Ethnographic Fieldwork in the Study of Game Production


Garner Gabrielle
2014 DiGRA '13 - Proceedings of the 2013 DiGRA International Conference: DeFragging Game Studies

The purpose of this essay is to show the ways in which ethnographic methodology provided a useful means for investigating the work and activity of an emergent game production team and system. With neither expertise in game design nor software programming, the researcher gained access to the unit of analysis, the production of educational computer games, as a research and instructional design apprentice. The essay shares an experience of sociological inquiry in the context of a highly complex and private game production process.