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Atlanta, GA | Posted: September 11, 2013
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Game studies may be a relative newcomer to the academic arena, but its emergence during the past decade has brought an explosion of interdisciplinary discussion and cooperation.
digra 2013Game studies may be a relative newcomer to the academic arena, but its emergence during the past decade has brought an explosion of interdisciplinary discussion and cooperation.
As one among the first institutions in the world to initiate game research and having offered humanities-based game studies courses since 1999, Georgia Tech is at the forefront of that discussion.
“As long as I’ve been here, since 2006, Georgia Tech has been associated with games,” said Celia Pearce, associate professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication (LCC) specializing in games research and media arts. “Being situated within the humanities, we are focused on producing well-rounded, technically savvy, and culturally-well-informed practitioners. Students are led to understand cultural history and importance; not just the technical aspects, but where it fits into the larger trajectory.”
Pearce recently co-chaired the annual conference for the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA), the premiere international association for academics and professionals who research digital games and associated phenomena. Hosted by Georgia Tech August 26-29, the conference brought together a diverse international community of interdisciplinary researchers engaged in cutting edge research in the field of game studies. 17 presenters at the conference were Georgia Tech’s very own, including eight faculty members, three grad students, and six alumni.
The theme of this year’s conference was Defragging Game Studies: “frag” is video game parlance for the temporary killing of another player. “Defrag” means reducing file fragmentation on a computer. The theme highlighted the diverse methods and perspectives of game studies and questions about whether or not game studies should split into discipline-centered communities or grows cohesively as an “interdiscipline” that includes humanities, social sciences, psychology, computer sciences, design studies, and fine arts.
So what did the conference reveal about the future of game studies?
Game studies scholarship, like digital media design and game design, is a collective cultural process of inventing shared conventions of representation. Just as game design is centered indiverse disciplines including anthropology, sports studies, cognitive science, and performance studies, game studies draws from multiple disciplines. Controversies over definitional boundaries reflect the threshold between old and new cultural forms, but awareness of the liminal nature of games, game design, and game studies offers a horizon for sharpening critical focus and expanding understanding.
As Georgia Tech looks toward the future in game studies, “defragging” and collective invention will define the work of our humanities-influenced, yet technically savvy students and practitioners, unifying research under one interdisciplinary umbrella to better utilize the diversity of methods and perspectives of the game studies research community.
Learn more at www.dm.gatech.edu and at games@gatech.edu
