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Ideology at the Wheel: How Affordances and Game Design Textbooks Relate to Ideological Tendencies

Key insights

6 takeaways

01
Games research and HCI often implicitly adopt neoliberal ideologies, such as Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and flow, which prioritize autonomous, self-governing individuals and neoclassical rationality.See it on page 1
02
Game design textbooks and research frequently construct 'the player' through hegemonic, binary gender norms that marginalize non-cisgendered identities and treat queer perspectives as a homogeneous 'Other'.See it on page 2
03
The concept of 'affordances' is used differently across fields; while social media studies adapts it to address relational and social power, games research often uses it to reinforce the designer's control or the game's materiality.See it on page 2
04
Critical Discourse Analysis of game design literature reveals that current rhetorical frameworks often fail to implement substantive liberatory gender politics, despite rhetorical shifts toward acknowledging gender as a 'matter of concern'.See it on page 2
05
The 'gamer as consumer' discourse, often reinforced in design textbooks, limits the potential for alternative player conceptualizations and perpetuates historical biases similar to those found in early HCI user-modeling.See it on page 2
06
Future research in games studies should prioritize reflexive practice and cross-disciplinary engagement to move beyond existing 'masculine dungeon' tropes and toward more embodied, politically aware design methodologies.See it on page 2

Ideology at the wheel, how fordances and game design textbooks relate to ideological tendencies Abstract theory and practice.