Landmarks for the Contemporary Analysis of the Video Games. A new possible general scheme of analysis
Landmarks for the Contemporary Analysis of the Video Games. A new possible general scheme of analysis

Summary/Abstract: Video games , as a contemporary cultural phenomenon, have drawn the attention of academic scholars, who decrypt them from a cultural perspective (what happens outside the game?) or as cultural object in itself (what happens inside the game?). Nowadays, video games are analysed from multiple research perspectives, such as the economic, political, social or technological, and are decoded with the help of aesthetics, popular culture, gender studies, production and reception studies (Aarseth, 2003; Wolf & Perron, Introduction, 2003; Wardrip-Fruin & Harrigan, 2006). Today’s situation fundamentally differs from the one a decade ago, when the academic arena was dominated by the ideational debate known as ludology versus narratology. Yet, there are gaps in the specific literature, depicting a research field in its infancy (“game studies”). The objective of this analysis is to understand the dynamics of games studies in terms of methods and theories used (a critical literature review), and to propose a general scheme for analysing video games as cultural artefacts that may spot out some structures and content descriptors to be used for increasing the games’ engagement. The applicability of the scheme of analysis is validated on two video games: DayZ and Heavy Rain.

• Details
• Contents