Analysing Video Games

Introduction

Video games are the youngest media form on the AQA specification — commercial video games only emerge in the 1970s — and simultaneously the largest by global revenue. They now earn more than film and music combined. They are also the most theoretically distinctive: they are the only mainstream media form organised around interactivity. A film is watched; a video game is played. That difference runs through every dimension of analysis.

This lesson covers video game conventions, interactivity and player agency, representations (with particular attention to gender and violence), the AAA vs indie industry divide, and the PEGI regulatory system.

Video Game Conventions

Video game conventions exist at multiple levels — from the visual design of the on-screen image, to the structure of play, to the genre codes of specific game categories.

Visual and interface conventions

• HUD (heads-up display) — on-screen information layered over the game world (health, ammo, map, objectives).
• Third-person / first-person perspective — the camera position shapes player identification.
• Camera controls — how the player moves the viewpoint.
• Menu systems — main menu, pause menu, inventory, skill tree.
• Loading screens — increasingly used for narrative exposition or tips.

Gameplay conventions

• Controls and input schemes — buttons, sticks, mouse, motion, touch.
• Mechanics — the rules of action (jump, shoot, crouch, interact).
• Progression systems — levels, XP, unlockables, skill trees.
• Save systems — checkpoints, manual save, auto-save.
• Tutorials — on-boarding the player.

Narrative conventions

• Cutscenes — non-interactive narrative sequences.
• Dialogue systems — scripted, branching, emergent.
• Collectibles / lore — environmental storytelling through readable items.
• Multiple endings — branching narrative outcomes.

Genre codes (a selection)

Genre	Key conventions
Shooter (FPS/TPS)	Gunplay, cover, levels, progression
Role-playing game (RPG)	Stats, dialogue, quests, character customisation
Strategy	Resource management, turn/real-time systems
Platformer	Jump mechanics, level-based progression
Simulation / management	Resource/systems focus, open-ended play
Puzzle	Mechanics-focused, short loops
Sandbox / open world	Large explorable space, emergent play
Survival	Resource scarcity, crafting, permadeath

Interactivity and Player Agency

The defining feature of video games is interactivity: the player does not just receive the text, they co-produce it through their actions. This has several consequences for analysis.

Player agency

Agency is the player's capacity to meaningfully affect what happens. High-agency games (sandbox RPGs) let the player shape narrative and world extensively. Low-agency games (linear story-driven shooters) channel the player down a narrow path, though they may feel agentic.

Janet Murray's concept of procedural authorship is useful here: the designer does not author specific events but rather the rules by which events unfold when the player acts.

The player as subject

Different games position the player differently:

• Avatar-based — the player controls a defined character with their own identity.
• Player character — the player creates or represents a custom character.
• God view — the player is outside the world, controlling systems.
• First-person — the player "is" the character in the most embodied sense.

Diegetic and extra-diegetic

In game studies, the HUD, menus, and meta-systems are extra-diegetic — they exist outside the story-world. The player sees them but the characters do not. Some games work to make HUD elements diegetic (a holographic display on a suit, a physical map) to deepen immersion.

graph TD
  A[Video game] --> B[Interactive elements]
  A --> C[Non-interactive elements]
  B --> D[Mechanics]
  B --> E[Player choices]
  C --> F[Cutscenes]
  C --> G[Set-piece sequences]
  D --> H[Emergent narrative]
  E --> H

Representations in Video Games

Video game representations have been intensely debated since the 1990s. The primary points of debate:

Gender

• Historically, women in games have been underrepresented and, when present, often hyper-sexualised or positioned as damsels. Anita Sarkeesian's Tropes vs Women in Video Games series catalogued these patterns.
• Progress has been significant since the 2010s — major-franchise female protagonists are now common — but critical debates continue about body design, narrative role, and behind-the-scenes inclusion.
• The 2014 "Gamergate" harassment campaign foregrounded the toxic gender politics of parts of game culture.

Violence

• Video games have faced sustained moral panic accusations, particularly around shooter and crime games.
• Empirical research on game violence and real-world behaviour remains contested; consensus is that no robust causal link is established.
• The debate often recapitulates moral panic patterns (Stanley Cohen's framework): folk devils, amplification, institutional responses.

Ethnicity and other identities

• Representations of ethnicity in games have been critically examined — who is protagonist, who is NPC, who is villain, who provides comic relief.
• LGBTQ+ representation in games has grown significantly, including playable queer characters, optional romance systems, and games centred on queer experiences.

Self-representation and avatars

• Character creators are a rich site of self-representation study.
• Online gaming identity — usernames, avatars, voice — overlaps with broader self-representation theory.

The Industry: AAA vs Indie

The video game industry is broadly divided into two ends, with a middle tier that has been squeezed.

AAA (pronounced "triple-A")