Racial Recursivity as Critical Race Game Studies Methodology

Abstract

Seeking to build a critical race studies methodology that bridges formalist and cultural approaches to game studies, the article explores how a videogame's various structures function as interconnected systems through which videogames communicate meaning via repetition. Drawing parallels between how games generate meaning through repetitive play and how racial formations are naturalized through repeated cultural practices, the article offers racial recursivity as a methodology for critical race game studies while demonstrating that formalist analysis and critical race studies are not oppositional but complementary tools for understanding how race operates in videogames and culture writ large. The article applies this critical race studies methodology to the videogame BioShock, showing how the game is informed by racial ideas, which are, in turn, naturalized through repetition within both the game and across culture. This article establishes the theoretical groundwork for analyzing how game mechanics, aesthetics, and narratives work recursively to reinforce racial logics.