The Game Studies Crisis: What Are the Rules of Play?

Authors

  • Marc Ouellette
  • Steven Conway

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7557/23.6360

Abstract

Though no field or discipline’s historical vector presents itself as a strictly linear building of knowledge, the historical trajectory of Game Studies is problematic: certainly not linear, yet also not even multiplicious or rhizomatic. Instead, we are cyclical. Past debates often re-emerge, zombie-like, muttering the same arguments, often encased in binaries as endemic to our field as they are to the objects we study: unbridgeable disagreements on fundamental concepts; incompatible ontologies and epistemologies; incommensurability writ large. We view this as a chronic issue which has of late culminated in a crisis, exacerbated by changing institutional prerogatives championing multidisciplinary approaches and demands for “public impact”. This article takes a metaphysical approach, performing a meta-review to search for the root cause of our field’s cyclical nature. We identify and explore a key issue, namely our continuing status as pre-paradigmatic field, and ask questions designed to provoke ways forward, to provide more inflection points and fewer endless loops.

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Published

2021-09-03

How to Cite

Ouellette, M. and Conway, S. (2021) “The Game Studies Crisis: What Are the Rules of Play?”, Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture, 11(1), pp. 145–159. doi: 10.7557/23.6360.

Issue

Section

Perspectives