Name Games: Analyzing Game Studies (Third Interlude)

• Published in: Hermeneutica p. 137
• Main Authors: Rockwell, Geoffrey, Sinclair, Stefan
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: United States MIT Press 2016; The MIT Press
• Subjects: Applied arts; Applied sciences; Arts; Behavioral sciences; Communication systems; Communications; Communications technology; Computer games; Consumers; Data management; Data visualization; Design; Digital communication systems; Digital Humanities & New Media; Electronic games; End users; Games; Heroes; Human populations; Humanities; Hyperlinks; Hypertext; Information analysis; Information management; Information science; Internet; Leisure studies; Literary characters; Literary elements; Literary studies; Literature; Literature & Criticism; Media Studies; Narratives; Narratology; Persons; Population studies; Protagonists; Recreation; Social Sciences; Technology; Text analytics; Virtual avatars; World Wide Web
• ISBN: 0262034352; 9780262034357
• DOI: 10.7551/mitpress/9522.003.0009

Espen Aarseth announced, in the introduction to the then-new journalGame Studies, “2001 can be seen as the Year One ofComputer Game Studiesas an emerging, viable, international, academic field.”¹ Adding drama, he warned about colonization from outside: “Games are not a kind of cinema, or literature, but colonizing attempts from both these fields have already happened, and no doubt will happen again.” In an editorial in the second issue, “The Dungeon and the Ivory Tower,” Aarseth cheekily imagined establishing a Game Studies program at a university as a strategy game, like Sid Meier’sCivilization. In it, he wrote,