- Video Games Studies includes the following types of games:
Arcade Games, Consoles, Computer Games, MUDs, MMOGs - We can divide them into different genres based on their platform (hardware or software), and into sub-genres of different types of games - from First Person Shooters to adventure games.
- Video games have been intertwined with the development of computing technology since the development of Spacewar, in the mid-1960s.
- The military have always shown interest in video games as training tools, which has driven development of hardware to power their training simulations
Narratology vs Ludology -
- Narratology is the study of video games from the perspective of them being stories or literary works. People who follow this sort of approach think that games can be studied like 'texts' in the same way people study other 'texts'
- Ludology is not concerned with the story elements of games but rather with the Game Play elements. People who have written work that is classified as ludology tend to follow the argument that the story elements in many games are there for decoration only, and is incidental to just playing a game.
Other Approaches -
- We can look at video games in a technical sense, as coming to us in the same era as computers
- If we think of video games as mediums of communication, or expression, it is tempting to view them as having a history that follows film and cinema, and television. That is where we get the idea of narratology. Early video games did contain some cinematic elements (such as cut-scenes) but the act of playing the game was usually dramatically different.
- Semiotics - It's even possible to view video games as media. A game can be taken apart and examined to see how the process of making meaning operates in particular games.
The QUESTION : Are video games similar to, or different from, traditional games?
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