The Qualified Medium of Computer Games: Form and Matter, Technology, and Use

This chapter considers computer games as a qualified medium situated in an intermedial network of other qualified, technical media and media cultures. The aim of this chapter is to offer an overview of state-of-the-art research, which in four different ways sheds light on the relations between games and other media, supports intermedial analysis of computer games, and informs our understanding of computer games as a qualified medium that favors certain modes of expression, technologies, content matter, and modes of use. The chapter offers a broad review of literature originating in the field of game studies and studies of games and gaming technologies from the fields of media studies. This research is categorized into four different categories (comprising four parts of the review), each dealing with a different aspect of the intermedial network in which the qualified medium of computer games is situated. Part one concerns existing theoretical approaches to computer games as a distinct formal mode of expression along with critiques of such approaches. Part two reviews research that considers the content of games through the lens of adaptation, transmedial storytelling, and convergence culture. Part three discusses media historical and archeological approaches to the technical media and platforms employed by games. Finally, part four is concerned with empirical studies on games as a media culture that is practiced through the means of other qualified media (such as cinema and film, fanfiction, and play guides).