The Meaning of Video Games: Gaming and Textual Strategies

by Steven E. Jones

The Meaning of Video Games takes a textual studies approach to an increasingly important form of expression in today's culture. It begins by assuming that video games are meaningful-not just as sociological or economic or cultural evidence, but in their own right, as cultural expressions worthy of scholarly attention. In this way, this book makes a contribution to the study of video games, but it also aims to enrich textual studies.

Early video game studies scholars were quick to point out that a game should never be reduced to merely its "story" or narrative content and they rightly insist on the importance of studying games as games. But here Steven E. Jones demonstrates that textual studies-which grows historically out of ancient questions of textual recension, multiple versions, production, reproduction, and reception-can fruitfully be applied to the study of video games. Citing specific examples such as Myst and Lost, Katamari Damacy, Halo, Facade, Nintendo's Wii, and Will Wright's Spore, the book explores the ways in which textual studies concepts-authorial intention, textual variability and performance, the paratext, publishing history and the social text-can shed light on video games as more than formal systems. It treats video games as cultural forms of expression that are received as they are played, out in the world, where their meanings get made.

Genres: Video Games, Games, Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Mjhancock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steven E. Jones investigates videogames based on a fairly simple starting premise: game studies could benefit if we applied the lessons of textual studies to games. Now, by textual studies, he isn`t referring to literature studies per se, but something closer to bibliographic studies, particularly the contemporary strand that doesn`t seek to reconstruct some ideal form of the text, but appreciate its variances, its separate performances, and its social context. Each chapter of the book pursues this approach, usually through a focus on a particular game. The first chapter looks at Lost, and how it forms a game in the sense that its viewers created a community of meaning-seekers. Chapter 2 is on Katamari Damacy and the art of collecting, which Jones juxtaposes with Walter Benjamin`s notion of the flaneur. Chapter 3 is on the extended Halo universe, and how players construct different versions of that text, depending on how deeply they want to delve into the books, backstory, ARG and so forth. Chapter 4 looks at Facade, in terms of its dramaturgical connection to performance, ultimately suggesting that performance is a useful way to look at videogame play. Chapter 5 looks at the Wii platform, arguing the social context surrounding its release defined it as much as its actual hardware. And Chapter 6 considers Spore in terms of both its prerelease social context (which is all Jones had to go by, since it wasn`t released before his book went to press) and its potential in terms of creating arenas to work out possibilities, something he thinks textual studies could learn about from games.

The book`s the definition of an interdisciplinary approach to games. As such, a lot of the chapters are rather scattered. The chapter on Facade, for example, discusses Hamlet portfolios and Star Trek: Next Generation, on the basis of the title of Murray`s book, Hamlet on the Holodock. The chapter on Katamari Damacy covers otaku, Walter Benjamin, and ebay. It all fits, more or less, but it does feel that Jones is comparing apples to oranges at points. In general, though, it`s a solid idea, backed by a lot of discussion.

[Erik · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful work, focusing mainly on issues of paratext and the broader cultural footprint of games (inlcuding Lost's multipmedia puzzle-like nature), but also drawing a number of strong threads from the likes of Janet Murray and Ian Bogost. I'd love to hear more from Prof. Jones about how he views the evolution of the Wii since the book was written--and about the likes of Far Cry 2, BioShock and the art-games scene.

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of explorations on the way that audiences co-create meaning with developers, through playing, discussing, and even responding to developers, publishers and marketers.