Mementos from digital worlds: video game photography as documentation
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-01-2022-0028 |
| Published date | 15 July 2022 |
| Date | 15 July 2022 |
| Pages | 398-414 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
| Author | Alex C. Urban |
Mementos from digital worlds:
video game photography
as documentation
Alex C. Urban
School of Information Science and Learning Technologies, University of Missouri,
Columbia, Missouri, USA
Abstract
Purpose –Video game players, equipped with image capturing and rendering features, are taking
photographs within digital worlds. This study examines video game photography as a documentary practice.
By considering the experiences of a gamer-turned-photographer, this study offers an initial synthesis of this
new document phenomenon and provides considerations for categorizing such photos.
Design/methodology/approach–To discover the attributes of video game photography, this study utilized
an auto-hermeneutic approach with self-interviewing and picture-sorting techniques. The resulting data were
analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis.
Findings –Without tangible artifacts to commemorate gaming experiences, photographs empower the player
to document and artistically reconstruct moments from purely digital worlds. The three themes from this
study’s findings –that video game photographs act as (1) vehicles for storytelling, (2) creative trophies, and (3)
aesthetic tokens –reveal how personally meaningful documents emerge from this medium. Furthermore, the
findings uncover the fuzzy boundaries between play, artwork, and documentation.
Practical implications –This study explores techniques for categorizing in-game photographs and eliciting
gameplay memories. The methods outlined may assist video game researchers, conservators, and archivists
with organizing photographs as context materials.
Originality/value –By considering the lived experiences between one individual and their video game
photographs, this study expands document theory into the underrepresented hobby of video games.
Keywords Video games, Virtual worlds, Photography, Screenshots, Screen images, Photo modes,
Documentation, Document experiences, Video game preservation, Leisure, Phenomenology
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Video game players, equipped with image capturing and rendering features, are taking
camera-less photographs and within digital worlds. While engaging in this documentary
process, players craft artifacts that reveal their own gameplay experiences and the
characteristics of specific games. As gaming communities, archives, and museums determine
how to best safeguard and index video games, such photographs may provide valuable
context information on how specific games were played as well as their sociocultural impact.
To date, however, video game preservation has been primarily limited to materiality –the
safeguarding or emulation of culturally or economically significant games (Sk€
old, 2018).
Without knowing how a game is played and experienced, emulations will mean very little.
Fortunately, recordings of gameplay will aid future researchers, conservators, and archivists
in understanding the particulars of individual games (Winget, 2011). Yet, although some
recognize the importance of saving player-generated evidence, there is still limited empirical
research on how video game photographs come into being and their value to players.
In this exploratory study, I use an auto-hermeneutic approach to interrogate how I, as a
gamer, apply meaning to my video game photographs. By conducting self-interviews along
with picture-sorting methods, this study provides an initial model of video game screenshots
as documents. Setting the stage for future research within this domain, I am guided by the
following research question: How do video game photographs document meaningful gaming
experiences?
JD
79,2
398
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0022-0418.htm
Received 31 January 2022
Revised 11 June 2022
Accepted 15 June 2022
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 79 No. 2, 2023
pp. 398-414
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-01-2022-0028
This study has theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, it highlights a shift in
how different realities are experienced. Humans increasingly pause, partition, and record
experiences of digital life, and these documents combine to create aggregates of lived
experiences (Reeves et al., 2019). The present study expands our understanding of this
practice into the domain of video games. This study also has practical implications. By
exploring how players might organize and value their photographs as context materials, this
study points to considerations for video game archive initiatives.
Literature review
On social media platforms, you can find group selfies after successful dungeon raids in World
of Warcraft (2004), stunning landscape photography from Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011),
and abstract art from Grand Theft Auto V (2013). An analysis of the hashtags
#videogamephotography and #videogamephotomode uncovers the popularity of this
medium. ShotKit (2020) found that these hashtags have appeared in millions of posts on the
social media platform Instagram, and blockbuster video games are gaining repute for their
photographic qualities. For example, a single game, Read Dead Redemption 2 (2018), has
reached over 165,000 posts with in-game photos. Beyond supporting game development
studios with word-of-mouth advertising, individual players, communities, and cultural
institutions may benefit from video game photography, too. By considering video game
photography as a documentary practice that evokes both memory and artistic expression,
such photographs may hold value for video game archives.
In this literature review, I summarize screenshot technology and vide o game
photography. Based on this snapshot of the literature, I then briefly discuss applicable
document theory and note challenges with born-digital documents. Next, stressing the
importance of the individual when considering digital documents, I review document
phenomenology. This phenomenological approach provides a lens for understanding how
video game photographs convey information. Last, I underscore how aspects of documents
gain meaning through arrangement.
From screenshots to photographs
Digital screenshot technology coincided with the advent of graphical user interfaces and
personal computers. Video game screenshots are an extension of this history. Screenshots
provide a presumably transparent, unaltered image of computer use (
Svelch, 2020). The
screenshot technology found in personal computers also appears in video game systems.
Current gaming consoles (e.g. PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One) offer generic
screenshot functions, allowing the user to quickly suspend gameplay conditions and snap a
photo independent of the game’s features.
There is a natural feeling to photography in video games. Most video games already have
a camera’s eye-view; the player controls not only a character but also a camera that appears to
film the in-game action (Poremba, 2007). Capitalizing on this (and increasing the probability
of word-of-mouth advertising on social media), many blockbuster games contain specific
photo modes that provide players with options for artistic rendering, advanced camera
movement, adjustment of saturation, and other features (M€
oring and de Mutiis, 2019). (See
Plate 1, which depicts a typical photo mode.) These modes provide photographic qualities to
otherwise transparent screenshots.
Ultimately, to distinguish between screenshots and in-game photography, it is helpful to
remember that screenshots are more akin to photograms or scanned images due to their clear
two-dimensionality (Gerling, 2018). With this in mind, I adopt the term video game
photography for this study. This term encompasses digital images of video game play as
Mementos
from digital
worlds
399
To continue reading
Request your trial