Game Studies

Abstract

This entry describes game studies as a dynamic interdisciplinary field of academic study and research that focuses on digital games and play in a wide variety of social and cultural contexts. It examines the history of game studies from its prehistory, when games were looked at as part of other disciplines, to the period when game studies became a discipline or field of its own, and then to the period when interdisciplinarity became dominant. Although game studies is traditionally concerned exclusively with digital games, it increasingly uses its theoretical perspective and concepts (e.g., game, play, and playfulness) to interpret society and culture at large. This not only offers new opportunities for the study of human communication and interaction, but also challenges the core identity of game studies.