The Uses of Ludobiography: Life Writing and Game Studies

Rob Gallagher's paper argues that videogames and auto/biography, though seemingly incompatible, can be productively brought together through what he terms "ludobiography," a written life narrative centred on digital play. The paper's central claim is that such accounts enrich game studies and life writing studies alike, serving first as historical resources, then as correctives to reductive player typologies, and finally as tools for posthumanist inquiry into the timescales of technocapitalism. It draws on a range of examples, including memoirs and critical autobiographical pieces by writers such as Sudnow, Amis, Quinn, and Chess, alongside scholarship from both fields.

The author identifies three main virtues of ludobiographical writing. As a historical resource, first-hand accounts preserve the contexts in which early arcade machines and consoles were encountered and expose gaps in canonical histories, such as the marginalisation of the 3DO platform. As a challenge to the "typical player," life narratives show how individuals move between casual and hardcore categories and how play occurs outside publishers' target markets. Finally, the paper argues that ludobiographies can inform posthumanist approaches to gaming, illustrating how the rhythms of hardware and generational product cycles intersect with biographical and biological time. The paper also critiques the tendency to frame autobiographical games as "empathy simulators" that uphold traditional humanist ideals of the sovereign, autonomous self.

The paper's scope is interdisciplinary and largely qualitative, drawing on theoretical and textual analysis rather than empirical data, surveys, or sample-based methodology. Its examples cluster around English-language, largely Anglo-American gaming culture and span roughly the 1980s to the late 2010s. The conclusion holds that a deeper engagement between game studies and auto/biography studies is overdue.