Order in Chaos: Toward a Theory of Videoludic Noise

This paper proposes a theoretical framework for understanding "noise" within video game studies, arguing that the field has only begun to engage with a concept that has long been central to information theory and the humanities. Its central claim is that noise should be treated not merely as a technical error or a game-breaking nuisance, but as a productive analytical category capable of generating new knowledge about games, play, and game culture. The authors position their work as a step toward closing the gap between emerging game-studies discussions of noise, such as Salen and Zimmerman's treatment of chaos within rule systems and Consalvo's typology of cultural, semantic, and technical noise in online multiplayer spaces, and the more developed transdisciplinary theories found in media, sound, film, and philosophical scholarship.

The research behind the paper is an ongoing project that assembled a substantial body of literature, comprising 83 books, 10 edited volumes, 43 journal articles, 4 conference proceedings, and 10 doctoral theses. Of this corpus, 25 books, 34 book chapters, and 14 academic articles have undergone thematic coding to identify recurring theoretical concerns. From this analysis, the authors derive three interrelated territories: affect, which treats noise as a destabilizing force that exposes the limits of a system; apophasis, which defines noise through negation and as a relational, liminal event; and (dis)order, which regards noise as a generative force driving transformation and reorganization. Their intersections yield subdomains, including aesthetic and ethical experience, epistemic inquiry into system limits, and ontological entropy, each illustrated with examples ranging from experimental and glitch-based titles to games that simulate corrupted or failing play.