Marinka Copier
THE OTHER GAME RESEARCHER: PARTICIPATING IN AND WATCHING THE CONSTRUCTION OF BOUNDARIES IN GAME STUDIES
Game researchers are busy doing game studies: researching, writing and publishing articles, organizing conferences and creating a curriculum. I will argue that creating a new autonomous discipline such as game studies mainly involves constructing boundaries on different levels. In this article I would like to discuss how we can watch and analyze where and how these boundaries are being constructed, while realizing that I am also participating in this process. I mainly focus on the construction of borders between game studies and other disciplines and the ways in which a line is being drawn between game researchers, game designers and gamers. I will argue that Donna Haraway’s concept of situated knowledge can help us to realize where and how knowledge is being produced. I will claim we have to look into the empirical situation of game research in order to see that we all produce knowledge from a certain (hybrid) position and perspective.
boundary work, constructing a discipline, game researchers, game studies, hybrid researchers,Science and Technology Studies, situated knowledge