Computer Games Analyses

What does it mean to "study" a videogame? How could one analyze the "text" of a game, to understand the message (or multiple messages) that it contains? Some scholars would argue that games are not texts at all and certainly cannot be understood through media studies methods such as textual or ideological analysis (Juul, 2000). That critique has been made with each new media form and, with each, newer or altered modes of analysis have appeared, such as the virtual ethnographies of IRC and computer-mediated discourse analysis (Herring, 2004; Poster, 2002). Scholars studying these media have acknowledged that the tools of analysis must continually be modified, in subtle and occasionally radical ways. But even though the study of digital games is taking off, and we are seeing ideological and textual studies of individual games as well as genres of games, little has been done to actively develop a methodological system for the qualitative, critical analysis of the form.

We tries to answer the question, up to which degree core elements of the first commercial PC games are still in use in current bestseller computer games. In order to answer this question, out of the genres action, strategy, adventure/rpg and sports four games each are analyzed that were said to be innovative or trend-setting. These games are then compared to the currently most successful games of their genres (according to sales statistics of Amazon.com).  Some studies of game content rely on content analyses that explicitly code for such items as avatar appearance or actions within the game (Heintz-Knowles and Henderson, 2002; Okorafor & Davenport, 2001), but the more qualitative studies have been less forthcoming about how games were studied, other than the assumption that they were played and carefully thought about by the author.

Strategy games are usually games that require players not so much to have fast reaction skills, but encourage mid- and long-term planning and the development and execution of tactics. Strategy includes sub-genres such as real-time and turn-based strategy, simulation and puzzle games. For this paper “construction and management games” are also considered to be a sub-genre of strategy, although they are often considered to be a genre of its own. What follows is an analysis of five strategy games.

Hypothesis of such further research might be, that current games are more complex than historical games, that they are more open (meaning that they leave more possibilities and decisions to the player, while having less clear game goals), and are more story-based than older games. Also, more current games may apply more game design patterns than older games.  Resulting out of such research might be the ambition for game designers to purposefully try to design games that can do without some of the well-proven game elements.