| Title | Down on Luck |
|---|---|
| Subtitle | Examining the Pervasive Merit-Based Logics in Game Studies |
| Contributor | Michael Anthony DeAnda(author) |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.53288/0441.1.21 |
| 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 | Michael Anthony DeAnda |
| Publisher | punctum books |
| Published on | 2025-07-25 |
| Long abstract | This chapter examines how game studies diminishes chance and privileges skill, situating these in a dichotomy. Such privileging prevents us from understanding chance in games in more meaningful ways. Chance is often read as a game system that casts players in passive roles at the whim of fate and unyielding indiscrimination. However, the focus on skill perpetuates readings of games as systems of meritocracy and player domination. The divide between skill and chance in games studies is historically used to differentiate games as “good” objects worthy of critical attention from gambling, “bad” objects attached deviance. Furthermore, the skill/chance dichotomy reinforces gender binarism, linking skill to masculinity while feminizing chance. Take seriously games of chance points to opportunities for game studies to look beyond the procedural and diegetic operations of the games and consider ways communities deploy games for socializing and formation of community identity. Reimagining how we synthesize chance and skill in games will complicate the way we theorize and design games. |
| Page range | pp. 467–490 |
| Print length | 24 pages |
| Language | English (Original) |
Michael Anthony DeAnda (fae/faer, use my name) is Senior Professional Lecturer at DePaul University, serving as the chair of the Game Design Program Committee and the Human Centered Design PhD Program Committee and Director of the School of Design Summer Impact Grant Program. Michael researches games as spaces for world-building by studying latinx and queer studies and lived experiences and considering how these speak intimately to games. Michael has published in Design Issues, Convergence, Technical Communications Quarterly, The Journal of Popular Culture, The Video Game Art Reader, Queer Studies in Media and Popular Culture, and Widerscreens. As a scholar–practitioner, Michael develops games that draw from latinx and LGBTQ+ lived experiences to disrupt our assumptions about the world around us and reshape the way we imagine systems.