Overview

Video games have become an important part of how people interpret experience and understand themselves and the world around them. This project examines how playing video games reconfigures the ways people think, know, and make meanings in everyday life. While video games are often framed as just entertainment, this work considers gameplay as a form of epistemic practice through which players experiment with systems, interpret complex environments, reflect on their experiences, and develop new ways of understanding. The research takes a bicultural approach, examining both Japanese and Western player practices and games. Japan has played a foundational role in the development of contemporary gaming culture, yet Japanese player perspectives remain comparatively underrepresented in English-language games research. The project therefore considers how cultural contexts shape the ways players interpret and interact with games, while also examining the circulation of games, design traditions, and knowledge practices between Japan and the Anglophone West. The study is organised around three ethnographic case studies: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo, Japan), Stardew Valley (ConcernedApe, USA), and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda Game Studios, USA). It involved more than 50 players across Japan, UK, USA, Canada, Australia, and continental Europe. The project contributes to games studies and research on Japanese digital culture by showing how interactive media shape contemporary forms of knowledge, subjectivity, and everyday life.