In this session we will consider digital games, or, in more common parlance, video games.
Playing games represents not only a significant use of our digital devices but also an important global industry. From casual gaming on phones to international esports tournaments, video games are a popular pastime and an increasingly important business.
In this session for Digital Geographies we will consider video games in three ways:
- Play – we will delve into what ‘play’ is and how this may relate to social scientific understandings of the digital.
- Business – we will look at games development as a large and very successful global industry.
- Work – we will consider the ways that making and playing games are ‘work’ and how this relates to wider geographical understandings of the digital.
The Lecture
ReCap recording
You will be able to access the recording on the module ELE page.
Resources
There are two pieces of video journalism that I think help introduce some of the key ideas highlighted above. I will play excerpts in the lecture but you may wish to watch them in their entirety. They are:
Reading
- Woodyer, T. 2012. Ludic geographies: not merely child’s play. Geography Compass 6(2). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-8198.2012.00477.x
- Woods, O. 2021. Feminist geographies of online gaming. Digital Geography and Society 2. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diggeo.2021.100015