What is game studies and how might ARC / HPC resources aid it?

How players talk about their interactions with videogames outside of the game itself has become the focus of a burgeoning subfield of game studies. These extra-game materials are known as “paratexts” and it has recently... [ view full abstract ]

How players talk about their interactions with videogames outside of the game itself has become the focus of a burgeoning subfield of game studies. These extra-game materials are known as “paratexts” and it has recently been argued that paratextual content is essential for the primary and especially the narrative meanings of the game to emerge in the first place, not least because videogame narratives are experiential and individualized in nature (Mukherjee 2015). In this presentation I draw on my recent work on the language of gaming around paratextual content (Ensslin 2012; 2016) to report on the data collection, administration, and processing challenges facing types of research that might be aided by ARC / HPC methods and resources.
In order to arrive at a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms underlying player communication and how it reflects levels of fun, aggression and other types of authentic emotions, a large and diverse array of data need to be gathered and synthesized for analysis. For example, various types of recording devices including video and biometric monitors, from different visual angles and sensory sources need to be combined in compressed form to minimize storage requirements while at the same time affording maximum levels of representational clarity. Done at any reasonable scale this presents an interesting big data problem across a diverse dataset.
I conclude by highlighting challenges related to data transcription, annotation, cross-corpus compatibility and maintenance, as well as the implications of working across disciplines (linguistics, semiotics, psychology, media studies).