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Introduction to multidisciplinary research in game studies

More than 35 years ago, Mary Ann Buckles published her dissertation "Interactive Fiction: The Computer Storygame 'Adventure'" in the field of German literature at the University of California San Diego, which is generally considered the first publication in the field of Game Studies. Since then, the field has undergone many developments, ranging from the founding of national and international societies and the establishment of journals, to formative disciplinary discourses and the organisation of conferences, to institutionalisation in the form of institutes and degree programmes. Game studies grew hand in hand with the economic growth of analogue and digital games, which are now the most important and highest-selling (entertainment) medium worldwide and permeate almost every area of life. They are technical products, everyday cultural assets, psycho-social phenomena, or economic factors.

In order to do justice to this diversity and to take a holistic view of games, Game Studies has developed as a genuinely inter- and transdisciplinary field. It integrates not only humanities and cultural studies subjects such as literature, media, visual studies, and history but also social sciences, economics, and psychology. Thus, Game Studies, like hardly any other field, enable a view across disciplinary boundaries and contributes to a mutual understanding of the most diverse methodological approaches.

The lectures in the lecture series are dedicated to (computer) game research from the perspective of different academic disciplines and are intended to introduce students to the broad spectrum of research approaches that are applied in Game Studies to the unique research object of games.

Lecture series with speakers from the research group “Game Studies” at the University of Innsbruck as well as external contributors; discussion

written exam