The Ivory Tower

March 2003

Pac-Man and the Ivory Tower

by Frans Mäyrä

There are many kinds of dreams and while games may be vehicles for dreams (or nightmares), dreaming about academically researching games might seem odd. Yet, there is a whole generation of scholars all over the globe, who have been harbouring that kind of dream for years. Being of a generation that has grown up regarding comics, rock music or video games as equally central elements in their lives as any work of literature, theatre or cinema, they have been waiting for the time when they could use their training to work with these loves of their life. Looking at the current transformation of academia, it seems that those days are finally arriving. Pac-Man has entered the ivory tower to stay.

Freedom is the pinnacle of academic values. As institutions, universities have existed over a millennium and human quest for knowledge much longer. However, it is hard for an individual to create a new field of enquiry all by his or her own. Science is created by the scientific community: the verification of results, testing of hypotheses and continuation of research into similar or alternative directions all depends on the existence of a community of other researchers who understand the subject matter, the language and rationale of the research in question. Until then, the person will be writing into the void, having trouble getting research funded, published or getting any kind of serious feedback.

Thomas Kuhn has written about science progressing in the structure of revolutions, or paradigm shifts, rather than in the form of steady evolution. The beginning of academic research of games has meant entering into a far-reaching and multidimensional “slow revolution”. Games are a major element in all of our lives and also one of the least examined. Digital technologies have made it possible to create simulations of traditional games with their interactions between human opponents, as well as to develop new styles of gameplay. When the genie of interaction has come out of the bottle, there is no going back: theories of art, culture – as well as those of learning, economy, organisations or society – have to be rewritten to accommodate the central role of interactive or participatory activities. Games are the native language of the interactive media and of the information society in general, and game researchers are writing the poetics and the grammar for this new age.

Since the establishment of the Game Studies journal in 2001, there has been sustained rise of activity in game-focused discussion lists, conferences and other fora. The wide interdisciplinarity of game-related research is both its great promise and challenge: people are coming from different backgrounds, bringing in different perspectives and terminologies. As a side-effect, same discussions are repeated again and again as newcomers tackle with the fundamentals: Are games art? Should games be understood as audiovisual narratives or as spatial structures, or as something completely different? What are the “media effects” associated with games? At the same time, the professional community is expecting something concrete and useful coming out of academia: research that would help them in making better games.

Academic game researchers are primarily responsible to the scientific community, and only a part of what they do can be directly applied to design or development (mostly the so-called ‘metadesign’ research). Their primary aim is to produce new knowledge, independently, and free of commercial concerns. They should be critical, question the obvious and hold a comprehensive view that takes into account the large picture: the history, development and connections of games to other fields of human activity. There is great potential in applied game research where academics and practitioners from various fields are experimenting with games and playing. This can potentially transform some of the ways in which we learn, work, communicate or otherwise manage our social life – and have more fun while doing it. It might also lead to fundamental gameplay innovations that can have far-reaching commercial potentials. However, it is equally important that some research is done in the classical ‘ivory tower’ conditions, creating theories that withstand the test of time, identifying and naming truly basic elements and significant principles for digital games.

This is the first instalment in a series of columns, produced in collaboration between the newly founded Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) and the IGDA. The central aim of DiGRA is to facilitate the creation of community for game researchers. We cannot transform institutional or funding structures overnight, but we can create opportunities for discussion and events that facilitate spreading of information and formation of a shared language. There are currently substantial numbers of students and scholars, as well as whole researcher and developer teams working on, and analytically thinking about games all over the world. It is in the interests of both associations to promote the flow of information and to advance the understanding of the complex issues that are related to various kinds of games and their playing.

This column series is created as a portal and bridge among these two communities, game developers and academic game researchers. The aim is that it will showcase and focus on fundamental game research issues, and also tie them to some concrete examples or game development questions. The field of digital games research has an interesting double character: it is simultaneously based on age-old human needs (e.g. pleasure derived from tactile manipulation, music, colours and rhythms, learning or exploration of an unknown environment, narratives, problem solving, competition, collaboration, and social communication) and novel capabilities of technology. Since the latter component is still constantly evolving, while the potentials of the former are yet insufficiently understood even in the context of more primitive technology, we are not likely to come to the end of innovation anytime soon. Hopefully this column can in some small way advance the understanding of the joint interests, as well as different strengths of our two communities, leading gradually to innovative and fruitful collaborations with challenging goals and well-defined division of labour.

If thinking and experimenting with games gives the daily life in academia as well as in the game business more latitude and more colour, more depth as well as variety, then the dream of academic game research has been well worth pursuing.

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Frans Mäyrä is a professor at the Hypermedia Laboratory at the University of Tampere and the president of the Digital Games Research Association.