УДК 001.85
FROM GAME RESEARCH TO GAME STUDIES: VECTORS OF SCIENCE DIRECTION DEVELOPMENT
Tikhon K. Ermakov1
1 Siberian Federal University, Krasnoyarsk, Russia.
erm-tihon@mail.ru, orcid.org/0000-0002-6967-8720
Abstract. Since the early 2000s, a significant field of study has emerged, focusing on various aspects of game research. Particularly developed in connection with video game issues, this area of the social sciences and humanities draws on a long tradition of addressing the subject of gameplay, established in philosophy, anthropology, and sociology. Currently, the discipline is undergoing a reconsideration, with a return to discourses, methods, and theories previously used to analyze games in general. This ongoing transformation necessitates a description of possible future directions for game studies, which, by analogy with cultural studies, can be called game studies, emphasizing the active role of the researcher in the production of scientific knowledge and the object of study itself. It appears that three key problem areas can currently be identified, the development of which determines the logic of describing the subject of gameplay. First, there is the analysis of game systems, drawing on classical methods of video game research that extend beyond digital media. Secondly, these are various internal theories of play that allow us to relate social reality to gaming practices, exploring the issues of subject activity in a new light. Thirdly, critical studies that distinguish between free gaming practices and those forms of play that are normalized within the context of modern socio-cultural systems are beginning to gain importance.
Keywords: game studies, magic circle, anthropology of play, profanation, video game.
For citation: Ermakov T.K. From game research to game studies: vectors of science direction development // Game Laboratory, 2026, 1 (1), рр. 37-44. [in Russian]. EDN: FZKXAI
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