Video Game Studies

Broadly stated, video game studies is the academic analysis of various aspects of computer, console, arcade, and Internet games. It is frequently an interdisciplinary field of study, with scholars from film and media studies, popular cultural studies, American studies, psychology, sociology, education, and literature departments writing about and critiquing games and gaming. Video game studies fall primarily into two main academic camps: social sciences-based studies and humanities-based studies. Social science-based game studies look at the ways that games and gaming affect people, and how people make sense of and interact with games. Humanities-based game studies examine the meaning and context of the games themselves, either in terms of the narratives created and possibly created by video games, or by the unique possibilities for analysis presented by the interactive nature of video games.*

Information on finding books, articles, websites, magazines, and other materials related to video game studies can be accessed through the tabs to the left.

Students interested in studying video games should visit this page on Studying Games at U-M for more information on academic opportunities and courses offered at the University of Michigan.

* Konzack, L. (2007). Rhetorics of computer and video game research. In Williams, J.P. & Smith, J.H., The players' realm: Studies on the culture of video games and gaming. London: McFarland and Company, Inc.