My Doctorate
Somewhere in 2007 I started writing a doctorate, in Hebrew, about computer games. In 2013, after seven years of work, I submitted it. What I was after was a way to explain how and why computer games developed the way they did, and in the end I proposed a theoretical model that does exactly that.
As far as I know it was the first doctorate written on computer games in Hebrew. There were already a handful of works in psychology and education that touched on computer games, but I think I was the first to make them the central object of the research.
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In the last 40 years, video games have become an integral part of our lives. With their increasing popularity tens of thousands of books, articles and academic papers have been written on video games. Although the research of video games is extensive, no research has adequately identified the various mechanisms by which video games evolve, or described the history of the evolution of video games over the roughly sixty years of their existence.
The analyses in this study are based on Wiebe Bijker’s notion of technological frames (Bijker, 1987), which is part of the social construction of technology theory (SCOT) (Pinch, et al., 1984). The main actors in story of how video games evolve are without a doubt the games, creators, companies and technologies. Not less important (and currently ignored) are the technological frames in which these different sorts of actors act. The technological frame, as Bijker describes it, is a collection of elements influencing the interaction between the actors, allowing them to interpret the technology or artifact as they do.
My analysis proceeds through an examination and analysis of three historical case studies. The first case study examines the evolvement of the first video games platforms. This case study allows me to indicate the fact that technological frames in video games are formed around collections of similar platforms. This is the base of a theoretical model that eventually answers the question "How video games evolve?". The second case study examines the game series Bubble Town which was published on various game platforms since 2006. This case study raises questions concerning the popularity of games in various platforms and technological frames. As part of this case study analysis, I propose a preliminary theoretical model that describes how video games evolve. The model is an extension of the concept of the technological frame. The third case study examines the evolution of the genre of puzzle games. I use the model developed earlier explaining the dramatic shifts in popularity that characterize the genre of the puzzle games over the years and continue to develop the theoretical model.
One of the main things that can be learned from this research is that the development of video games can be understood only in light of relevant technological frames, alongside the description of games, creators, companies and technologies. A technological frame description should focus on several elements: The first is the context of use. The context of use describes how the player plays the game. Another significant element is the distribution model. The distribution model describes the route the game makes from his creators to the player. The context of use and the distribution model are elements that differ from one technological frame to another. These elements tend to remain constant over time. Unlike these elements, the field of technological possibilities is an element which changes frequently. The field of technological possibilities defines what technologies are available and accepted in the technological frame at that time. These technologies allow and restrict all the various relevant groups operating in the technological frame. At any given time there are several main platforms. These main platforms can be used as anchors describing the technological frame at any given time. The last important element is the players’ characteristics. The players’ characteristics include age, gender, country and the socio-economic status.
From the case studies it is easy to see that video games evolvement can occur over relatively long periods of time. In these cases a description of the technological frame in each period of time is needed, as the technological frame changes over time. If the phenomenon occurred on several technological frames, a description of all technological frames can be relevant.
Music, movies, software, books and newspapers are also consumed on and through platforms, exactly like video games. In each of these areas, platforms can be grouped into collections of similar platforms and technological frames can be formed around those collections. Describing phenomena in those areas using the model described in this research can shed new light in those fields in a similar manner it served this research in video games. Phenomena and artifacts like these are called techno-narrative artifacts.
