| Title | The Influence of Aesthetics and Semiotics on Game Research in Japan |
|---|---|
| Subtitle | An Interview with Matsumoto Kentaro |
| Contributor | Douglas Schules(author) |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.53288/0441.1.31 |
| Landing page | https://punctumbooks.com/titles/historiographies-of-game-studies-what-it-has-been-what-it-could-be/ |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ |
| Copyright | Douglas Schules |
| Publisher | punctum books |
| Published on | 2025-07-25 |
| Long abstract | In this interview Kentaro Matsumoto discusses gaming scholarship in Japan, focusing specifically on the fields of semiotics and aesthetics. Topics include influential research on games written by Japanese scholars and current directions in the field. |
| Page range | pp. 697–715 |
| Print length | 19 pages |
Douglas Schules (he/him) is Associate Professor at Rikkyo University in Tokyo, where he researches the relationships between media and society. He has written about creative media and fandom, and his recent work focuses on the ecology of Japanese games with a focus on the indie game developer scene in Tokyo. Given the expanding field of indie game development, he has been working with developers to both preserve their work and record their perspectives on making games in Japan.
Kentaro Matsumoto (he/him) is Professor in the Department of English, Faculty of Foreign Languages at Dokkyo University. His current research has focused on understanding the history of game criticism and how to introduce Japanese scholarship on games to international audiences. He has written over twenty books and articles on the subject of games and their impact on society, including four edited volumes which contained perspectives from emerging Japanese scholars.