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This book compiles 12 papers in game studies published by the author from 2008 to 2021; including the specially written introduction, it consists of 13 chapters.
 
The author begins by introducing the history and current state of game studies, a new academic field that emerged in the 21st century. The technical definition and boundaries of digital games (games utilizing electronic circuits), which are the main subject of this book, are explained.
 
Part I, “Perception and Cognition,” focuses on how players sense the game. Chapters 1 and 2 analyze scrolling technology and “pseudo 3D” technology, respectively, both of which are unique to digital games, and clarify how players perceive movement and space in gameplay. In chapter 3, by applying semiotics, the hypothesis of “doubled perception” in players is presented. The hypothesis is that signs on the screen are simultaneously perceived by players as icons referring to things in the real world and objects to be manipulated in the virtual world. This book presents another hypothesis that the skills and literacy that are the foundation of today’s information society, such as recognition of on-screen movement and space and interpretation and manipulation of on-screen signs, have been developed and popularized through games.
 
Part II, “Gameplay,” explores how players play the game. Chapter 4 reveals that all gameplay is a social activity that involves faith in others. Single play is no exception, as long as potential competitors and spectators are assumed. As shown in the Latin root of the word compete, “to seek together,” the essence of the game is “to cooperate for conflict.” Chapter 5 focuses on the practices of “counterplay,” which means “playing against the game”; players do not just play “following the rules” but can also play “against the rules” and sometimes even create play that “resists the game.” Chapter 6 deals with the issue of gaming and fairness. Players want to participate in a fair game. However, as economics teaches, there are multiple standards of fairness. Gameplay, especially for children, provides an opportunity to learn and refine their sense of fairness, which is an important social function of games.
 
Part III, “Media,” shows that digital games using computers blur the boundary between “playing on a computer” and “playing with the computer itself.” Chapter 7 takes cues from the controversy over “death in games” and reveals that the distance and relationship between the player (in the real world) and the character (in the fictional world) creates an experience unique to games that is not observed with novels, movies, or manga. The author then concludes that games do not necessarily lead to disrespect for human life but rather sharpen the sense of life and death. Chapter 8 focuses on the phenomenon of “metagaming” and analyzes various recent practices in which games criticize, and sometimes deny or dismantle, games themselves in respect to their conventions and institutions. Chapter 9 extends McLuhan’s idea that “games are media” to the digital games of the computer age and discusses the trend of “remediation” (representation of one medium in another) observed in current gaming culture. This can be elucidated by linking it to the principle of the computer as a “meta-medium.”
 
Part IV, “Games in Culture,” explores the cutting-edge and diverse challenges in game studies. Chapter 10 analyzes the sound and music of digital games; chapter 11 deals with e-sports, which are competitions that use digital games; and chapter 12 focuses on the preservation and utilization of digital games as “cultural resources.”
 

(Written by YOSHIDA Hiroshi, Professor, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology / 2024)

Related Info

Award:
2024 The 33th The Okawa Publications Prize  (The Okawa Foundation for Information and Telecommunications  Nov. 20, 2024)

 
Related Article:
Thinking from eSports: The Present and Future of Physicality, Technology and Communication  (Fashion Talks… vol. 12  Nov 10, 2020)


 
Events:
Conference by Jérémie Cortial, Camille Laurelli, Hiroshi Yoshida  (French Institute of Estonia  Nov 11, 2024)

 
"Aesthetics of Digital Game" Talk  (春雨直播app, Hongo Campus  July 22, 2023)

 
Special Seminar on 'Rethinking Digital Games between Virtual and Physical: Japanese Video'  (SOAS – University of London  Feb 15, 2023)

 
[ACK Talks 05] Game/ Art/ Media　(Art Collaboration Kyoto　Nov 18, 2022)


 
Seminar: “Game Studies as a Node of Multiple Disciplines and Methodologies”  (Stockholm University  Oct 19, 2022)

 
Related info:
Japanese Books on Game Studies (Intermediate Level) provided by Hiroshi Yoshida

 

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