narrative structure, the function of film artists, the relationship of film to reality, and the film spectators position in the cinematic experience. ... Stuart Moulthrop is an innovator of electronic literature and hypertext fiction, both as a theoretician and as a writer. ...

In another opinion, the dualism of a strict division between ludology-narratology is quite artificial. Ludology does not exclude the so-called "narratology" approach.^[9]

Jesper Juul's arguments for looking at games as non-narrative, or as a ludologist:

• Games are not a part of the media landscape of movies, novels, theater etc.
• Game time is different from narrative time
• The relationship between the reader/viewer and the story world is different from the relation between the player and the game world

One can say that some narrativist approaches are useful when examining strongly narrative-like games such as Zork, and Return to Zork, and more contemporary text-heavy games such as the Lunar series, the Final Fantasy series, or Odin Sphere - but some video game genres have taken a different approach to their design. Fighting games, sports games, or first person shooting games, to name a few, can hardly be analyzed using the narrativist approach. One can also point to the way that narrativist approaches may have something to say about where "big world" games have come from historically; immense game-worlds do seem to have roots in narrative pulp and popular fiction (Lord of the Rings, etc) and fantasy film epics (Star Wars trilogy, etc). Zork universe Zork games Zork Anthology Zork trilogy Zork I • Zork II • Zork III Beyond Zork • Zork Zero Enchanter trilogy Enchanter • Sorcerer • Spellbreaker Other games Wishbringer • Return to Zork Zork: Nemesis • Zork Grand Inquisitor Zork: The Undiscovered Underground Topics in Zork Encyclopedia Frobozzica Characters • Kings • Creatures Timeline • Magic • Calendar Zorkmid... Return to Zork is a 1993 adventure game in the Zork series for the PC and Apple Macintosh. ... Lunar may refer to: an adjective that means having to do with or pertaining to the Moon, or to moons in general. ... This article is about the Final Fantasy franchise. ... Odin Sphere ) is a 2D fantasy action RPG video game. ... This article is about inexpensive fiction magazines. ... Dust jacket of the 1968 UK edition The Lord of the Rings is an epic fantasy story by J. R. R. Tolkien, a sequel to his earlier work, The Hobbit. ... For other uses, see Fantasy (disambiguation). ... This article is about the series. ...

Henry Jenkins attempts to find a compromise between ludology and narratology with the following points:

• Not all games tell stories
• Many games have narrative ambitions
• An analysis of storytelling in games can be done in more than one way
• The gaming experience can never be reduced to the experience of a story
• If games tell stories, it is unlikely that they do so in the same manner as other media

Pre-history of video games

There is now also an emerging field of study (Oliver Grau, 2004, and others) that looks at the "pre-history" of video games, and at the branch of their roots that lie in: fairground attractions and sideshows such as shooting games; early "Coney Island"-style pleasure parks with elements such as large roller-coasters and "haunted house" simulations; nineteenth century landscape simulations such as dioramas, panoramas, planetariums, and stereographs; and amusement arcades that had mechanical game machines and also peep-show film machines.^[10] Ferris wheel Amusement park is the more generic term for a collection of amusement rides and other entertainment attractions assembled for the purpose of entertaining a fairly large group of people. ... For other uses, see Sideshow (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Coney Island (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Roller coaster (disambiguation). ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... A diorama is any of the two display devices mentioned below. ... This article is an overview of the term Panorama. ... For the song by Ai Otsuka, see Planetarium (song) // A planetarium is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. ... Stereoscopy, stereoscopic imaging or 3-D (three-dimensional) imaging is a technique to create the illusion of depth in a photograph, movie, or other two-dimensional image, by presenting a slightly different image to each eye. ... A video arcade (known as an amusement arcade in the United Kingdom) is a place where people play arcade video games. ... A peep show or peepshow is an exhibition of pictures or objects viewed through a small hole or magnifying glass. ...

See also

• Center for Computer Games Research
• List of books on computer and video games
• Ludography
• Simulated reality

This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The following is a list of books on computer and video games, which range from development, theory, history, to art books. ... A ludography is a list of games designed by a game designer, either an individual or entity. ... Simulated reality is the idea that reality could be simulated — often computer-simulated — to a degree indistinguishable from true reality. ...

References

1. ^ Culin, S. (1907). Games of the North American Indians, Twenty fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1902-1903. Government Printing Office: 1-840. 
2. ^ Huizinga, Johan (1954). Homo Ludens. Madrid: Alianza Editorial. 
3. ^ Fullerton, Tracy (2005). "The Play's the Thing: Practicing Play as Community Foundation and Design Technique". Changing Views: Worlds in Play, Selected Papers from the 2005 DiGRA Conference, Vancouver, Canada: DiGRA. 
4. ^ Ito, Kenji (2005). "Possibilities of Non-Commercial Games: The Case of Amateur Role Playing Games Designers in Japan". Changing Views: Worlds in Play, Selected Papers from the 2005 DiGRA Conference: 135-145, Vancouver, Canada: DiGRA. 
5. ^ Williams, D, "Bridging the methodological divide in game research", Simulation & Gaming 36 (4): 447-463
6. ^ Frasca, Gonzalo (1999). Ludology meets narratology: Similitudes and differences between (video) games and narrative (HTML). Ludology.org. Retrieved on 2006-06-14.
7. ^ Murray, Janet (1998). Hamlet on the Holodeck. MIT Press. ISBN 0262631873. 
8. ^ Aarseth, Espen J. (2004-05-21). Genre Trouble (HTML). Electronic Book Review. Retrieved on 2006-06-14.
9. ^ Frasca, Gonzalo (2003). Ludologists love stories, too: notes from a debate that never took place (PDF). Ludology.org. Retrieved on 2006-06-14.
10. ^ Grau, Oliver (2004). Virtual Art. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-57223-1. 

Gonzalo Frasca is a game developer from Uruguay who, as of December 2004, studies games at the Center for Computer Game Research at the at the IT University of Copenhagen. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 165th day of the year (166th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Janet Murray is a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she is the director of graduate studies in the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture. ... Espen J. Aarseth is a major figure in the emerging field of video game studies. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 141st day of the year (142nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 165th day of the year (166th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Gonzalo Frasca is a game developer from Uruguay who, as of December 2004, studies games at the Center for Computer Game Research at the at the IT University of Copenhagen. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 165th day of the year (166th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... MIT Press Books The MIT Press is a university publisher affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ...

Relevant resources

Professional associations

• Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA)
• Canadian Games Studies Association
• Spilforskning - The Danish network of game researchers

Academic journal publications

• Game Journal: Professional Academic Forum for Games and Game Theory
• Game Studies: The International Journal of Computer Game Research
• Game Research: The art, business, and science of video games
• Games and Culture: A Journal of Interactive Media
• Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture
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Conferences

• DiGRA 2007: Situated Play
  • Conference Proceedings
• DiGRA 2005: Worlds in Play
  • Conference Proceedings
• DiGRA 2003: Level Up
  • Conference Proceedings

External links

• Learning Games Initiative: an international, transdisciplinary, multi-institutional research collective and archive.
• Ludology.org: online discussion of ludology.
• Gameology.org: commentary and resources for the game studies community.
• Buzzcut.com: critical videogame theory.
• EternalGamer.com: exploring games through philosophy, theory, and criticism.
• Joystick101.org: online gaming and education site sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
• Grand Text Auto: about machine narrative, games, poetry, and art.
• Terra Nova: online discussion about virtual worlds.
• Games * Design * Art * Culture
• The Ludologist: Blog on computer game studies.
• Ludonauts: exploring ludic media
• .brain Critical videogame theory and ludology.
• Sirlin.net Videogame theory site focusing on competitive gaming.
• Ludologica: blog on game studies
• GamesSound.com - site with studies and resources for educators all dealing with game audio.
• Gamecultura: GameCulture: The Videogame as Culture. (in Portuguese, with auto-translation)
• Ludic Dreams Blog Chronicling a student's attempts to Bring Ludology to his campus as a Major.
• Digiplay Games Research Bibliography Bibliography containing over 2400 references to papers, books, theses and conference papers on computer, video and digital games research.
• Games Anatomy: -blog of an ordinary guy's perspective on games.

Further reading

• Aarseth, Espen J. (1997). Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-5579-9. 
• Balkin, Jack M.; Beth Simone Noveck (2006). The State of Play: Law, Games, and Virtual Worlds. New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-9971-0. 
• Bogost, Ian (2006). Unit Operations: an Approach to Videogame Criticism. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-02599-7. 
• Bolter, Jay David; Richard Grusin (2000). Remediation: Understanding New Media. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-52279-3. 
• Bryce, Jo; Jason Rutter (2006). Understanding Digital Games. Sage. ISBN 1-4129-0033-6.  (Table of contents and contributing authors), (Introduction to collection)
• Galloway, Alexander R. (2006). Gaming:Essays on Algorithmic Culture. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 9780816648504. 
• Grau, Oliver (2004). Virtual Art. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-57223-1. 
• Grau, Oliver (ed.) (2007). MediaArtHistories. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-07279-3. 
• Hanson, Matt (2004). The End of Celluloid: Film futures in the digital age.. Rotovision,. ISBN 2-88046-783-7. 
• Harrigan, Pat and; Noah Wardrip-Fruin (2007). Second Person: Role-Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-08356-0. 
• Juul, Jesper (July 2001). "Games Telling Stories: A brief note on games & Narratives". Games Studies 1 (1). 
• Juul, Jesper (2006). Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-10110-3. 
• King, Brad; John Borland (2003). Dungeons and Dreamers: The Rise of Computer Game Culture from Geek to Chic. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-222888-1. 
• Manovich, Lev (2001). The Language of New Media. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-63255-3. 
• McAllister, Ken S. (2004). Gamework: Language, Power, and Computer Game Culture. University of Alabama Press. ISBN 0-8173-5420-4. 
• Newman, James (2004). Videogames. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-28192-X. 
• Ryan, Marie-Laure (2001). Narrative as Virtual Reality. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-6487-9. 
• Salen, Katie; Eric Zimmerman (2003). Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-24045-9. 
• Salen, Katie; Eric Zimmerman (2005). The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-19536-2. 
• Wardrip-Fruin, Noah; Pat Harrigan (2004). First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-73175-1. 
• Wolf, Mark J.P.; Bernard Perron (2003). The Video Game Theory Reader. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-96579-9. 
• Wolf, Mark J.P. (2001). The Medium of the Video Game. University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-79150-X.