‘The Story So Far …’: The Researcher as a Player in Game Analysis

This article outlines some preliminary research into the learning discourses of computer and video games, as expressed through the printed materials that accompany games, and the instructional elements built into game narratives. This leads to discussion of an interesting methodological dilemma — how does the interpretative ethnographic researcher analyse this content when he or she becomes part of the playing process? How do you analyse the learning mechanisms of games when you are being reflexively engaged in the training materials and systems mapped into the text by the games' designers? This article examines this ‘crisis of representation’ in interpretive ethnographic research approaches to games research.