Editing Video game (section)

===Game theory and studies===
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{{Main|Game studies}}
Although departments of computer science have been studying the technical aspects of video games for years, theories that examine games as an artistic medium are a relatively recent development in the humanities. The two most visible schools in this emerging field are [[ludology]] and [[narratology]]. Narrativists approach video games in the context of what [[Janet Murray]] calls "Cyberdrama". That is to say, their major concern is with video games as a storytelling medium, one that arises out of [[interactive fiction]]. Murray puts video games in the context of the [[Holodeck]], a fictional piece of technology from ''[[Star Trek]]'', arguing for the video game as a medium in which the player is allowed to become another person, and to act out in another world.<ref>{{cite book |last=Murray |first=Janet |author-link=Janet Murray |date=1998 |title=Hamlet on the Holodeck |url=https://archive.org/details/hamletonholodeck00murr |url-access=registration |publisher=[[MIT Press]] |page={{Page needed|date=January 2024}} |isbn=978-0-262-63187-7}}</ref> This image of video games received early widespread popular support, and forms the basis of films such as ''[[Tron]]'', ''[[eXistenZ]]'' and ''[[The Last Starfighter]]''.

Ludologists break sharply and radically from this idea. They argue that a video game is first and foremost a game, which must be understood in terms of its rules, interface, and the concept of play that it deploys. [[Espen J. Aarseth]] argues that, although games certainly have plots, characters, and aspects of traditional narratives, these aspects are incidental to gameplay. For example, Aarseth is critical of the widespread attention that narrativists have given to the heroine of the game ''[[Tomb Raider]]'', saying that "the dimensions of [[Lara Croft]]'s body, already analyzed to death by [[film theory|film theorists]], are irrelevant to me as a player, because a different-looking body would not make me play differently... When I play, I don't even see her body, but see through it and past it."<ref>{{cite web| last = Aarseth| first = Espen J.| author-link = Espen J. Aarseth| date = 21 May 2004| url = http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/firstperson/vigilant| title = Genre Trouble| publisher = Electronic Book Review| access-date = 14 June 2006| url-status=live| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060619063237/http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/firstperson/vigilant| archive-date = 19 June 2006| df = dmy-all}}</ref> Simply put, ludologists reject traditional theories of art because they claim that the artistic and socially relevant qualities of a video game are primarily determined by the underlying set of rules, demands, and expectations imposed on the player.

While many games rely on [[Emergence|emergent principles]], video games commonly present simulated story worlds where emergent behavior occurs within the context of the game. The term "emergent narrative" has been used to describe how, in a simulated environment, storyline can be created simply by "what happens to the player."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://xbox.ign.com/articles/502/502409p1.html |title=IGN: GDC 2004: Warren Spector Talks Games Narrative |publisher=Xbox.ign.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090411094042/http://xbox.ign.com/articles/502/502409p1.html |archive-date=11 April 2009 }}</ref> However, emergent behavior is not limited to sophisticated games. In general, any place where event-driven instructions occur for [[Artificial intelligence|AI]] in a game, emergent behavior will exist. For instance, take a racing game in which cars are programmed to avoid crashing, and they encounter an obstacle in the track: the cars might then maneuver to avoid the obstacle causing the cars behind them to slow or maneuver to accommodate the cars in front of them and the obstacle. The programmer never wrote code to specifically create a traffic jam, yet one now exists in the game.