Gaming Theory and Game Studies

Game studies Games as a new area of study Academic interest in games took off in the 1980’s Three ways to look at games academically Social sciences approach Humanities approach Industry approach

Social Sciences The social sciences approach attempts to explore ‘what games do to people’ They investigate both the positive and negative impacts of playing games Positive: Using games to aid teaching Cognitive benefits Stress relief Etc. Negative: Video game content and its Potential influences

Games, Gender and Society class here Humanities The Humanities approach tries to examine ‘what meanings are made through games’ What different play styles might mean What sub-context the game may try to convey Video games are looked at as cultural artifacts that have embedded meanings, and that can be examined to explain deeper trends in society and culture. Games, Gender and Society class here at UB - DMS 448

Industry and Engineering The Industry approaches examine what and how to make successful games, or, what makes a game successful. The industry approach does not only look at how to make commercially successful games, but also games that have deeper intrinsic values, from innovation, affecting different experiences, and entertainment value. While the engineering approaches explore the extent to which video games have promoted and driven engineering advancements in areas such as computer graphics, artificial intelligence and networking.

Importance and Prevalence Of Video Games The international video game revenue is estimated to be over $80 billion for 2014, which is more then double the international film industry in 2013. 55-70% of americans play video games Nearly 100% of boys and 94% of girls under 18 play video games.

Sources http://online.lovetoknow.com/how-many-people-play-video- games http://www.theesa.com/facts/ http://www.esrb.org/about/video-game-industry-statistics.jsp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_studies