Keynote : Inter- and Multidisciplinarity of Game Studies: The Expanding Challenges

par Frans Mäyrä

The modern field of game studies is rising from multiple origins and the educational and research landscape in this field remains diverse. While game studies has also had some success in establishing itself as a dedicated discipline in the academic institutions, the inter- and multidisciplinary of game studies remains its central feature. In his keynote, professor Frans Mäyrä presents and discusses results from an international survey that mapped the disciplinary background and identifications of games scholars. He will also use the example of University of Tampere Game Research Lab that he directs to highlight the centrifugal and centripetal impulses that inform and shape the realities of games related research and education in today’s universities.

Table ronde : “Game Studies ? European touch!”

Animation : Vincent Berry

The recent development and the success of Games Studies in the international academic field have considerably renewed studies on (video) games. Publications and specialized journals are numerous today, research is multiplying and conferences flourish. The emergence if this space for scientific debate specifically dedicated to video games questions the traditions of previous research on play and games both in terms of research fields (toys, traditional games, board games, role playing games, gambling …) and disciplines. The hosting of this fourth edition of GSALF at Paris 13 University, which has a long standing tradition of research on play and game, gives the opportunity to invite one to reflect on these academic developments. Whether it be Sociology, History, Anthropology, Psychology or Philosophy of play and games, the field of Game studies, by its pluridisciplinarity and its “internalist” perspective, questions the disciplinary boundaries and the areas of research established up to now. By crossing different points of views of researchers coming from diverse countries and traditions, this round table thus wishes to discuss the forms and the place taken up by Game Studies in Europe, which is along with the United States, one of the two academic spaces of its emergence and its development. In this round table, it is a matter of discussing the current state of the field of study, its institutional and university development, its foundations and its epistemological, theoretical and methodological articulation with other movements, other approaches, and other traditions.

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Le développement récent et le succès des games studies dans le champ académique à l’international ont considérablement renouvelé les études sur le jeu (vidéo). Les publications et revues spécialisées sont aujourd’hui nombreuses, les recherches se multiplient et les colloques fleurissent. L’émergence de cet espace de débat scientifique spécifiquement orienté sur le jeu vidéo interroge les traditions de recherche antérieures sur le jeu aussi bien en termes de terrains (jouet, jeux traditionnels, jeu de société, jeu de rôle, jeux d’argent…) que de disciplines. L’acceuil de cette quatrième édition des GSALF a Paris 13, qui possède une tradition de recherche ancienne sur les jeux est l’occasion d’inviter à la réflexion sur ces développements académiques. Qu’il s’agisse en effet de la sociologie, de l’histoire, de l’anthropologie, de la psychologie ou de la philosophie du jeu, le champ des game studies, par sa pluridisciplinarité et sa perspective « internaliste », questionne les frontières disciplinaires et les domaines de recherche jusque là établis. En croisant les regards de chercheurs sur le jeu issus de pays et de traditions diverses, cette table ronde souhaite ainsi discuter de la forme et de la place prise par les game studies en Europe, qui est avec les Etats-Unis, l’un des deux espaces académique de leur émmergence et de leur développement. Il s’agit dans cette table ronde de discuter de l’état actuel de ce champ d’étude, de son développement institutionnel et universitaire, de ses fondements et de son articulation épistémologique, théorique et méthodologique avec d’autres courants, d’autres approches, et d’autres traditions.

Intervenants : 

Frans Mäyrä, Université de Tampere, Finlande

Aphra Kerr, Université de Maynooth, Irelande

Riccardo Fassone, Université de Turin, Italie

Olivier Servais, Université de Louvain-la-neuve, Belgique

Frans Mäyrä, Université de Tampere, Finlande

Frans Mäyrä, PhD, is Professor of Information Studies and Interactive Media, with specialization in digital culture and game studies in the University of Tampere, Finland. He is heading theUniversity of Tampere Game Research Lab and has taught and studied digital culture and games from the early 1990s. His research interests include game cultures, meaning making through playful interaction, online social play, borderlines, identity, as well as transmedial fantasy and science fiction.

• Mäyrä F.(2008), An introduction to Game Studies, Sage Publications, 208 p.
• Mäyrä F., Van Looy J. & T. Quandt (2013) “Disciplinary Identity of Game Scholars: An Outline“. Proceedings of DiGRA 2013. Atlanta: Georgia Tech.

Aphra Kerr, Université de Maynooth, Irelande

Aphra Kerr , from the National University of Ireland Maynooth, has been researching the production, consumption and regulation of digital media on European and nationally funded projects for the past ten years. Current funded research projects include governance and user innovation in online games, future internet debates and cultural diversity and transnational media practices.  Prof. Kerr is on the editorial board of Popular Communication, she is a founding member of the digital games research association DIGRA, a committee member of Women in Games (Europe) and she runs the community website in Irelandwww.gamedevelopers.ie

• Kerr, A. (2006) The Business and Culture of Digital Games. GameWork/Gameplay. Sage publications,192p.
• De Paoli S. & Kerr A (2012). L’agencement de la triche. Aborder la triche dans les MMORPG comme un imbroglio, in Reseaux n° 173-174 , p. 235-269 (Traduction : Vinciane Zabban)

Riccardo Fassone, Université de Turin, Italie

Riccardo Fassone, PhD in Communication Theory and Design, is editor of The Italian journal of Game Studies : GAME. His researches focus recently on the notions of closure, end and threshold in video games.

• Fassone R. (2015), “Archiver les jeux d’arcade : réthorique et idéologie de l’émulation vidéoludique”, in Tracés, dossier Matières à jouer. (Traduction : Camille Paloque-Bergès)

Olivier Servais, Université de Louvain-la-neuve, Belgique

Olivier Servais is Professor in anthropology at Louvain-la-neuve University, in Belgium. One of the axes of his researches is dedicated to video games and virtual worlds.

• Servais O. (2012). Autour des funérailles dans World of Warcraft. Ethnographie entre religion et mondes virtuels. In Delville JP., Mutations des religions et identités religieuses, Mame-Desclée: Louvain-la-Neuve, 2012, p. 231-252. http://hdl.handle.net/2078/120398
• (Traduction et introduction) Boellstorff T. (2013). Un anthropologue dans Second Life : une expérience de l’humanité virtuelle, trad. Dhen, Gregory ; Servais, Olivier (anthropologie prospective), Academia: Louvain-la-Neuve