On video games: the visual politics of race, gender and space

Despite the massive global popularity of video games, scholarship on the form remains relatively new and still quite localized compared to other media. Even though research on digital play has been thoroughly interdisciplinary since the establishment of the field in the 1990s (and games work has been included at international conferences related to media, culture, and communication for some time now), there remains uneasiness around games as an object of analysis. As a feminist games scholar who began examining games in the context of early fiery disciplinary debates about appropriate approaches and terminologies (Bogost 2009), the consequence of boundary-policing around ontology and epistemology (not to mention the legitimacy of gaming experience and degree of fandom) has always been a concern, particularly for how it might inhibit fresh insight and new perspective from other critical and political fields, including feminist media studies.