[-empyre-] ethnography (brock Dubbels, message 6)

[Mathias Fuchs]

Hi Brock,

when we enter the gamers' tribal territories and watch groups when 
speedrunning, cheating or hacking, observe their behaviour, compare it 
to other media users, and write about it, we do some kind of 
ethnographic research, don't we? As ethnographers do, we also try to 
find out how our observations might be biased by being part of the 
community. Your observations on punk are different to observation by 
non-punk punk- researchers and you are aware of having played the guitar 
when you make statements on the movement. It is quite a challenge for 
the research that most of us are active players and have preferences, 
hate certain games and like others. This is not a methodological problem 
as long as we are aware of our biased view.
Do you have suggestions for ethnographic methods that would be useful 
and have not been explored in games research?

Mathias
ludicinterfaces.com

Brock wrote:
> I am not sure I see much from anthropology are ethnographic methods to
> operationalize any of this talk.


-- 
Mathias Fuchs
     European Masters in Ludic Interfaces
http://ludicinterfaces.com
     Programme Leader MA Creative Technology and MSc Creative Games
     Salford University, School of Art&    Design, Manchester M3 6EQ
http://creativegames.org.uk/
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