One sentence explanation:
“This paper explores the emergence of cultural research on computer games, examining new directions in their analysis, both methodologically and epistemologically.”

Keywords: computer games, culture, research, policy, methodology

Abstract
This paper explores the parameters of cultural research in relation to computer gaming, arguing that the social study of gaming as a new cultural and leisure pursuit has gone through a number of important stages.
The paper is structured in three parts. Initially, it provides an annotated history of cultural research about computer games, detailing the methodological tendencies within research and key research questions that have dominated the socio-political discourse about computer games. Specifically, this is centred on a debate around media ‘effects’ based approaches to games research, itself primarily concerned with establishing anti-social behaviour effects. Questions here concern the potential detriment to health and risk of addictiveness, the isolatedness of game-playing, and the lack of intellectual depth that game-playing requires as a leisure pursuit. Recent research has offered a key defence against media effects theories by examining questions about the meaning of play as a cultural activity.
Additionally, it is argued that the emergence of a diverse range of academic and industry-related research associations and the establishment of refereed journals constitute a formalisation of the cultural study of computer games. Integral to this development is the emergence of computer game technology as an academic subject within higher education. The paper critiques the lack of social scientific research as a significant concern for such programmes, and explores some areas that these programmes might address. Advancing this research agenda, the paper develops scepticism for the moral rhetoric (and moral panics) surrounding the ‘effects’ of game-playing, particularly for children, arguing that research has omitted to come to terms with the complexities of gaming cultures. In addition little research has attempted to engage with game developers about their practice, or understand the development of game technology in relation to other cultural industries.
These factors are critical to understanding why the social study of computer games has not been a priority in earlier years and why it is becoming an appealing area of research. It is slowly being recognised that computer games are complex forms of leisure activity, which require sophisticated levels of conceptualisation, highly developed organisational structures, and a mix of talented, creative thinkers, including script writers, composers, artists, and technicians. Moreover, games – as a sub-category of computer mediated communications – have long since provided meaningful and real interactions, which provoke fundamental challenges to how important social concepts are understood, such as identity, space, and locatedness.
Finally, it is argued that a significant lack apparent in the cultural study of computer games is its links to the formation of policy. Computer games are often reduced to the remit of economic rather than cultural policy. In relation to this, the paper suggests that computer game development offers a rich opportunity for collaborative work between education, industry and policy makers in examining and revising the ideological underpinnings of game development. This is particularly important in the context of how the computer games industry has evolved from what might be labelled as a deviant sub-culture to a global mega-industry.

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