The other game researcher: participating in and watching the costruction of boundaries in game studies

Abstract

Game researchers are busy doing game studies: research- ing, writing and publishing articles, organizing confer- ences and creating a curriculum. I will argue that cre- ating a new autonomous discipline such as game studies mainly involves constructing boundaries on different lev- els. In this article I would like to discuss how we can watch and analyze where and how these boundaries are being constructed, while realizing that I am also participat- ing in this process. I mainly focus on the construction of borders between game studies and other disciplines and the ways in which a line is being drawn between game researchers, game designers and gamers. I will argue that Donna Haraway’s concept of situated knowledge can help us to realize where and how knowledge is being produced. I will claim we have to look into the empirical situation of game research in order to see that we all produce knowledge from a certain (hybrid) position and perspec- tive.