In World of Warcraft (WOW) , thousands of players work together to analyze the game's rules and maximize their rewards. Organized boosting—a paid player service—is widely seen as undermining the meritocratic ideal that ties rewards to effort and skill. Drawing on semistructured interviews with six former providers of boosting services, this study argues that optimization in digital games is not solely a strategic choice, but often a necessity shaped by financial pressures. The introduction of token-based economic elements, such as the WoW token, nudges players into financial speculation and wealth accumulation, transforming optimization into a form of labor. This study considers boosting within the framework of financialization, highlighting how optimization mirrors broader tensions in a game culture shaped by corporate commodification practices.

Drawing on critical frameworks in criminology, including Popular Criminology and Ghost Criminology, this paper aims to explore how Bloodborne offers a critical reflection of the haunting nature of the harms inflicted by humans in the age of the Anthropocene. More specifically, we aim to examine how the cultural text of Bloodborne illustrates humanity's corruption of the natural and the harms this inflicts, arguing that this can be understood as a reflection of ghosts of the Anthropocene. Using ethnographic content analysis, three main themes were uncovered in Bloodborne that related to humanity's corruption of the natural, the harms this inflict, as well as how this can be understood as a reflection of ghosts of the Anthropocene: Sanguine Exploitation, Horrific Creation , and Monstrous Extinction . We conclude by arguing that Bloodborne , in evoking the horrors of climate catastrophe, is an important cultural script that responds to McBrien’s necrocene and Haraway’s Chthulucene.

On the 15th anniversary of Minecraft's release (2009), this systematic review of 106 articles has been conducted to outline the scientific production of the past decade regarding the use of Minecraft in education. Among the most notable findings is the relationship between the most frequently employed game mechanics and the most recurrent educational objectives, determining that construction and programming/problem-solving are the primary mechanics utilized in educational interventions, while the analysis of Minecraft as a tool and its influence on cognitive development constitute the most extensively studied research objectives. Some of the main identified limitations highlight the need to analyse in-game activities through standardized methodological frameworks to enhance comparability with other studies, thereby facilitating the association between game mechanics and learning processes. Finally, further exploration of underdeveloped research areas is encouraged to expand the understanding of Minecraft's impact across diverse educational settings.

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) found that women accounted for 46% of U.S. gamers in 2024. However, women players (especially girl players) remain an under-researched demographic in game studies. The aim of this qualitative case study was to expand upon previous research discoveries and explore the 21st-century skills, design processes, perspectives, and behaviors of adolescent girl players as they played, created, and survived in a video game ( Minecraft ). The data analysis involved triangulating eleven qualitative case study interviews with visual artifacts and observations from twenty-one girl players. A hundred and fifty students collaborated with the participants throughout various stages of the study's three phases. The qualitative coding process generated five themes: (1) Father Figures , (2) Community House , (3) Gamer Girl , (4) Lockdown , and (5) Trial and Error . Each theme organizes and shares how girls viewed, theorized, and interpreted their video game experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper explores the concept of ruins in interactive entertainment, focusing on games that become ruins due to abandonment, technological decay, or other processes unique to digital media. A comparative analysis of physical and digital ruins, their formation, contexts, and use, offers insight into how contemporary society deals with the remnants of its past—both physical and digital. The analysis highlights three main points: the disappearance of actual digital ruins contrasted with the persistence of their remnants, the “digitalisation” of certain processes visible in material ruins, and the emergence of new types of industrial sublime. The study underscores how digitalization transforms the nature of ruins, reflecting the evolving relationship between memory, decay, and technology.

This study investigates cultural reception dynamics in video games within Genshin Impact, a Chinese-inspired gaming environment. Addressing the research gap in understanding how interactive systems influence cultural reception, we conducted semi-structured interviews across Asia, North America, and Europe. Based on the sense-making theory perspective and grounded theory methodology, we establish a theoretical framework, including three dimensions: (1) systemic cultural elements affordance, (2) personalized cultural experience through gameplay, and (3) cultural reception based on identity negotiation. The proposed theoretical model demonstrates how games operationalize cross-cultural communication through designed scenes and interactions rather than immethodical exposure. The study responds to the growing need for cross-cultural design frameworks in globalized gaming markets while advancing the theoretical understanding of digital environments as active cultural learning spaces. By revealing players’ agentic reinterpretation of cultural elements through gameplay mechanics, it provides developers and cross-cultural communicators with evidence-based strategies for intentional cultural integration.

This article offers a political reading of Mossmouth's UFO 50 , a collection of 50 retro-style games that evoke the aesthetics and design principles of 1980s gaming. Drawing on Frederic Jameson's concepts of the ‘nostalgia mode’ and the ‘utopian impulse’, I argue that UFO 50 's nostalgia is not a superficial longing for the past, but a political gesture that challenges the current state of the video game industry. By creatively appropriating the past, UFO 50 critiques the complacency of modern game production and consumption, urging us to imagine alternative futures and reclaim the creativity and risk-taking that characterised earlier eras of game development. However, through its meta-narrative, the game also cautions against uncritically preserving the past, reminding us that, while we can learn from them, every historical period is flawed. Ultimately, UFO 50 is a critically nostalgic work that refuses to accept the present conditions of the gaming industry.

In recent years, semi-peripheral industries have produced numerous video games that use local settings but aim at a global audience. We explore this trend using five cases of commercially released Czech indie games that feature local themes and settings. Our research combines qualitative content analysis of representation with developer interviews, which we analyze to reveal motivations for including local content , its implementation, localization, and reception . We find that the games provide a unique image of the country by virtue of showing the country's peripheral regions and everyday material culture. The developers’ motivations for using local culture range from creative (creating believable stories and environments) to practical (access to reference material). They maintain a dual allegiance to the international and local audiences because while they make most of their profits abroad, the local communities play key roles by providing initial feedback, encouragement, and development assistance.

This study examines the impact of players’ gender and nationality on game performance before and during the Israel-Hamas war. The study focuses on two games for social impact revolving around intractable conflicts: PeaceMaker (Israeli-Palestinian conflict) and Fact Finders (Cyprus Conflict). We conducted three case studies with 510 undergraduates voluntarily playing the aforementioned games and reporting their final scores. The participants included Israeli-Jew, Palestinian, American, and Cypriot undergraduate students. We found that before the Israel-Hamas war, women won PeaceMaker no less than men. Interestingly, during the Israel-Hamas war, women won PeaceMaker more than men. Finally, third-parties to the Cyprus conflict (Israelis, Palestinians and Americans) significantly outperformed direct-parties (Cypriots) in Fact Finders before and during the Israel-Hamas war. Overall this study's findings suggest that serious games can be used as effective interventions for peace education and conflict resolution regardless of players’ gender or nationality, even during violent times.

This article synthesizes qualitative evidence from ethnographies within video game development companies. A best-fit framework synthesis was conducted, combining the strengths of framework and thematic analysis to interpret the results of 55 ethnographic studies. The analysis revealed that the field of video game development is dominated by technologists and publishers with economic and cultural capitals determining the positions within the field. Within every studio cultural, economic, and social capitals significantly influence developers’ experiences, with persistent issues of job precarity, extended working hours, and underrepresentation of marginalized groups. Developers often face limited creative freedom and significant control which affects their work dynamics and inclusion efforts. Despite these challenges, some studies highlighted peripheral areas where diversity is actively sought and valued. The findings underscore the need for targeted interventions at multiple ecological levels to foster a more inclusive and diverse video game development industry.