Introduction

Matt Kirschenbaum knows a bit about games…

He’s researched and written on a wide range of new media objects, including both electronic literature and video games (and those objects that fall in between). In a field which has yet to settle into its permanent place in academia, Matt is a scholar helping to establish the legitimacy of new media studies. His newest work on first generation electronic objects (coming this Fall) is called Mechanisms: New Media and the Forensic Imagination, and it promises to delve into the production, dissemination, and preservation of video games, their first cousins, and their distant relatives.

When Peter Leonteos and I met to discuss topics for our interview with Matt, we decided that the best questions would be those which address some of the important issues that came up in the English 390 class, Video Games and Textuality.

This was an especially unique class at Loyola because we devoted significant amounts of time to the first-hand experience of the games we played and the topics they brought up. In this light, we decided to get Matt’s view on how students and scholars should access video games in the future—as we’ve discussed in class, playing a game on its original platform can be an extremely different experience than playing a ported or imitation version.

Given the divergent backgrounds of the students in the class, we also felt it appropriate to ask Matt where he feels video games belong in the academic community, and what approaches should be taken in their study. And, on the topic of approaches to studying games, we also wanted to know how he felt about the difference between formally and technically studying the game object itself, versus the study of the social and textual webs into which it’s woven.

Not surprisingly, Matt gave us some unique perspectives on all of these issues. His approach to FGEOs on technical, formal, and social levels help to indicate the some of the ways in which students and teachers can engage video games in the future.

If you want to learn more about some of the topics we discussed with Matt, be sure to check out his published works, his blog, and the links on the right side of the page.

Thanks again to Matt Kirschenbaum for his time and energy, and to Dr. Steven Jones for arranging the interview.

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Below, Peter discusses some of the planning and execution behind the scenes of the interview.