电子游戏与电影:文化、方法和身份资本

Videogames and Cinema: Culture, Methodology, and Identity Capital

本文论述电子游戏及其二十年来的新兴研究学科对于电影研究所提出的挑战,并特别把焦点放在多人在线游戏。首先处理电子游戏与社会文化之间的关联,并分析电子游戏研究的起源。其后讨论电子游戏研究的方法论演变,铺陈出叙事学以及游戏学之间的角力,简述电子游戏如何继承与重构传统电影理论。最后,以大众媒介的定义分析电子游戏让我们理解为什么近年来英美的文化研究学界要透过身份政治的考虑,思考跨媒介的资本主义运作。

This essay tackles how video games and their academic discipline challenge film studies in recent years, with an emphasis on MMORPG. After a brief introduction to the general relationship between game and culture, I elucidate how video games studies originated in academia. The second part maps out the evolution of video game studies and its inherent tension between narratology and ludology. Finally, an analysis from the perspective of mass media will help us gain a better understanding as to why English academia—and in particular its subfield of cultural studies—need identity politics to critique the transmedial operation of late capitalist franchises.