Invading Space? On Perceived Risk and Doing Research in Game Arcades

This study examines the safety, ethics, and methodological challenges of researching Hong Kong game arcades, a setting where perceived risks and documented realities are closely intertwined. Drawing on twenty semi-structured interviews conducted between 2017 and 2019 with former arcade-goers, alongside police reports, government records, and news accounts, the authors argue that researcher risk in this context must be assessed as both perceived and real, and that the two shape research conduct in inseparable ways. Their central contention is that small, carefully designed studies remain valuable when researchers take deliberate precautions for their own and participants' safety and emotional well-being.

The authors find that popular perceptions of arcades as triad-dominated are partly exaggerated, yet documented links between arcades and organized crime are real, with 1,353 triad-related crime cases reported in 2019 and a June 2020 operation raiding 527 locations and arresting 380 people. These links, however, do not generalize to every arcade. Government reluctance to release the arcade license list, police stops, photography bans, intimidating security staff, and the researchers' own positions as non-local white European scholars all heightened the sense of danger, illustrating how environmental, institutional, and personal factors compound one another in the field.

The study identifies distinct considerations arising from three dimensions of the research: the place, the people, and the sensitive theme of organized crime. Practical measures discussed include anonymizing participants, destroying consent records where appropriate, and handling disclosures of underage play. The authors also note that Hong Kong's 2020 National Security Law has increased self-censorship among academics, adding political sensitivity to an already complex research environment. The paper concludes by calling for greater discussion of these risks within games research.