439508

39508Mäyrä et al.Simulation & Gaming

SAG43310.1177/10468781124

Guest Editorial
Simulation & Gaming

Research Methodology in 43(3) 295­–299

© 2012 SAGE Publications
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DOI: 10.1177/1046878112439508
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Frans Mäyrä1, Jussi Holopainen2,

and Mikael Jakobsson3

Abstract
Digital games have evolved into diverse forms, and they touch many different areas
of life in contemporary society. When approached together with the associated
playful and serious behaviors, they profit from several research methodologies. This
collection of articles introduces a range of research methodologies and aims to
promote interdisciplinary dialogue in the study of games.

Keywords
collaborative research, contextual research, game design research, interdisciplinarity,
ludology, natural language processing, pervasive games, play as a method, prototyping,
psychophysiological measuring, research methods, social constructionism

This symposium of Simulation & Gaming: An Interdisciplinary Journal is dedicated

to the exploration of various methodologies for research into and analysis of games,
play experience, and player practice, as well as to the study of game design and of the
culture and values associated with gaming. It can be argued that a wide interdisciplin-
ary approach is a necessity for scholars working with games and simulations, and this
is also reflected in the history of this journal (Crookall, 2000). Today, the interactive
character of digital services and technologies has further stimulated the development
of playful uses and applications of gaming in many areas of life, and the border
between gaming for entertainment and gaming for utility purposes is proving increas-
ingly porous and negotiable. Apart from learning, gaming is used commonly in mar-
keting, political campaigning, and even as a gamer generation tactic toward solving

1
University of Tampere, Finland
2
Independent scholar, Tampere, Finland
3
Malmö University, Sweden

Corresponding Author:
Frans Mäyrä, School of Information Sciences, University of Tampere, FI-33014, Finland
Email: frans.mayra@uta.fi
296 Simulation & Gaming 43(3)

the world problems (McGonigal, 2011). For a games researcher, it is clearly beneficial
to promote awareness and dialogue among the different approaches and schools of
thought being applied in the study of games, play, and game design. It is clear that we
still have room for methodological innovation and for fresh applications of tested
methods in this field.
The background to the present selection of papers is twofold. First, the establish-
ment of a network of scholars interested in the study of games as a form of culture, art,
and entertainment emerged at the end of 1990s and early 2000s. The establishment of
the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) in 2002-2003, with its series of
international conferences, was one practical forum where this community came
together. Second, the Game Research Lab at the University of Tampere, Finland, has
been organizing a series of annual game studies seminars, with the aim of promoting
researcher training and highlighting the diversity of this research field. The themes
explored so far include gamer creativity (2005), role-play (2006), games in society
(2007), the concept of magic circle (2008), player experiences (2009), and games
research methods (2010). It was the last mentioned seminar that served as the stimulus
for creating this particular selection of articles.
The scientific and scholarly study of games, play, and related phenomena must be
able to address the complex and multidimensional character of games, for which
familiarity with multiple fields of inquiry is a clear benefit. Many highly relevant and
interesting research questions are positioned at the borders among behavioral sciences,
art studies, technology research, philosophy, and psychology—just to mention a few.
While established disciplines provide in-depth theorizing and methodological guid-
ance from their individual perspectives, standard textbooks do not necessarily take
into account the special characteristics of games and play phenomena as a subject of
study. The design goals and processes for gaming applications are not necessarily
similar to those of utility software, for example, nor is the approach to carrying out
successful ethnography inside a massively multiplayer online game the same as that of
doing ethnography in more traditional anthropological settings. The articles selected
for this issue aim to provide starting points for those interested in application and
modification of established research methods to suit the particularities of games
research, and also to stimulate discussion about best practices in the field. The increas-
ing awareness and dialogue between disciplinary and methodological schools of
thought are also likely to bridge some of the gaps that have been identified among the
social sciences, humanities, and technologically oriented games research, for example
(Williams, 2005).
In the last decade, we have witnessed a widespread movement toward the declara-
tion of game studies as its own sovereign field of study or discipline (see, for example,
Crookall, 2010). The study of games does, of course, have a much longer history, and
is embedded in theories and practices of all fields of academic inquiry. In the process
of joining forces around a shared object of study, it is important to make explicit the
various theoretical and methodological foundations that we bring to the table. This is,
Mäyrä et al. 297

however, rarely done to the extent that is needed. Our own proximity to our household
theories and methods invites us cut corners to get to the particulars of our studies. This
is where Montola, in the first article of this issue, makes an important contribution by
describing, from the ground up, the concept of social construction and explicitly
reflecting on the connection to ludology in general and to his own studies on role-
playing and larps (live-action role-playing) in particular.
The research group at the Center for Knowledge and Innovation Research (CKIR),
Aalto University, has been doing groundbreaking work on psychophysiological mea-
surements of gameplay experiences for years now. In the second article of this issue,
Inger Ekman and her colleagues explain and explore how psychophysiological mea-
surements can help in investigating the nature of social experience in a shared gaming
context. The authors explain why and describe how we should to use physiological
linkage as a metric for this purpose. They also describe its relation to social presence
among the players and suggest that these metrics provide insights into shared player
experiences, unattainable through other methods.
Psychophysiological measurements normally require experiments in a laboratory
setting with heavy instrumentation and use ordinary commercial digital games.
Stenros, Waern, and Montola describe the difficulties and opportunities in studying the
player experiences of pervasive games, games that blur the boundaries of play and real
life and may last continuously for months. The authors describe their approach to per-
vasive games studies as a triangulation of methods from three different fields:
ubiquitous/pervasive computing, digital game studies, and cultural studies. This fusion
of diverse methods strengthens the researcher’s means for capturing and understand-
ing the ephemeral nature of pervasive play in a real-world context.
Zagal, Tomuro, and Shepitsen propose the use of natural language processing
(NLP), a field of computer science and linguistics, as a source for tools and techniques
for game research. The article describes some of the NLP methods and demonstrates
their usefulness with three case studies:

1. analyzing readability of game reviews

2. how players themselves describe gameplay based on analysis of hundreds of
thousands of user-created game reviews and finally
3. how negatively charged words can be used positively in discussing video-
games

The sample cases presented in the article give a good overview of how NLP can
provide additional methods for game studies.
Being a games researcher means being an expert on the subject of games, but it
does not mean that we are experts in playing games. Because the meaning of games
unfolds in the act of playing them, different ways of playing leads to different insights.
In her paper, Jørgensen proposes a method for involving expert players in the research
process that goes as far as making them coresearchers. Jørgensen identifies important
298 Simulation & Gaming 43(3)

benefits as well as challenges related to this approach. While the results are tentative,
the direction is promising and applicable to a wide range of studies, from the analysis
of user interfaces to children’s playgrounds.
Eladhari and Ollila share their point of departure with Jørgensen. Their goal is also
research where the involvement of players is a key component. However, in this case,
the way to new knowledge is through the iterative process of experimental game pro-
totype development. The authors stress the value in building prototypes that are spe-
cifically designed to provide the data needed for a particular research question.
Borrowing from human-computer interaction and interaction design, the authors have
put together a toolbox of methods that will prove useful both to students and research-
ers who wish to engage in design-oriented game studies.
Karppi and Sotamaa discuss a methodology in game research that goes against the
grain of many of the other contributions. Instead of aiming to reduce complexity, in
order to see some particular aspect of the object of study more clearly, they gravitate
toward the messy, the complicated, and the unresolved. The article presents a study of
a game, but, just like watching a movie while listening to the commentary track, it is
the methodological reflections that are in focus. While providing a tentative frame-
work of methodological approaches, the strongest message embedded in this piece is
the inescapably contextual nature of games and play.
This symposium reflects one point in time of the evolution of the research field, and
the articles highlight particular games research concerns and issues that are in focus at
the moment. The ongoing changes in the field of gaming and game design are reflected
in many of these texts; for example, a move away from classic computer games toward
more hybrid and fluid forms of gaming is now taking place, with mobile devices,
online network services, and multimodal interfaces being adopted for gaming pur-
poses. This collection of texts provides reflection on and analysis of a number of use-
ful methods, and it also serves as a snapshot of the evolution of game studies as a field.

Acknowledgments
We wish to express our thanks to all our authors and also to the paper reviewers for their hard
work on making this issue possible: Staffan Björk, Christy Dena, Aki Järvinen, Olli Leino,
Craig Lindley, Peter Ljungstrand, Andres Lucero, Lennart Nacke, Celia Pearce, Miguel Sicart,
Adriana de Sousa e Silva, Bart Simon, Riku Suomela, and Georgios Yannakakis.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship,
and/or publication of this article.

Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.
Mäyrä et al. 299

References

Crookall, D. (2000). Editorial: Thirty years of interdisciplinarity. Simulation & Gaming, 31, 5-21.
Crookall, D. (2010). Serious games, debriefing, and simulation/gaming as a discipline. Simula-
tion & Gaming, 41, 898-920.
McGonigal, J. (2011). Reality is broken: Why games make us better and how they can change
the world. New York, NY: Penguin.
Williams, D. (2005). Bridging the methodological divide in games research. Simulation & Gam-
ing, 36, 447-463.

Bios
Frans Mäyrä is a professor of Information Studies and Interactive Media in the University of
Tampere. He specializes in digital culture and interdisciplinary game studies.

Contact: frans.mayra@uta.fi.

Jussi Holopainen is an independent scholar. His research focuses on game design and player
experiences.

Contact: jussi.p.holopainen@gmail.com

Mikael Jakobsson is an associate professor at Malmö University. His research interests situate
at the borderlines between game design and game culture.

Contact: mikael.jakobsson@mah.se.