This January I am presenting a Positional Paper as part of the Doctoral course arranged by Svenska Spelforskarrådet (Council of Swedish Games Researchers). Want to read it? See the end of this post!

In many ways, this positional paper is the first time I have written anything ‘‘formal’’ regarding my thoughts and views on research – in particular Game Research. It is an area I know contains many facets and differentiating opinions, and I feel like the paper I wrote contains a few points that I would have wanted to do more research around had this been for a conference or to be published more formally.

I do, however, believe that the paper touches upon one of the erroneous ways game research today is conducted within academia; the lack of understanding of the development context. Few projects, regardless of focus seems to be done within the actual constraints of a game development company. It does not matter if the constraints are financial ones or, as for instance in the area of Game AI, computational time allowed and fidelity required – I rarely see these kept in mind as the research is conducted. This, in my humble opinion, causes a rift between academia and industry, wherein the produce and knowledge generation of the former are all but useless for the later.

Want to understand what I mean? Please, do read the paper below!

The Paper