Game Studies

Game Studies

episodes

Interviews with scholars of games and gaming about their new books. For more information about the Game Studies special series, please contact Rudolf Thomas Inderst at rudolf.inderst@googlemail.com.

Seth E. Jenny et al., "Routledge Handbook of Esports" (Routledge, 2024)

November 9, 2024

Routledge Handbook of Esports

Seth E. Jenny

The Routledge Handbook of Esports (Routledge, 2024) offers the first fully comprehensive, interdisciplinary study of esports, one of the fastest growi…

Yaraslau Kot, "Central and Eastern European Histories and Heritages in Video Games" (Routledge, 2024)

November 7, 2024

Central and Eastern European Histories and Heritages in Video Games

Michal Mochocki, Pawel Schreiber, Jakub Majewski, and Yaraslau Kot

Focusing on games that examine a range of national histories and heritages from across Central and Eastern Europe, Central and Eastern European Histor…

Richard Moss, "Tale of Two Halves: The History Of Football Video Games" (Bitmap Books, 2024)

November 1, 2024

Tale of Two Halves

Richard Moss

Painstakingly researched and written by football-obsessed writer and experienced game journalist, historian, and documentarian Richard Moss – author o…

Tom Smith, "Anatomy of Game Design" (CRC Press, 2024)

October 30, 2024

Anatomy of Game Design

Tom Smith

People have played games forever, but it’s only in the past few decades that people really started thinking about what games are, how they work, and h…

Maurice Suckling, "Paper Time Machines: Critical Game Design and Historical Board Games" (Routledge, 2024)

October 12, 2024

Paper Time Machines

Maurice Suckling

James Dunnigan’s memorable phrase serves as the first part of a title for this book, where it seeks to be applicable not just to analog wargames, but …

Gabe Durham, "Bible Adventures" (Boss Fight Books, 2015)

October 10, 2024

Bible Adventures

Gabe Durham

In the beginning, a small unlicensed game development company was hit with divine inspiration: They could make a lot of money (and escape the wrath of…

Jordan Minor, "Video Game of the Year: A Year-By-Year Guide to the Best, Boldest, and Most Bizarre Games from Every Year Since 1977" (Abrams, 2023)

September 26, 2024

Video Game of the Year

Jordan Minor

Pong. The Legend of Zelda. Final Fantasy VII. Rock Band. Fortnite. Animal Crossing: New Horizons. For each of the 40 years of video game history, ther…

Marta Fijak and Artur Ganszyniec, "How and Why We Make Games" (CRC Press, 2024)

September 18, 2024

How and Why We Make Games

Marta Fijak and Artur Ganszyniec

How and Why We Make Games (CRC Press, 2024) delves into the intricate realms of games and their creation, examining them through cultural, systemic, a…

Hey, Robot!

September 16, 2024

Hey, Robot!

Frank Lantz
Hosted by Mack Hagood

Today, we’re playing with voice assistants and thinking about the role of voices in gaming with our guest, game designer and NYU professor Frank Lantz…

Jordan Magnuson, "Game Poems: Videogame Design as Lyric Practice" (Amherst College Press, 2023)

September 4, 2024

Game Poems

Jordan Magnuson

Scholars, critics, and creators describe certain videogames as being “poetic,” yet what that means or why it matters is rarely discussed. In Game Poem…

Sarah Malanowski and Nicholas R. Baima, "Why It's Ok to Be a Gamer" (Routledge, 2024)

September 3, 2024

Why It's Ok to Be a Gamer

Sarah Malanowski and Nicholas R. Baima

If you enjoy video games as a pastime, you are certainly not alone—billions of people worldwide now play video games. However, you may still find your…

Christopher B. Patterson and Tara Fickle, "Made in Asia/America: Why Video Games Were Never (Really) about Us" (Duke UP, 2024)

August 24, 2024

Made in Asia/America

Christopher B. Patterson and Tara Fickle

Made in Asia/America: Why Video Games Were Never (Really) about Us (Duke UP, 2024) explores the key role video games play within the race makings of A…

Tore C. Olsson, "Red Dead's History: A Video Game, an Obsession, and America's Violent Past" (St. Martin's Press, 2024)

August 6, 2024

Red Dead's History

Tore C. Olsson
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption II, set in 1911 and 1899, are the most-played American history video games since The Oregon Trail. Beloved…

Sören Schoppmeier, "Playing American: Open-World Videogames and the Reproduction of American Culture" (De Gruyter, 2023)

July 19, 2024

Playing American

Sören Schoppmeier

Videogames have always depicted representations of American culture, but how exactly they feed back into this culture is less obvious. Advocating an a…

Souvik Mukherjee, "Videogames in the Indian Subcontinent: Development, Culture(s) and Representations" (Bloomsbury, 2022)

July 1, 2024

Videogames in the Indian Subcontinent

Souvik Mukherjee
Hosted by Xenia Zeiler

While there has been considerable research on digital cultures in the Indian Subcontinent, video games have received scant attention so far. Yet, they…

Edwin McRae, "Narrative Worldbuilding: A Player Centric Approach to Designing Story Rich Game Worlds" (Narrative, 2024)

May 28, 2024

Narrative Worldbuilding

Edwin McRae and Rachel Rees

Game worlds differ from traditional fictional worlds. While literary and cinematic worlds are written to host character arcs and plots, game worlds ne…

En Li, "Betting on the Civil Service Examinations: The Lottery in Late Qing China" (Harvard UP, 2023)

May 17, 2024

Betting on the Civil Service Examinations

En Li
Hosted by Laurie Dickmeyer

During the Qing dynasty in China, a wide variety of people participated in a lottery game named weixing (“surname guessing”), which had participants p…

Regina Seiwald and Ed Vollans, "(Not) In the Game: History, Paratexts, and Games" (de Gruyter, 2023)

May 8, 2024

(Not) In the Game

Regina Seiwald and Ed Vollans

How do games represent history, and how do we make sense of the history of games? The industry regularly uses history to sell products, while processe…

Jaakko Stenros and Markus Montola, "The Rule Book: The Building Blocks of Games" (MIT Press, 2024)

May 4, 2024

The Rule Book

Jaakko Stenros and Markus Montola

How games are built on the foundations of rules, and how rules—of which there are only five kinds—really work. Board games to sports, digital games t…

Peter D. McDonald, "Run and Jump: The Meaning of the 2D Platformer" (MIT Press, 2024)

March 15, 2024

Run and Jump

Peter D. McDonald

How abstract design decisions in 2D platform games create rich worlds of meaning for players.Since the 1980s, 2D platform games have captivated their …