At the Edge: Periludic Elements in Game Studies

Gardner, Daniel; Tanenbaum, Theresa

Abstract

While much of the scholarship around games focuses on either communities of play, or the content of the games and gameplay themselves, comparatively little attention has been paid to the infrastructures that players must negotiate to gain access to the gameplay experience. In this paper we focus on the interfaces on the periphery of gameplay. These systems--such as authentication and login systems, distribution platforms, menu systems, controllers and character configuration and selection interfaces--serve as thresholds that mediate and dictate who may experience gameplay, and what kind of experience they are permitted to have. We term these kinds of peripheral-to-gameplay interfaces periludic, drawing on Genette’s formulation of peritext. We focus on interfaces for authentication and character configuration because of the practical, legal and performative outcomes they enable and enforce. Authentication processes control who is permitted to access games and gameplay, and under what legal and conceptual terms. Character configuration constrains who players are allowed to be within game worlds, and thus who games are about. We use these examples to position the notion of the periludic at an intersection between game studies, media studies, HCI and social science. We argue that attention to these often invisible or transactional aspects of gameplay experiences will allow games scholars to better observe how power and authority are negotiated by players of games.

Citation

GARDNER, D.L. and TANENBAUM, T.J. 2021. At the edge: periludic elements in game studies. Game studies [online], 21(4). Available from: https://gamestudies.org/2104/articles/gardner_tanenbaum

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 31, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Dec 31, 2021
• Publication Date: Dec 31, 2021
• Deposit Date: Jan 17, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 20, 2025
• Journal: Game studies
• Electronic ISSN: 1604-7982
• Publisher: Game Studies Foundation
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 21
• Issue: 4
• Keywords: Interface; Media infrastructures; Paratext; Peritext; Periludic
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2662967