AN INTRODUCTION TO GAME STUDIES
Writing for an audience
The subject matter, research question and methodology issues discussed above each contribute to the way the final research paper needs to be structured.
The presentation of study is not an external part of the research process, but at its very core, science and scholarship are communication of knowledge, and work that does not convey its message to anyone does not exist as far as academic community is concerned.
Similarly, solid argumentation, logical structure and clear language will reveal the merits of research work to the reader.
It should also be possible to recognize the limits and possible weaknesses in the work.
It is not a fault of scholarship not to cover every issue in a research field;
on the contrary, these kinds of gaps need to be recognized as opportunities for further research.
Preparing for comments and critique is therefore and integral part of study.
It is easy to perceive the finished paper to be the final and complete word on the matter, but there are always alternative viewpoints or approaches that can contribute or even question the claims of the research.
A central part of any progressive view of science is the concept of dialogue, where it is in the joint interests of academics to make research stronger by questioning, testing and building upon each others' work.
This fundamental principle should also guide the work and debate in classroom and in seminars. Presenting a game studies paper should not be a deathmatch.
While thinking about the overall organization of any course assignment, the first thing is to check again all provided instructions and what the course supervisor is saying.
There are established conventions in presentation and use of references that vary between universities and departments.
A key part in organizing your presentation is identifying the main argument.
After doing your pre-study, reading all relevant literature and doing y our own research, What is it that you want to say? Why is it interesting?
Game studies is a broad and diverse field, and an author cannot rely on the homogeneous background in one's audience as in some other fields.
Thus, it is a good idea to take less as granted, and spend some time in describing the background and character of both the subject of study and the adopted methodological approach.
In more advanced courses a certain level of proficiency is expected, in terms of both scholarly and game-related expertise, which should be reflected in the style of writing in those case.
Being brief and informative is a skill in itself.
Often it is useful to provide references to sources that allow readers to gain more background knowledge than is appropriate to fit into the paper.
The motivation for study and clarification why a certain approach was adopted to study this phenomenon is nevertheless something that should be presented to the reader early int the paper.
Some dedicated thought is required to construct a logical outline for the paper. There are numerous different modes of arrangement that might suit the purpose, ranging from arrangement that focuses on description of phenomenon, or some process and its course of events, to narrative or story-like arrangements, which also are an option.
The logic of the paper can also rely on division and grouping of your findings into distinctive and categories, as well as utilizing comparisons and contrasts to highlight the key differences and similarities among research findings. The logic of cause and effect is one of the classic modes for arrangement, which progresses by giving and explanation to phenomenon through a process of discovery of its underlying reasons or mechanisms.
A riddle and solution structure is also a way to capture the attention of readers; a curious phenomenon or challenging problem is presented in the begin, and the paper explores one or more hypotheses as solutions, giving evidence and comparing their respective merits and weaknesses.
Factual clarity is nevertheless the dominant tone of academic papers, rather than the thrills or poetic allusions familiar from drama or detective stories.
While there is no single structure or stylistic convention and would cover game studies, it is useful to be aware of the standard scientific article structure that dominates publishing in many disciplines.
This involves presenting the argument within an 'IMRaD' template, which has four main parts: introduction, methods, results, and discussion. This kind of paper format typically also includes title, author information, abstract and keyword list in the beginning, and a list of references at the end.
While using such structures, it is important to put enough weight to the analysis and results as the key part of paper; all the other sections are traditionally brief when compared with the part where the real 'beef' is presented.
Beware particularly the part containing the introduction and background from taking up too much room in the paper, as the attention of reader needs to be focused on the key results and claims made in this particular research.
Within the macrostructure of main parts, there is a microstructure, with each part consisting of series of paragraphs, each carrying one thought, logically linked with each other.
Thus, the main argument of the entire paper is sustained by logical line of thought carried coherently through it.
There are many good guides for scientific writing, but few issues are particularly pertinent in this context.
One of the most important is the use of references.
All scholars need to ground their claims either to data that they have themselves gathered and documented or through references into other scientific work.
Making claims that carry no reference pointers makes a vague impression and can even be a sign of plagiarism, when text and information is provided without clearly marking it as paraphrase or quotation that is followed by reference.
Since much current discussion and thinking around games takes place among both academics and non-academics in various forums of the Internet, special attention needs to be given to the use of electronic sources. The quality of sources and how they are used is one of the key elements in determining the quality and substance of scholarly work.
The core argumentation in academic papers should not rely on Internet sources that are not qualified through academic editing and peer reviewing processes.
At the same time, there is much value and substantial expertise invested in various individual and communal online projects, and modern scholarship should not close its eye on this work.
However, critical evaluation of sources is something that is needed also for printed publications as much as while using online sources.
As a general recommendation, when multiple source are carefully compared, it becomes easier to point out inconsistencies and conflicts within information obtained from different resources.
Finally, game studies is discussion of game and players, informed by research and scholarship. Recognizing the cultural value and significance of games should be visible in the way games are discussed and treated by students and scholars alike.
The existing guidelines for academic writing and referencing rarely take into account all the needs of games-focused research.
In addition to a list of bibliographic references, many researchers are including a ludography, or detailed list of games into their reference section.
An entry in such list needs to include at least the name of the game, year of publication and usually the studio responsible for its design.
However, research projects discuss games production-related issue with a varying level of detail, and in some cases even minor differences between the various released versions of a game are significant.
Thus a more thorough ludography might include also publisher, name of such key individuals as the main designer, programmer, writer or artist, as well as version information including the platform such as PlayStation2 or Xbox.
In the end, in this generally in formal details, it is most important to be consistent, what ever the adopted reference practice is.
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This book has aimed to provide and introductory perspective into the main dimensions of digital game and play, providing a multidimensional view of games' meanings and roles in culture.
There are many issues that concern studying games and writing research that cannot be discussed within the scope of this work, but hopefully in these chapters, as well as the recommendations in further online resources, game studies bibliography and other materials at the companion web site(www.gamestudiesbook.net) are helpful for getting into the road of learning and appreciation of games and the associated rich game cultures. Good luck - play well!
遊戲論文
[簡述：]
因為這方面的論 文數量極少，硬要找相關的資料會發現存在於各個不同領域的學術文章裡。
本篇主要論述撰寫遊戲為主的論文時，該注意的事項。
如：文章格式、 參考資料來源、網路資料的驗證、遊戲故事背景... 等該注意的事項。
[以下是全文翻譯]
關於這方面的文章及研究，在之 前並不被重視，而將它當作學問來研究，同樣有一些核心價值及邏輯上的結構。
依循著科學的對話概念，核心部份會有進步，使研究更有力來測試印證每一 個學說。
這一基本原則也指引工作和辯論的課堂和研討會。遊戲研究不應該只是一個死鬥的學問。
在課堂上的研究及教學，每個不同大學 或部門都有其既定公式介紹和使用的方法。
一個關鍵的部分，組織您的演示文稿是確定的主要論點。
之後，您可以預先研究，閱讀所有相關的文獻 和做為我們自己的研究，它是什麼，你想說什麼呢？為什麼有趣？
遊戲是一個廣泛的研究和不同的領域，作者不能僅靠單一背景的觀眾或某些特定 領域。
因此，應該要花一些時間來描述背景及性質的研究課題範圍。
在更先進的課程有一定程度的水準，評估，兩方面的學術和遊戲相關的專業知 識，而應體現在文章風格上。其中一種技巧就是讓文章簡短確實。提供參考來源，讓讀者獲得更多的背景知識，比讀者親身體會更有幫助。
一些專 門的思想是需要建立一個合乎邏輯的概要文件。有許多不同方式的安排，可能適合的目的，從安排，重點描述的現象，或一些進程及其過程中發生的事件，敘述或故 事類的安排，其中也有一個選擇。
邏輯文件也可以依靠分組的結果轉化為獨特的類別，並利用比較和對比，以突出重點之間異同的研究結果。邏輯 的因果關係是一個典型的模式安排，進展給予解釋的現象和通過的過程中發現其根本原因或機制。
一個謎題和解決結構也是一個方法來取得讀者的注意，一 個奇怪的現象，或具有挑戰性的問題是在開始和探討的一個或多個假設作為解決方案，提供證據和比較各自的長處和弱點。
然而學術論文的主要基調是清楚 的事實，而不是刺激的戲劇、故事或偵探小說。
雖然沒有一個單一的結構或文體公約涵蓋遊戲的研究，但可參考標準的科學文章結構中的主導出版 許多學科。
這涉及到提出的論點在一個' IMRaD '模式，其中有四個主要部分組成：導言，方法，結果和討論。這種文件格式，通常還包括標題，作者信息，摘要和關鍵字列表的開始，並列出參考年份。
雖 然使用這種結構，重要的是要提出足夠的份量的分析和結果的重要組成部分文件;所有其他部分傳統簡要比較。
小心特別是部分載有簡介和背景的文件太多 而影響了讀者的注意力，所以需要把重點放在關鍵的成果和提出的特定研究。
在宏觀結構的主要部分，有一個組織，每一個部分組成的系列的段落，每一個 執行一個思想，在邏輯上與對方。
因此，主要論點在整個文件是持續的邏輯思路進行一致通過。
有許多很好的指南，科學寫作，但有幾個 問題特別有關這方面的情況。
其中最重要的是利用參考文獻。
所有學者都需要數據，他們有自己的收集和記錄或引用其他科學論文。
由 於大部分目前的討論與思考發生在遊戲中，既有學術界和非學者在各種網路論壇，特別注意需要考慮使用電子來源。品質、來源以及他們如何使用的關鍵因素之一確 定品質和實質內容的學術工作。
核心論證論文不應只依賴網路來源，因為這些網路來源常沒有資格通過學術編輯和同行審查進程。
與此同時，有很 多的產值和大量投資於各種專門知識的個人和社區的網站，現代學術仍應關注這方面的資訊。
作為一般建議，當多源仔細比較，它更容易指出不一致和衝突 的資料，不同的資源。
最後，遊戲的研究是討論遊戲和播放器，告知研究和獎學金。認識到文化的價值和意義的比賽應該可以看見遊戲的方式進行 了討論和處理的學生和學者。
遊戲為重點的研究，在現有準則的學術著作和參照很少考慮到所有的需要。
除了列出參考書目，許多研究人員都包括 ludography ，或詳細清單遊戲納入其參考。
一個項目在這類清單中列出需要至少包括姓名，遊戲，出版年份，通常工作室負責設計。
然 而，研究項目，討論遊戲生產有關的問題，以不同的詳細程度，並在某些情況下甚至未成年人之間的差異影響到遊戲發佈的各種版本。
從而更徹底地 ludography可能還包括出版商，名稱等關鍵個人的主要設計師，工程師，作家或藝術家，以及版本信息，包括平台，如PlayStation2或 Xbox 。
最後，在這個一般在正式的細節，這是最重要的是一致的，什麼以往的做法是通過參考。
...
這本書的目的，提供和介紹 性的角度考慮的主要方面的數位遊戲和比賽，提供了多方面的意見遊戲的意義和作用的文化。
有許多問題的關注學習遊戲和寫作研究，不能討論範圍之內的 這方面的工作，但希望這些章節，並建議進一步的網上資源，遊戲學習書目和其他材料上的同伴網站（ www.gamestudiesbook.net ）有利於進入的道路，學習和欣賞比賽和相關的豐富遊戲文化。祝你好運-打得好！