This article is meant to give you a little overview of Game Studies. I’ll try to make this not too complicated so that everyone can read it and get something out of it, which is the ultimate reason for this (and maybe the following) article(s).

When we think about games and science, many gamers think about all that research that is done to find out whether or not Video Games have a good or bad influence on people and children in particular. But that is not the only approach science has on Video Games.

Game Studies is a science field that has been founded in 2001. It was then, when the first online Magazine was founded and the first issue appeared in July 2001. Even before that, there was some research about board games and the like, but it never really caught on.

“So, what is the “task” of Game Studies?” you might ask.

“It has a lot of tasks!” might be the best answer. In fact, Game Studies are a really vast field where many people, coming from quite different and varying other fields, come together. Since Game Studies is such a young field, it has to “borrow” these people. It is the same case for me, who studies German literature, but tries to get into Game Studies (more on this at a later time). So, there is a lot of interdisciplinary work going on, which is good.
There are specific fields being more interested in Serious Games (Learning Games etc.), Game Criticism and History, Design Theory and of course Game Economic (among others). (Aarseth, 2005)

Now the final question for you would be: “Why should I, as a gamer, care about these people and what they do?”

Well, their work is forming the perception of our hobby in the media and for a lot of different people. Think about it: if you are not a gamer and have no real contact with Video Games, and all you hear about games is the discourse about violence in it, you get a really one-dimensional point of view about Video Games. And these people always tend to fear what they don’t know.
As soon as serious science considers something to be worthy of studying, its social acceptance rises. It’s that simple.

I hope this gave you a little introduction and a nice read. If there are enough people liking the article, I will do others on Game Studies.


References:
Espen Aarseth, Game Studies: what is it Good for? In The Inernational Digital Media & Arts Association Journal, 3, 2005, pp. 3-7. http://www.idmaa.org/journal/pdf/iDMAa_Journal_Vol_2_No_1_screen.pdf#page=9 (last accessed on February 8th)

For further reading: www.gamestudies.org