Media-ludic approaches: Critical reflections on games and research practice

The Norwegian media scholar Espen Ytreberg defines media studies as the study of modern media, its regulators and producers, the media themselves, the users, and the context within which the media are used (Ytreberg, 2014). According to this definition, publishing an issue of MedieKultur that discusses the benefits of ludic research methods as part of media studies is evident. When we still choose to explicitly collect works on methods for researching games and play within this journal, it is to introduce to a wider audience how the study of games integrate in, draw on, and contribute to an established tradition of media studies. It is also a reminder that both fields, and the scholars participating within these blurred, but familiar, boundaries are still on a journey to meet Ytreberg's definition. Our intention with this special issue has been to bring together research working at the nexus of games and media studies. We offer examples of what games scholarship brings to methods thinking as well as media theory, and in the process wrangle with some interdisciplinary tensions. By focusing on the question of methods in games research and media studies, this issue of MedieKultur presents a collection of innovative research perspectives, which can reach beyond the growing field of games research and engage with interrelated subject areas such as audience studies, media sport studies, digital broadcasting, political economy, and leisure cultures research.