Game Analysis Reloaded
- Apr 30, 2022
- 1 min read
Jørgensen, I. K. H., & Aarseth, E. (2022). Game analysis reloaded. Game Studies, 22(2).
The six articles selected for this special issue of Game Studies all reflect the interdisciplinarity of game studies as well as the many different notions of games, and the analytical diversity that comes with it. The starting point of Daneels, Denoo, Vandewalle, Dupont and Malliet’s article is the interdisciplinarity of game studies as a field. They observe that game analysis is challenged by the participatory quality of its object of study, by the many ways that games can be framed and understood by analysts and by a lack of cross-historical analytical methodologies. To mitigate these challenges, the authors offer a protocol for conducting game analysis. Rather than a definite game analysis framework, the DiGAP, as they call their protocol aims to be flexible enough to cater to studies of many different phenomena in games, while at the same time ensuring analytical rigor and transparency in the communication of the analysis. The protocol consists of seven sections each detailing important aspects of analytical work, such as deciding on the study’s rationale and research question, sampling games for analysis, deciding on game versions and platforms as well as difficulty level and mode of completion, choosing analytical framework and so on. As such, their protocol offers a comprehensive reference that should be useful for students and experienced researchers alike.