Bleed
Bleed is a phenomenon in which psychological contents spill over from the player to the character (*bleed-in*) and vice versa (*bleed-out*) in games. These contents can include emotions, thoughts, relationship dynamics, physical states, ideologies and personality traits, among others. While bleed tends to be an unconscious and unpredictable process, some participants play for bleed, intentionally steering toward situations in role-playing games that they hope will produce bleed effects. Similarly, some role-playing designers create games intended to produce bleed. Many players describe bleed as a powerful tool for learning and personal development when paired with off-game processing, reflection and integration of these experiences.
Author: Bowman, Sarah Lynne
Challenge
Challenge, understood as any task that requires non-trivial effort from the players, is one of the major components in understanding what games are and how and why people play them. This entry gives a brief overview of how the concept of challenge has evolved in game studies. Key approaches such as game definitions, empirical studies of challenge in player experience research and Juul's paradox of failure are discussed in more detail.
Author: Holopainen, Jussi
Digital Games
This entry summarizes the history and current use of "digital games" and related terminology, such as "computer games", "electronic games", and "videogames". Despite their etymological variety, a few pragmatic differences between these competing terms exist, which has recently led researchers and practitioners to increasingly apply (even more) general concepts such as "gaming" and "esports". A recommendation is not to interpret and use such terms literally, but to choose related terminology based on context and consistency.
Author: Karhulahti, Veli-Matti
Electronic Sports
Esports, or electronic sports, is an interdisciplinary topic of inquiry connected to organised practices of competitive computer gaming, facilitated tournament play. This entry discusses early interdisciplinary thinking and perspectives on esports, topical areas of significance to formative esports research, the impact of sport studies on esports scholarship and the definitional underpinnings of the term.
Author: Witkowski, Emma
Game Character
This entry explains how game characters have been discussed in Game Studies and adjacent fields, evolving from agents and human-like beings to avatars, player-characters, [transmedia](https://eolt.org/articles/transmedia) characters and companions. Our understanding of game characters is based on our perception of characters in other media. Although characters are understood as pieces of writing and human-like entities in Literary Studies, [Game Studies](https://eolt.org/articles/game-studies) has focused mainly on the playable figure, that is, the avatar and the player-character with little interest in other types of game characters. Currently, game characters are mainly discussed in two trends: as part of a global and transmedial network of characters over different texts, and as companion characters with which players can form a romantic emotional attachment.
Author: Blom, Joleen
Game Definition
Scholars and designers have defined the concept of 'game' in different ways over the decades. Are games an activity or an artifact, a form of art or a series of interesting choices, a mess or socio-material stabilizations? Is there something that all games share or is it all just family resemblances? This article considers different definitions proposed since the 1930s, as well as the idea that there is no special set of features or an essence that all games share.
Author: Stenros, Jaakko
Game Feel
Game feel describes the affective reaction of a player to a game situation – how a game feels to be played. It can be implemented by tuning, juicing and streamlining gameplay. Game designers are mostly concerned with properties of good game feel and have documented countless game design practices that enhance game experiences. Game feel is often described as being at the heart of game design, making or breaking a game in the eyes – and hands – of the player.
Author: Pichlmair, Martin
Game History
Game History describes *history in, of and around games of all kinds*, but is often used only to refer to the history of (video) games. It incorporates a significant diversity of both scholarly and popular historical work, and is interested in the development, preservation and exhibition of games and game technologies, the industries and cultures that produce and consume them, the histories which they communicate and the historical practices of those around them.
Author: Webber, Nick
Game Jams
Over the past 20 years, collective and typically light-hearted development events – game jams – have solidified their role as part of professional, hobbyist and beginner game development cultures alike. During game jams, 'jammers' create games with a particular constraint, within a timeframe of typically 48-72 hours. Game jams can be used in formal education as well as in companies but are typically based on voluntary participation. While the size and location of game jams can vary from a few friends to hundreds of participants and from computer labs to fully catered corporate locales or even train carriages, they all share a function to provide a safe development environment where exploration and innovation are encouraged under time constraints. Through participation, jammers build networks and communities, train their development skills and experiment with ideas that do not match the pressures of commercial or educational environments.
Author: Wirman, Hanna
Game Ontology
Game ontology is the study of the elements of games and the relationships between these elements. It is pursued for a wide range of reasons, including theoretical, analytical and practical, and these purposes impact the methods involved and the issues raised. Every game scholar has some assumptions about what games are and what their chief characteristics are, and these influence research. The explicit study of ontology clarifies these sometimes-latent assumptions. Ontology is also useful in game design and analysis by giving different developers and scholars a common vocabulary for relevant concepts.
Author: Martin, Paul
Game Studies
'Game Studies' is generally used to signify a humanities-based orientation to the study of games, play and related phenomena. This involves the development of conceptual, theoretical and methodological approaches that address the artistic form and aesthetic experience of games as a form of art and entertainment. As such, Game Studies is also a young academic discipline, which entered academia in the early 2000s. There are different emphases in how contemporary Game Studies is being practised, with some scholars focusing more attention on the formal characteristics of games, some on the role of play and players, game design, or on the historical and political contexts and meanings for games and play.
Author: Mäyrä, Frans
Games and Realism
This entry offers an overview over applications of the the concept of realism in game studies. After a general description of the term, I move on to an aesthetic notion of realism before I direct attention to its use in videogames research. I show that realism in game studies is about more than photorealist representation of surface phenomena and that it also needs to account for players’ perceptions.
Author: Pötzsch, Holger
History Games
History games in addition to being a popular form of entertainment are a medium for doing history. Definitions for history games differ with some defining history games broadly and others more narrowly. Broadly defined, games that refer to discourses about the past, present us with a great number of history games ranging from *Assassin's Creed: Valhalla* to *Civilization VI* to *When Rivers Were Trails*. Games can be categorized according to their historical content, as specific or abstract, or according to their structures. An important example of the latter is Chapman's distinction between realist-style games and conceptual-style games. History games can have didactic and rhetorical purposes being used in history classes and potentially in the presentation of academic historical arguments. Research on history games, the work of the field of Historical Game Studies, has moved beyond just questions of accuracy to consider not only authenticity but the ways in which the political, cultural and socio-economic contexts of developers shape the history in games. Currently, there are two analytical frameworks focused on the question of how the game medium presents history: one is Chapman's analysis of ludic structures and their impact on historical presentation, and the other is McCall's Historical Problem Space framework.
Author: McCall, Jeremiah
Horror
Insofar as it is not the term "horror," but the label "survival horror," that has come to encompass the overall body of this genre in the videoludic realm, this entry underlines that the term remains open to assessments and refinements. By studying its advent in cinema, and the ways it has been recasted through different attributes both in the discourse of video game reviewers and of video game theoreticians, the use of the term expresses the spectrum of the experiences created by the genre.
Author: Perron, Bernard
Indie Games
The term "indie games," or independent games, refers to video games that, in one way or another, differ from the mainstream—often featuring "retro" aesthetics, small-scale development teams, digital-only distribution and alternative financing methods. This definition has evolved over time, from referring broadly to third-party development studios to indicating a variety of games with different kinds of "independence." As such, contemporary scholarship in this area may view games as creatively, financially or culturally independent, as well as a combination of some or all of these.
Author: Lipkin, Nadav
Interactivity
This entry provides an overview of the concept of interactivity, with a focus on how scholars have struggled to consistently define, apply and conceptualize it. After a discussion of the various attempts to define the term, the entry then addresses how interactivity has been applied to games. Although video games are widely considered an interactive medium, the applicability and effects of interactivity have been debated by game scholars, especially regarding the nature of video game interactivity and its impact on player agency, presence and immersion.
Author: Stang, Sarah
Interface
*Interface* is in human-computer interaction generally used to refer to those aspects of a computer system that allows the user to interact with the computer. However, as videogames are computer systems that invite players to interact with virtual gameworlds that share many traits with non-interactive fictional worlds, game interfaces challenge the traditional understanding of interface. This entry will provide an overview of central discussions in game research relating to the game interface.
Author: Jørgensen, Kristine
Level Design
This article explores definitions, perspectives and historic usages of the term "level design" as well as its distinct qualities apart from the broader field of game design. The exploration will consist of literature surveys concerning the use of the term in scholarly and industry contexts. These surveys include explorations of definitions of the term "level" itself in order to establish an understanding of the goals of level design, as well as the tools used by level designers. Level design's relationship to related fields of design, most notably architecture, interface design and cinematography are considered, along with historic and literary examples of levels and level-like spaces.
Author: Totten, Christopher
Loot Boxes
"Loot boxes" are video game mechanics that provide randomized rewards. "Paid loot boxes" that require purchase using real-world money by players are frequently implemented by companies to "monetize" and generate revenue. The technical definition of "loot boxes" is wider than that of when the term is used in common parlance, which generally only refers to "paid loot boxes." Previous research has identified conceptual and psychological similarities between paid loot boxes and gambling. Regulation and other harm-minimization measures have been suggested and adopted in certain countries. Further research is required to understand the nature and the extent of any potential harms.
Author: Xiao, Leon
Ludic Performance
This article outlines game studies scholarship on ludic performance, with a focus on three themes: performing arts, thick description and nonhuman performativity. The first theme includes studies that have drawn on antecedent work in fields such as theatre and performance studies. Scholarship featuring thick description pays close attention to specific performances using methods such as ethnography. Finally, work on nonhuman performativity has brought digital games into proximity with new materialist thinking. These themes are far from mutually exclusive, and studies of ludic performance tend to weave them together in accounting for the complexity of technologically mediated performance.
Author: Jayemanne, Darshana
Modding
Modding, originally from modifying, refers to a practice of changing a game by creating modifications to it. Modifications range from very simple edits to "total conversions" and entirely new games. Modding as a phenomenon questions any "fixed" idea of a game by illustrating how games operate as launchpads for player creativity. Game modding draws on the history of software hacking and in this respect modding can take forms that are seen as resistant or illegitimate. At the same time, modding is often invited and supported by game companies, leading to constant negotiations between the game industry and the player community.
Author: Sotamaa, Olli
Monetization
This paper describes monetization models and mechanics used in video games. Monetization techniques are dependent on technological innovations used in the software and hardware of video games. Moving from physical to digital distribution has opened up a broad variety of monetization models as well as new real-time or on-demand mechanics (*e.g.*, micro-transactions, GaaS, Battle Pass). For each model, there is a description based on historical and economic perspectives with examples. Recent monetization challenges raised by real-money trading (P2E) and random monetization mechanics (Loot box and Gacha box) are also presented.
Author: Davidovici, Myriam
Narratology
Narratology, the study of the properties of stories, provides game studies with a variety of concepts of transmedial applicability, but it must also deal with the specific nature of the narrative game situation: the productive role of the player, the computer's double function of implementing rules and visually displaying the player's actions, the relation between the narrative script written into the game's design and the story created by the player during game time, and more generally, the relation between gameplay and game story.
Author: Ryan, Marie-Laure
Philosophical Games
Philosophical games are games designed to invite players to think philosophically within (and about) their gameworlds. They are interactive fictions allowing players to engage with philosophical themes in ways that often set them apart from non-interactive kinds of speculative fictions (such as philosophical novels or thought experiments). To better understand philosophical games, this entry proposes to distinguish two primary ways in which a philosophical game can approach its themes: dialectically or rhetorically.
Author: Gualeni, Stefano
Quest
The ludic quest is an important structural element that appears in many games across the world, past to present. This brief introductory article will explore the quest as employed in game studies. It will start with the quest as applied in literary studies before transitioning to the present and how it is defined within game studies, leading to its contemporary usage and application.
Author: Horn, Benjamin
Simulation
Not all simulations are games, but all games can be seen as simulations. A simulation is a representation of facets of a reality, which can be a part of the real world around us or a fictional one. While the word is typically associated with high realism in a game, types of simulations can range from completely closed ones with no player agency, to participatory simulation that is negotiated and adjusted during use. A key advantage of simulation is that it allows for the selection of presented facets and their levels of fidelity, and mitigates the consequences of failure. Analyzing games from the perspective of their being simulations allows us to look at the ways they represent things, the level of agency presented for their users and the ways in which they may contain activities such as conflicts.
Author: Harviainen, J. Tuomas
Transgressive Play
*Transgressive play* is a concept that addresses play practices that break with established norms of idealized play, people's expectations and sensibilities, the rules of the game and sometimes also the law. In game studies, transgressive play has typically been used to address play practices that are in opposition to a game's rules or design, anti-social player practices or play that breaks with the normative understanding of what constitutes as play.
Author: Jørgensen, Kristine
Transmedia
The content, form and narrative of different media, such as games, can be transferred and adapted across media in many ways. Transmedia is one concept that captures these processes of exchange. This entry discusses the development of transmediality and related concepts in the field of game studies, such as transmedia storytelling, transmedia worlds and transmedia characters. As a theoretical lens, transmedia sheds light on the interdisciplinary nature of play which draws from different texts, aesthetics and fields. Additionally, transmedia is a design practice by creatives and fans alike. Designers increasingly combine different online and offline media in their games, allowing for hybrid forms of play. Transmedia can be a community-driven practice as well. For instance, players frequently create their own transmedia works, such as cosplays, streams or mods, inspired by the games that they love. This entry addresses transmedia both as an analytical tool and as an empirical practice, instigated by designers and audiences. While transmedia processes are very visible today, the concept itself also comes with challenges. In a time when different media converge on online platforms, it is hard to say where a game begins or ends. Transmedia scholarship on games is therefore needed, but always in conjunction with other fields.
Author: Lamerichs, Nicolle
Virtual Reality
Virtual reality (VR) broadly refers to stereoscopic, motion-tracked media systems capable of conferring strong illusions of spatial presence in simulated environments. The label also captures most kinds of content deliverable via such systems. VR environments are usually interactive inasmuch as aspects of them can be manipulated by users. Most modern VR systems take the form of headsets (head-mounted displays; HMDs) equipped with positional or motion tracking. This allows users to survey and explore using natural bodily movements (e.g., turning one's head, walking), with the hands typically given a virtual representation by means of wireless motion controllers or camera-based optical tracking.
Author: Murphy, Dooley