Research

@article{nokey,

title = {“You Feel Like You’ve Found a Place Where You Belong”: Symbolic Interactionism and Online Social Video Games in the Age of COVID-19},

author = {Caitlin Veal and Matt Coward-Gibbs and Jack Denham and Matthew Spokes},

doi = {10.1177/15554120241273873},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-08-21},

urldate = {2024-08-21},

journal = {Games and Culture},

abstract = {This paper investigates how players perceive and understand the sociality afforded by online social video games (OSGs), framed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Utilizing data from semi-structured interviews (n = 20), we apply Blumer’s concept of symbolic interactionism to explore the ways in which video games take on new meanings in co-constructed, collaborative and contributory digital spaces. We argue (a) that games offer a meaningful social experience, (b) that this sociality flourishes due to the perceived lack of social risk particularly due to OSG characteristics of perceived or real anonymity, (c) that this works to facilitate social development, and (d) that these characteristics were valuable in the context of a pandemic at a time of reduced social interaction. Our contribution shows that online video game spaces alter the risk profile of forming and maintaining connections by reframing interaction as the cooperation toward shared goals.},

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}

@article{nokey,

title = {‘I wasn’t me, grieving in my room. I was Spiderman’: Gaming, Loss and Self-Care following COVID-19},

author = {Matthew Spokes and Jack Denham and Matt Coward-Gibbs and Caitlin Veal},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.1080/13576275.2024.2315961},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-02-13},

urldate = {2024-02-13},

journal = {Mortality},

abstract = {Building on M. S. Stroebe and Schut’s (1999) ‘dual process model’ (DPM), this paper draws on data from a survey of young people who identify as regular gamers (n = 450) and semi-structured follow-up interviews (n = 20) to understand video games as a form of self-care, and the positive and problematic encounters gamers experience in relation to immersion and escapism. The work is situated in relation to game/leisure studies, and extant research on different types of loss (bereavement; social opportunities; employment). We argue that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, self-reported responses to play function as a form of oscillation between ‘loss’ and ‘restoration’ in the DPM, and that the act of play and its post-hoc rationalisation is a crucial form of coping for young people, and an opportunity for meaning-making whilst grieving. Our contribution is to demonstrate how video games can and should be considered as a catalyst for grief management.},

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@article{nokey,

title = {Personal, Pedagogic Play: A Dialogic Model for Video Game Learning},

author = {Jack Denham and Matthew Spokes and Matt Coward-Gibbs and Caitlin Veal},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2023.2272164},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-10-19},

journal = {Pedagogy, Culture and Society},

abstract = {Utilising data from semi-structured interviews (n = 20), this paper explores the educational function of internationally popular, blockbuster videogames, including the ways in which players identify and operationalise these learning experiences. It proposes a framework through which different learning experiences in mainstream, culturally significant games can be categorised, utilising dialogic learning approaches – drawn from application of – to position players in constant dialogue with the games that they play: a co-constructive pedagogy of videogames. We find that, in the context of popular videogames, implicit learning is relevant, present, and valuable alongside than explicit alternatives. Our contribution is to offer a reimagined dialogic typology which can help players, educators, caregivers and games scholars identify, utilise and research digital play-learning.},

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@article{nokey,

title = {The Reification of Structural Violence in Videogames},

author = {Jack Denham and Stephen Hirschler and Matthew Spokes},

doi = {10.1177/1741659019881040},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-02-01},

journal = {Crime, Media, Culture},

volume = {17},

issue = {1},

abstract = {The Grand Theft Auto franchise features prominently within existing research exploring graphic, virtual, lawless, and damagingly realistic interpersonal violence within video games. Following a review of this literature, we empirically interrogate notions of the ‘realistic’ and the ‘violent’ during gameplay, finding that the undertones of systemic, structural, capitalistic violence are experienced by players as providing the gritty sense of the ‘real’ that the game has been criticised for. Using Galtung’s concept of ‘structural violence’ and Žižek’s notion of the ‘real’, we unpack structural violence as the forerunning violent experience in the open world game. Due to the hidden and subdued nature of this violence, often taken for granted and experienced passively, we argue that it is the most impactful player experience that simultaneously makes the game playable and contextualises violent game activities. For cultural criminology, our data suggest that embedded and discrete forms of violence should be the leading edge of concern when studying the digital economy and playable forms of social harm.},

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@article{nokey,

title = {The Right to the Virtual City: Rural Retreatism in Open World Gaming},

author = {Jack Denham and Matthew Spokes},

doi = {10.1177/1461444820917114},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-01-01},

journal = {New Media and Society},

volume = {23},

issue = {6},

abstract = {This article uses Lefebvre’s spatial triad and his concept of The Right to the City to categorise open-world video games as contested virtual spatial experiences, interconnected with the non-virtual spaces in which they are produced and played and replete with the same spatial, capital forces of alienation to be negotiated and maintained. We use qualitative gameplay data (n = 15), unpacking players’ journeys through Lefebvre’s conceived, lived and perceived spaces, to show, respectively, how open-world games can be (1) fundamentally about space, (2) spaces interconnected with the non-virtual world and (3) disruptive spatial experiences. In utilising The Right to the Virtual City and our players’ tendency to retreat into the wild spaces of our case study game, Red Dead Redemption 2, we evoke the same alienating forces of commodification and capitalism to which Lefebvre spoke, positioning open-world video games as both contested spatial experiences and opportunities to challenge spatialised inequalities.},

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@article{nokey,

title = {Why Don’t We Play Pandemic? Analog Gaming Communities in Lockdown},

author = {Matt Coward-Gibbs},

doi = {10.1080/01490400.2020.1773986},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-06-01},

journal = {Leisure Sciences},

volume = {43},

issue = {1-2},

pages = {78-84},

abstract = {This short response demonstrates the way in which COVID-19 has impacted analog gamers and their leisure practices. Analog gameplay, often referred to by its moniker – tabletop gaming – is jokingly referred to by many of its players as the perfect activity for self-isolation. As such, throughout this response, I consider the resilience of analog play in the wake of a global crisis, considering the way in which digital technologies, gaming lifestyles and humour provide comfort, social interaction and a level of normalcy to their players in the wake of global uncertainty.},

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@article{nokey,

title = {Critical spelunking of casual toxicities: patching gaming culture},

author = {Matt Coward-Gibbs},

doi = {10.1080/1369118X.2019.1646299},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-07-01},

journal = {Information, Communication & Society},

volume = {22},

issue = {14},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{nokey,

title = {he Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, procedural rhetoric and the military-entertainment complex: two case studies from the War on Terror},

author = {Matthew Spokes},

doi = {10.1177/1750635219828761},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-02-01},

journal = {Media, War and Conflict},

volume = {32},

issue = {2},

abstract = {This article explores how the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea is represented in video games developed and played during the height of the War on Terror. Drawing on Šisler’s article, ‘Digital Arabs: Representation in video games’ (2008) and Robinson’s articles ‘Videogames, persuasion and the War on Terror: Escaping or embedding the military-entertainment complex? (2012) and ‘Have you won the war on terror? Military videogames and the state of American exceptionalism’ (2015), this article explores two case studies Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (2005) and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon 2 (2004) using Bogost’s (2008, 2010) concept of ‘procedural rhetoric’ to unpack and detail the visual signifiers and gameplay mechanics of these titles in comparison with other work on games set in ‘Axis of Evil’ countries. The article concludes by situating the games within the military-entertainment complex more broadly (here focusing on film), arguing that North Korea is ultimately framed paradoxically in video games, a country that is viewed on the one hand as a threat to world peace and on the other as an absurdist dictatorship.},

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pubstate = {published},

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@article{nokey,

title = {Developing Interactive Elicitation: Social Desirability and Capturing Play},

author = {Matthew Spokes and Jack Denham},

doi = {10.46743/2160-3715/2019.3777},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-01-01},

journal = {The Qualitative Report},

volume = {24},

issue = {4},

abstract = {Drawing on research from a mixed-methods project on gaming we argue for a qualitative methodological approach called “interactive elicitation,” a form of data collection that combines elements of photo elicitation, interviewing and vignettes. After situating our broader research project exploring young people’s experiences of violent open-world video games, we outline the process of conducting interactive elicitation, arguing for a mixed-methods approach where participants are observed and interviewed both during and immediately after interacting with particular cultural artefacts, in this case the game GTA V. We reflect on the initial design of the research methodology, the problematic aspects of conducting the research – focusing on social desirability bias – before proffering adaptations to our approach in relation to complementary work in the field of Game Studies. Ultimately, we argue for immediacy in relation to research on cultural experiences and the importance of social desirability as an asset in framing interaction, both of which have implications for sociological and interdisciplinary research more widely.

},

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@article{nokey,

title = {Thinking Outside the ‘Murder Box’: Virtual Violence and Pro-social Action in Video Games },

author = {Jack Denham and Matthew Spokes},

doi = {10.1093/bjc/azy067},

year  = {2018},

date = {2018-01-01},

journal = {British Journal of Criminology},

volume = {59},

issue = {3},

abstract = {The ‘murder box’ is a virtual, lawless space where anything goes. According to Atkinson and Rodgers, when debauched and hedonistic experiences are combed-out of our everyday lives as society ascends a gradual arc of civility, voyeuristic, pleasure-seekers can live out their violent, sadistic fantasies. Atkinson and Rodgers apply this popular criminological metanarrative, rooted in Freud, Elias and Presdee, to violence in gaming. In the context of their game of choice (Grand Theft Auto V), we empirically test the idea that given limitless avenues for violence, people will necessarily act out violent desires. We find that player choices are mixed, considered and vary wildly from untamed subjective violence, to more pro-social behaviours. Our contribution is to argue for a more measured understanding of player–game interaction that accounts for the broader spectrum of Elias’ work, including those internalized self-controls directing individuals away from hedonistic decisions. At the same time, this contribution should be read as a response to the often absolutist theoretical positions adopted in cultural criminology more broadly that require closer empirical scrutiny.},

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