Let's forget about "ludology vs narratology"

One of the earliest conversations in the modern field of game studies was a debate about how the field should study video games. Except it wasn't really much of a debate, and no one really took either of the positions that are associated with that so-called debate. It's commonly the first topic people see when they're first exposed to the field of game studies, so it's often treated as an important conversation even though researchers in the field all wish we could just forget it existed in the first place.

If you've learned about ludology vs narratology, no you didn't

Ian Danskin's videos on gamergate:
   • Endnote 5: A Case Study in Digital Ra...  
   • Why Are You So Angry? Part 1: A Short...  

WE DO NOT TALK ABOUT THE ORANGUTAN:
https://mckitterick.tumblr.com/post/1...

Books recommended in the conclusion:
Gamer Trouble by Amanda Phillips
Coin-Operated Americans by Carly Kocurek
How Pac-Man Eats by Noah Wardrip-Fruin
Elements of Game Design by Robert Zubek
Intersectional Tech by Kishonna Gray
Queer Game Studies edited by Bonnie Ruberg and Adrienne Shaw
A Play of Bodies by Brendan Keogh
Games: Agency as Art by C Thi Nguyen
The Infinite Playground by Bernie Dekoven and Holly Gramazio
Game Studies Study Buddies, hosted by Cameron Kunzelman and Michael Lutz

Bibliography:
Batti, Bianca and Alisha Karabinus. "A Dream of Embodied Experience: on Ian Bogost, Epistemological Gatekeepking, and the Holodeck." NYMG blog. 2017. https://www.nymgamer.com/?p=16363
Frasca, Gonzalo. "Ludologists love stories, too: notes from a debate that never took place" in Proceedings of the 2003 DiGRA International Conference: Level Up. 2003
Keogh, Brendan. "Across Worlds and Bodies: Criticism and the Age of Video Games." in Journal of Games Criticism. 2014
Moberly, Kevin. "Preemptive Strikes: Ludology, Narratology, and Deterrence in Computer Game Studies." in The Game Culture Reader. ed. Jason Thompson and Marc Oullette. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 2014
Murray, Janet. "The Last Word on Ludology v Narratology (2005)" Blog post. 2013.   / the-last-word-on-ludology-v-narratology  
Phillips, Amanda. "Gamer Trouble" NYU Press. 2020
Phillips, Amanda. "Negg(at)ing the Game Studies Subject" in Feminist Media Histories vol. 6 no. 1. 2020
Simons, Jan. "Narrative, Games, and Theory" in Game Studies vol. 7 no. 1. 2007
Vossen, Emma. "On the Cultural Inaccessibility of Gaming: Invading, Creating, and Reclaiming the Cultural Clubhouse" PhD Dissertation, University of Waterloo. 2018
Wardrip-Fruin, Noah and Pat Harrigan. "First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game"* MIT Press. 2006
Wardrip-Fruin, Noah. "How Pac-Man Eats" MIT Press. 2020

*full blog post responses can be found at https://electronicbookreview.com/thre...