Meta-Game Studies Prof Sebastian Deterding Dyson School of Design Engineering Imperial College London @dingstweets @[email protected] 

<1> Preface 

My first meta … applied to games 

My second meta … applied to game studies 

How has games research been changing? 1st Spring Seminar 2005 10th Spring Seminar 2014 20th Spring Seminar 2024 

How has the meta of games research been changing? 1st Spring Seminar 2005 10th Spring Seminar 2014 20th Spring Seminar 2024 

Meta-Game Studies The changing meta of games research 

What do I mean with “meta”? * The moving equilibrium of dominant strategies in a multiplayer game, emerging from the evolving mangle of formal, internal, social, external, and material rules.* 

Why I think “meta” is a productive lens for analysing games research • Matches participant views of academia as (often stochastic, sometimes zero sum) strategic game • Meta ≠ objectively optimal: what participants at a given time with limited information believe is optimal • Meta ≠ normative: What we believe works, not ought to do • Applies a “game lens” (Björk, Koster) to non-game phenomena as an underused possibility of game studies • It’s fun! 

What this is not about • Cynicism • Career advice (YMMV, I Am Not Your Mentor) • The teaching meta (how to get students) • The funding meta (though closely related) • I mean the discourse meta (≅ how to get citations) • Game studies as the humanities and cultural studies field dedicated to games • I mean cross-disciplinary games research 

<2> Meta review 

Deprecated meta: Easy Firsts! Laying first claim to a term or topic in games 

Gotta speak to the literature A more self-referentially closed normal science Playbour 

Stable meta (also in other fields): Neophilia As games evolve, go “first!” on the new new thing 2004 2014 2024 2024+ Hypercasual! GenAI! Mainstream puzzles! XR! Mobile! MMORPGs! MOBA! India! Freemium! Jubensha! Analog! Pervasive! Motion control! Esports! Gamblification! Gamification! Indie! Casual! China! 

• Describing X • Defining X • Uses and gratifications of X • Technology acceptance model of X • X design patterns • The X motivation scale • The X experience scale • The X addiction scale • Does X work? A systematic review • Against X (citations in trolling) Stable meta (also in other fields): Neophilia Some solid strategies. For every new X, … (Also for new aspects of games: paratexts, boxes, platforms, controllers, ads, …) 

Stable meta: Technology Panics Promote them, deflate them, rinse, repeat Amy Orben (2020), The Sisyphean Cycle of Technology Panics Then • Violence! • Obesity! Now • Addiction! • Gamblification! Next(ish) • Extremism! • Online harms! 

Emergent meta: Making culture matter Centring white spots and differences Academically mapped gaming, ca. 2005 Academically mapped gaming, ca. 2024 

Emergent meta: Synthesis Generating new insight from integration “We have seen plenty of first-generation books on interactive entertainment, in which an author with expertise in another field presents a bystander's perceptions on the subject. But this is a second-generation book, written by an author whose background is entirely within the field. Wardrip-Fruin was brought up on computer games and educated in the thoughts of the first generation thinkers. Now he has integrated them into a new perspective that builds on those ideas at higher levels of abstraction. Looking back at my own ideas from Noah's new vantage point was an educational experience for me.” – Chris Crawford 

Emergent meta: Synthesis Generating new insight from integration 

Deprecated meta: Fending off colonisers Games matter; game studies exist 

(Though granted, in some disciplines, the future may not have been evenly distributed to yet. ) Deprecated meta: Fending off colonisers Games matter; game studies exist *cough* philosophy of art *cough* 

Emergent meta: Games as avantgarde of other fields Platforms, immersion, creator economy, toxicity, … 

Emergent meta: Extending discourses Games as part & application of wider theory turns Soon in a bookshelf near you: • Esoteric gaming • Mycelic gaming • Psychedelic gaming • Extinction gaming • Fascist resurgence in gaming • Infrastructures/supersystems of gaming • Games as hyper objects • … 

Emergent meta: Embracing the Othered Rediscover what was strategically ignored before 

Shifting meta: Go serious! Funding and legitimacy from social impact What is shifting • Large-scale, actual reality, not potential • ↓strategies: “I made a thing”, “Can games do X?” • ↑strategies: Medical publication chains (review, formative, trial, …) Shifts I wish were true • Implementation Science for games • “What works” synthesis • Contributions to applied game design 

New meta: Temple-Razing Rigour Reformation Bringing the science reform movement to games My current meta 2005 theory: Most findings are false 2015+ data: 39% of studies replicate, effect sizes half 

Academic research, ca. 2024 (simplified diagram) Poor, flexible theories Poor, flexible measures Poor, flexible studies Poor, flexible analyses Deluge of meaningless publications, zero progress Noise mining 

An open science + metascience reform movement Aiming to study & fix poor, intransparent research Brian Nosek (2019), Strategy for culture change • Preregistration • Registered report • Power analysis • Data sharing • Reproducible code sharing • Replication studies • Method training • … 

Iconoclasm for fun and profit Tearing down superstitious idols and institutions of old 

But surely, not in games? ! 

Take “Balance” Balanced challenge recognised in practice and research “Challenge is consistently identified as the most important aspect of good game design. Games should be sufficiently challenging, match the player’s skill level” Sweetser & Wyeth, 2005, 6 

Atkinson, 1957; Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Ryan & Deci, 2017 • Flow theory: Optimal challenge absorbs attention • SDT: Optimal challenges maximises competence experience Difficulty Skill Boredom Frustration Engagem ent, enjoym ent In games, we hold these truths to be mostly self-evident … 

Deterding & Cutting, 2013 »Within SDT, then, optimal challenge means facing demands that most often one can master, rather than ones that are continuously at the leading edge of one’s capabilities. That type of high difficulty challenge should, however, be an intermittent element, in which case it can enhance and heighten intrinsic motivation« Deci & Ryan, 2017, 153 »attention is most focused when environmental challenges are in balance with the person’s skills. ... Experiences that one believes are in the neighborhood of a 50/50 balance are experienced as enjoyable« Csikszentmihalyi & Nakamura 2011, 187 Yet theories don’t really specify “optimal challenge” 

• How do you quantify “difficulty” and “skill”? • Linear or log scales or …? • What shape is that curve? • What equation describes the shape of this curve? • What is the point estimate of “optimal”? Difficulty Skill Boredom Frustration Engagem ent, enjoym ent Yet theories don’t really specify “optimal challenge” 

Cutting et al., 2022 We rigorously tested the effect of difficulty-skill ratio on enjoyment and engagement 

No significant difference in enjoyment or engagement, no ‘goldilocks’ optimum around balanced challenge (n=311) Cutting et al., 2023 

Pre-registered replication (n=309): Players perceive balanced/draw condition as most balanced …. Deterding & Cutting, 2023 

Yet the easier the game, the more competence they felt … and again, no significant impact on engagement 

New meta: Temple-Razing Rigour Reformation Bringing the science reform movement to games 

New meta: Temple-Razing Rigour Reformation Bringing the replication to games • Great carte blanche: You get to ignore everything before • Straightforward recipes: Run first! actually rigorous study, show failure to replicate • Aligns with rigour ratchet in most empirical disciplines: Journals, conferences, reviewers demand more and more • Game studies hold many taken-for-granted truths and poor prior theory, measures, studies: Immersion, challenge, meaningful choice, enjoyment drives play, … 

<3> Meta meta 

How has the meta of games research changed? • Easy Firsts! → Neophilia; technology panics; make cultural difference matter; synthesise • Fend of colonisers → Games as avant-garde; extend discursive turns; embrace the othered • Go serious! → From “I made a thing” to standard clinical publishing • Temple-Razing Rigour Reformation 

Why has that changed? What is the evolving rule mangle underneath? • Game studies is self-disciplining “normal science” with a prior work, venues, centres, internal attention economy • We gained legitimacy via the normative power of the factual: games matter, period. Game studies exist, period • The market & society lead, we follow. Corollary: Future games research is non-hardcore & Global South • Games research is embedded in wider science movements 

Applying “meta” beyond games Is a “game lens” a valuable game studies export? • Meta ≅ Ego-optimal strategies in competitive multiplayer games • ≅ equilibria in game theory, e.g., Nash equilibrium • But: Equilibria describe proven optimal strategies, given rational actors • Meta describes empirically dominant strategies, given actual humans • Like behavioural economics, recover the delta to rational assumptions 

Chasing the meta ≅ “strategic interaction” Optimising myopia arising from game-like interactions * Time to Goffman: 46 slides 

“Gameworthiness” “The rule of irrelevance” 

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http://boardgamegeek.com/image/1209336/advanced-squad-leader?size=original 

Game-like situations afford a gaming mindset Reinforced by social norms of gameworthiness 

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We can become munchkins of research Just ‘coz we know how to do it doesn’t mean we should 

Maybe I’m just getting old and bored … but filling in foreseeable blanks has no lustre for me • Describing X • Defining X • Uses and gratifications of X • Technology acceptance model of X • X design patterns • The X motivation scale • The X experience scale • The X addiction scale • Does X work? A systematic review • Against X (citations in trolling) 

Desirable meta 1: Follow the Fun “Be the meta you want to see in the world” 

Desirable meta 2: Change the game Intervene in the system to allow wiser action for all 

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I don’t think it’s as easy as Bernie made it look … 

Changing the meta is a hard collective action problem Changing a social contract when it pays to defect and you’re embedded in a thick outer mangle 

I think the German left were right to call it … “the long march through the institutions” 

But even so … 

Institutional change is a metagame I can get behind 

Prof Sebastian Deterding [email protected] @dingstweets @[email protected] Metametametametametametametametametametametameta • Easy Firsts! → make cultural difference matter; synthesise; neophilia; technology panics • Fend of colonisers → Games as avant-garde; extend discursive turns; embrace the othered • Go serious! → From “I made a thing” to standard clinical practice; implementation science; “what works” synthesis • New meta: Temple-Razing Rigour Reformation • Munchkindom → Follow the fun; change the game