Looking for my corpse: Video games and player positioning

Abstract

Like all cultural forms, video games reflect aspects of the society in which they are produced; they also shape players’ perceptions and promote values both implicitly and explicitly. Discussions of games have often hinged on definitions: for instance, whether they are best understood in relation to ludology (the study of games, their forms and categories) or to narratology (how narratives work). I argue in this paper that games are hybrid products which incorporate narrative and game elements while engaging players in energetic action and (in many cases) interpersonal and social processes. As complex, evolving forms, they invite analytical strategies which take account of the multifarious ways in which they produce meaning and create subject positions for players.