Ludologists love stories, too: notes from a debate that never took place
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During the last few years, a debate took place within the game scholars community. A debate that, it seems, opposed two groups: ludologists and narratologists. Ludologists are supposed to focus on game mechanics and reject any room in the field for analyzing games as narrative, while narratologists argue that games are closely connected to stories. This article aims at showing that this descrip- tion of the participants is erroneous. What is more, this debate as presented never really took place because it was cluttered with a series of misunderstandings and mis- conceptions that need to be clarified if we want to seri- ously discuss the role of narrative in videogames.
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Frasca believes Eskelinen was referring to what the focus of game scholarship should be.
“One scholar with this emphasis is Gonzalo Frasca (2003), a sworn ludologist, who believes that Eskelinen “was referring to what the focus of game scholarship should be.”
From Ludology, Narratology and Philosophical Hermeneutics (2014) · cites this paper as Frasca (2003)
Frasca performs an actual correspondence with the author to gather supporting extra-textual information.
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From Real-time hermeneutics: meaning-making in ludonarrative digital games (2018) · cites this paper as Frasca (2003)
This functions as a supporting tool for Frasca's particular interest in understanding the essay directly, in Schleiermacher's terms.
“This functions as a supporting tool for his particular interest in understanding the essay not better than its author understands himself nor in relation to other phenomena but 'directly,' in Schleiermacher's terms.”
From Real-time hermeneutics: meaning-making in ludonarrative digital games (2018) · cites this paper as Frasca (2003)
The Introduction says Frasca aims to clarify misconceptions and contradictions in the ludology–narratology debate. Our copy does not describe a supporting tool for understanding the essay ‘directly’ or frame that approach in Schleiermacher’s terms (searched for those terms and the contrast with understanding an author better than himself). (LLM, conf=0.72)
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Research works printed but not linked: 14
- Aarseth, Espen. Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature. The John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1997.
- Aarseth, Espen. Computer Game Studies, Year One, in Game Studies. The International Journal of Computer Game Research, 1:1, 2001. Available online at http://gamestudies.org/0101/editorial. html
- Eskelinen, Markku. The Gaming Situation, in Game Studies. The International Journal of Computer Game Research, 1:1, 2001. Available online at http://gamestudies.org/0101/eskelinen/
- Eskelinen, Markku. (Introduction) to cybertext narratology, in Cybertext Yearbook 2000, (eds.)
- Eskelinen, Markku. Towards Computer Game Studies, in First Person. New Media as Story, Performance, and Game (eds.) Pat Harrigan and Noah Wardrip-Fruin. MIT Press, Cambridge 2003 (in press).
- Frasca, Gonzalo. El videojuego como medio para una narrativa interactiva: notas para una poética del joystick. Thesis. Orbicom, The International Network for UNESCO Chairs in Communication, 1997. Available online at http://www.orbicom.uqam. ca/in_focus/publications/archives/pdf/1997f.pdf
- Frasca, Gonzalo. Videogames of the Oppressed: Videogames as a Means for Critical Debate and Debate. Masters Thesis. Georgia Institute of Technology, 2001. Available online at http://www.ludology.org
- King, Geoff and Tanya K. Cinema/Videogames/Interface, in Screenplay, Cinema/Videogames/Interface. Geoff Kind and Tanya Krzywinska (eds.). Wallflower Press, London, 2002.
- Juul, Jesper. Games Telling stories? A brief note on games and narratives, in Game Studies. The International Journal of Computer Game Research, 1:1, 2001. Available online at http://gamestudies.org/0101/juul-gts/
- Klevjer, Rune. In defense of cutscenes, in CGDC conference proceedings, (ed.) Frans Mäyrä. Tampere University Press, Tampere, 2002.
- Mateas, Michael. Interactive Drama, Art and Artificial Intelligence. Ph.D. Thesis. Technical Report CMU-CS-02-206, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, 2002. Available online at http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/ ~michaelm/publications/CMU-CS-02-206.pdf
- Peirce, Celia. Towards a Game Theory of Games, in First Person. New Media as Story, Performance, and Game (eds.) Pat Harrigan and Noah Wardrip-Fruin. MIT Press, Cambridge 2003 (in press). Available online at http://cpand- friends.com/writing/first-person.html
- Prince, Gerald. A Dictionnary of Narratology. University of Nebrasca Press, Lincoln and London 1987.
- Ryan, Marie-Laure. Beyond Myth and Metaphor - the case of narrative in digital media, in Game Studies. The International Journal of Computer Game Research, 1:1, 2001. Available online at http://gamestudies.org/0101/ryan/
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- Authors
- Frasca, G.
- Corresponding author
- Frasca, Gonzalo
- Venue
- DiGRA Digital Library
- Published
- 2003-01-01
- Volume
- 2
- ISSN
- 2342-9666
- OpenAlex
- W2152986156
- Cited by
- 382
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 22 · 2017: 80 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 19 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 15
- FWCI
- 14.20
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Digital Games Research Association Conference
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Games and Media
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Narrative Theory and Analysis
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Artificial Intelligence in Games
- Keywords
- game studies, narrative theory, game mechanics, game narrative
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