[game_edu] Snarky academic battle of words

[Dan Hodgson]

Thanks for sharing that Susan.  

For those who want to know we are talking about...

The original article:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_148/4869-Quibus-L
usoribus-Bono-Who-is-Game-Studies-Good-For

and...

Ian's follow up:
http://www.bogost.com/blog/a_response_to_roger_travis.shtml

I'm very tempted to say "I'm too busy playing GTAIV to care about this"... 

1. Games and "play" in the wider context and computer games specifically are having a major impact on western society and lifestyle, and games have a beautiful variety and complexity which attracts all sorts of commentary, of course academics want to study them and their role in society.  Much of this research is "after the fact" and rightly so - anthropologists strive to study without affecting the cultures they study, and so should game studies researchers.  The bottom line is academics will study games, there's no stopping that, get over it.

2. I accept that "gamers" as a demographic is a difficult concept, and one which brings up unhelpful (at times) stereotypes.  No more so than "senior citizens" or "teenagers" or even "academics".  People are complex and no two are alike, we keep changing and blah blah... We love lumping groups of people together with labels and at least Gamers have a collective core interest, there is a significant and distinct subculture for the "hardcore" and I have no problem with this label.

3. Your average gamer is completely unaware of Douglas Wilson, Jesper Juul and (sorry) Ian Bogost, (and for that matter Roger Travis) - I think it's spurious to claim that "Against all appearances, scholars are pursuing game studies to the detriment of gamer culture." Gamer culture is too busy playing GTAIV to care. There's nothing an academic likes more than this sort of debate (or "Snarky academic battle of words") - I'm an academic hence I feel compelled to have my self-important rant, but I don't imagine I am ever going to have any impact on gaming culture, detrimental or beneficial.

4. Don't confuse criticism with hatred. For example Mr Travis assumes that because Ian Bogost implicitly criticizes games designers for not taking control of the influential power they wield, that he hates gamer culture. As a teacher of game design (oh, Mr Travis really has it in for my type...) of course I appraise games, and some of that involves criticism of games.  Guess what?  I love games.  I play WOW and I love it, but I could tell you many, many things that are wrong with it.  Criticism and love are happy bedfellows.

5. Not that I am sympathetic to Douglas Wilson's rant against the excesses of gamer culture either, lumping all gamers together, in the same way that some people assume all Christians are far-right extremists (to cash in on Wilson's "Church of Gamers" metaphor).  I recognise these extremes exist, but for most gamers games are a fascinating and diverting pass-time, and not a world view.  Don't tar us all with the same insane brush.

6. And yes there are extreme elements in the games community, and yes they can be unhelpful.

7. My name is Dan Hodgson and I'm a gamer, and a game studier, and a game design teacher, (and as it happens, a Christian). I see no need for a war between gamer culture and games studies, please don't assume I am an extremist on either side, or that this so-called conflict is more than a few academics letting off steam.  Oh and whatever happened to balanced opinions?

Dan Hodgson, Senior Lecturer, 
School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences
Course Leader BSc Computer Games Software Engineering
(0191) 227 4727 - Room Pandon 126
Pandon Building, Camden Street, Newcastle NE2 1XE

In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play. 
Friedrich Nietzsche