In this article, the author explores computer gaming preferences of girls through observations of a games club at an all-girl state school in the United Kingdom. The author argues that gaming tastes are alterable and site specific. Gaming preferences certainly relate to the attributes of particular games, but they will also depend on the player’s recognition and knowledge of these attributes. Players accumulate these competencies according to the patterns of access and peer culture they encounter. The constituents of preference, such as access, are shaped by gender, and as a result, gaming preferences may manifest along gendered lines. It is not difficult to generate data, indicating that gendered tastes exist, but it is shortsighted to separate such outcomes from the various practices that contribute to their formation.

Although there is interest in the educational potential of online multiplayer games and virtual worlds, there is still little evidence to explain specifically what and how people learn from these environments. This paper addresses this issue by exploring the experiences of couples that play World of Warcraft together. Learning outcomes were identified (involving the management of ludic, social and material resources) along with learning processes, which followed Wenger's model of participation in Communities of Practice. Comparing this with existing literature suggests that productive comparisons can be drawn with the experiences of distance education students and the social pressures that affect their participation.

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This article is about textual analysis, methodology, and representations (of bodies, identities and social groups) in digital games. The issues under consideration include textual analysis as procedure, the role of fragmentation in textual analysis, game ontology and the remit of textual analysis, and the role of the player-as-analyst in relation to subjectivity and embodied interpretation. These issues are discussed using a combination of game studies literature, film theory, and literary theory-and with reference to Deus Ex: Human Revolution (2011). Draft version Methodology, Representation, and GamesThis article is a contribution toward ongoing efforts to refine a methodology for the textual analysis of representations in digital games. The article was inspired by Deus Ex: Human Revolution and the methodological problems that it posed. These included problems relating to the role of the player-as-analyst, the remit of textual analysis, the practicalities of method and process, and questions of thoroughness and omission. Improbably, a film theory article from the mid-1970s offered a way forward. In Bellour's (1975) playful, melancholy essay 'The Unattainable Text', he lists some of the difficulties associated with the textual analysis of music, image, theatre, and especially film. In the process, he makes points that are relevant to game analysis.The article begins with a review of game studies literature on representation and textual methods, followed by a reflexive summary of the author's previous work on the development of a game-appropriate version of textual analysis. By these means, two particular aspects of the method are identified as opaque. Firstly, there is a need to clarify the procedures that support fragmentation and to address related questions of omission: What does it mean to fragment a text as variable as Deus Ex: Human Revolution? What would it mean to be thorough? Secondly, there is a need to clarify some aspects of the relationships between the different elements within a game and textual analysis: What does it mean to describe a game as a text? What are the ontological implications? To what extent should these ontological considerations shape our understanding of the applicability and limitations of textual methods? These issues are explored using points drawn from Bellour's essay in combination with reflections on the experience of playing and analyzing representations in Deus Ex: Human Revolution (2011, Eidos Montreal, Square Enix). Representation and Textual MethodsGame researchers have explored meaning as it emerges during play using a variety of concepts, including frame analysis (Linderoth, Bjork, & Olsson, 2012) and cognitive approaches to embodiment (Gee, 2008;Gregersen & Grodal, 2009). Other researchers have developed ontological and phenomenological accounts (Sageng, Fossheim, & Larsen, 2012), debated the permeability of the "magic circle" (Zimmerman, 2012), or raised questions about the relationships between subjectivity, rules, and proceduralist meaning (Bogost, 2008...

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The emergence of game studies is provoking a struggle between adapted older disciplines in the effort to forge a new, discrete field of study. This paper reports on a two-year project titled Textuality in Video Games1 and the range of research techniques that were employed in order to begin answering questions about role-play, pleasure, agency and narrative. The paper outlines how narratology and film theory, social psychology and social semiotics were deployed separately and in various combinations to analyse computer role-play games, the interaction between player and text, and the cultural work of player and fan communities.

In this paper the online construction of disability is investigated and the implications for educators working in virtual worlds are considered. Based on the analysis of data collected through interviews with deaf residents of Second Life , it is argued that research into online identity, disability and education needs to allow room for self-description, and that educators need to recognise the power relations that can lurk within practices of provision or accessibility support. Working through these issues involves reconciling disability studies with e-learning and accessibility perspectives. It is proposed that strategies that would support this reconciliation might be found in recent literature on disability and technology.

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