91勛圖

New online resource puts a literary spin on studying video games

A new e-book written as part of 91勛圖's Scholars in Residence program shows how video games can be studied and critiqued the same way as classic literature
youth playing video game

(photo by Envato)

As digital gaming has become an integral part of today's pop culture, the study of video games has become more commonplace at universities around the world through courses and a growing number of specialized degrees (such as  at 91勛圖 Mississauga) But amid the increased interest in learning about the various aspects of video games, resources to help professors teach the subject are lagging behind.

Video games studies is a very multidisciplinary field. It doesnt have the same depth of focus or publication history as a single scholarly trajectory, says , assistant professor, teaching stream, in the department of English at the 91勛圖 Scarborough.

For someone already working in a different discipline and wanting to [add] video games to their own teaching, there aren't a lot of textbooks and syllabi out there.

Sonya Nikkila
Sonja Nikkila (supplied photo)

Nikkila, who teaches the course , says it makes sense to study video games like pieces of literature  many games also have rich characters, settings, plots and messages. Unlike static texts, however, there are different endings, side quests and optional plot points that make students play-throughs a completely different experience.

Some landmark games cant be assigned as homework, either  they may take dozens of hours to finish or need to be played on expensive systems.

Yet Nikkila isnt deterred. I wanted to create a resource to show lots of ways you can approach games critically  and how even if you havent finished a game or got a different ending than somebody else, that experience is still critically valuable, she says.

Nikkila recently teamed up with a group of students for one of six 91勛圖 Scarborough projects funded by the , which gives students across 91勛圖 paid four-week research opportunities. Her team's quest was to create something to help students and teachers apply narrative theory  a classic approach to studying literature  to video games.

They came up with an e-book titled Critical Inventory of Video Game Analysis, which offers a series of frameworks that each make sense on their own but also link to one another, allowing readers to choose their own adventure.

Some cover core game elements such as plot and setting, while others delve into Marxism, disability studies and other areas of literary analysis. The frameworks include an overview of each topics relationship to video games, a case for the unique insights games can offer, essay prompts and lists of related topics and links. 

They also include a section called "demonstrations of literary criticism," or DLC  a play on the ubiquitous acronym in the gaming world for downloadable content. In the e-book, DLCs are a series of sample essays looking critically at games, such as one by student Brennen Penney on the eco-feminist messaging in the Star Wars game The Force Unleashed, alongside other pieces by students Luna Chen, Jesse June-JackLucas McGee and Toey Saralamba

The DLCs are one of several clever nods to video-game lingo throughout, including the title ("inventory" is a standard video-game term). Another section titled "Lore" covers the context behind games that can help inform an analysis, from their creators to cultural impact. The introduction is followed by a section called Introduction Redux  redux is a term for a remastered game, but in the book it signifies space saved for the new introduction the nascent resource will eventually have.

Nikkila plans to use the e-book in her video games course and to regularly update the DLC section with additions from students. Shes hoping to publish the resource within the next year and make it publicly accessible for students to read and also contribute.

In August, the students who participated in creating the resource will present at a conference held in collaboration with the University of Waterloos , discussing how they produced the e-book and how it can be used to analyze video games.

We want to think of this as a library of resources and perspectives that will constantly grow and evolve, Nikkila says. It might even be a document that preserves a little bit of how scholarship moves across [several] years.

The Bulletin Brief logo

Subscribe to The Bulletin Brief

UTSC