Edinburgh Napier University

Player as Archivist: A Proposed Analysis of Player-centric Video Game Preservation Practice

This proposal, presented at DiGRA 2026 by researchers at Edinburgh Napier University, argues that video game preservation depends heavily on informal, player-driven labor that remains under-studied relative to institutional archiving.

• Video game preservation relies heavily on informal, player-driven labor that is under-studied compared with institutional archiving, and the paper argues this should be investigated empirically.
• The authors contend that games are complex digital objects whose authenticity depends on user practice and the lived playing experience, not only on technical layers, so purely technological preservation may lose what makes games culturally distinctive.
• The proposed research agenda examines four behavioral determinants of player-driven preservation: nostalgic motivation, preservation practice orientation (e.g., emulation, modding, walkthrough production), community engagement, and technical and resource investment.