Press Start is an open access, peer-reviewed student journal that publishes the best undergraduate and (post)graduate research from across the multidisciplinary subject of game studies. The Editorial Board and reviewers are comprised of students and recent graduates. If you are an undergraduate or (post)graduate student (or a recent graduate) with an academic interest in video games and would like to find out more about publishing your work in Press Start (or are interested in becoming a reviewer or member of our Editorial Board), please take a look at our focus and scope, our information for authors, and our information for reviewers. Authors should also read our guide about the affective challenges of academic publishing to familiarise themselves with the journal's expectations. All articles must be submitted through our website's submission portal. Check us out on Facebook, Bluesky, Twitter, and Instagram!
Copyright for papers and articles published in this journal is retained by the authors, with first publication rights granted to the University of Glasgow. It is a condition of publication that authors license their paper or article under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence.
Editorial for the August 2026 issue.
Copyright (c) 2026 Andrew Fleshman, Meg Ritchie, Hyerin Shin, Alex Habgood, Ambrin Hasnain, Charlotte Courtois, Chelsea Russell, David ten Cate, Juan Escobar-Lamanna, Mark Hines, Rory Manning Graham, Samuel Poirier-Poulin, Sara Bimo, Timur Slavgorodskii-Kazanets http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Review: Zen and Slow Games, by Víctor Navarro-Remesal. 2026. The MIT Press. 224 pp.
Copyright (c) 2026 Ruth García Martín http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Review: Of Floating Isles: On Growing Pains and Video Games
Review: Of Floating Isles: On Growing Pains and Video Games, by Kawika Guillermo. 2025. Arsenal Pulp Press. 247 pp.
Copyright (c) 2026 Edoardo Bogni http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This article presents a typology of role-playing within the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) genre, focusing specifically on role-playing in World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment, 2004). Presently, there is a lack of broader research into the various ways in which players interact with each other in MMORPGs. Although players of this genre can overwhelmingly focus on the mechanical aspects of the game, this paper argues that role-playing in MMORPGs exists and takes place as a minor activity. Utilising participant observation, this text investigates this phenomenon, offering an ethnographic analysis of how role-playing in World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment, 2004) takes place and what events and narratives role-playing participants create in the virtual world of the game. Based on the analysis of field notes and other material obtained through a total of 96 hours of participant observation, this paper presents a typology of role-playing in WoW, including day-to-day role-playing, private story role-play, and public role-playing events. This paper highlights how players negotiate the limitations of the game mechanics and game software to enable a wider range of role-playing performances. Through this, this study provides a detailed account of role-playing in WoW and offers opportunities for further research on role-playing in MMORPGs.
Copyright (c) 2026 Ondřej Dušek http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Editorial for the July 2025 issue.
Copyright (c) 2025 Samuel Poirier-Poulin, Juan Escobar-Lamana, David ten Cate, Rory Manning Graham, Alex Habgood, Hyerin Shin, Chelsea Russell, Matt Horrigan, Meg Ritchie, Andrew Fleshman, Cassandra Barkman, Charlotte Courtois http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Since its inception in 1996, Pokémon has exemplified structured narrative gameplay; by the franchise’s fifth generation, Pokémon Black and Pokémon White (Game Freak, 2010), fans came to expect the same narrative style. Scholarship surrounding Pokémon has thus emphasized structuralist approaches, examining how the series has abided by systems of storytelling such as Joseph Campbell’s (1949/2004) heroic monomyth. However, with the rise of narrative approaches to digital media, a reconsideration of narrative in Pokémon is becoming increasingly necessary. The franchise’s fifth generation installments, whose deconstructive themes stand in ironic opposition to its titles, are especially illuminated by a critical narrative interpretation against Pokémon’s structuralist tendencies. By employing recent trends in narratological digital media criticism, in conjunction with Jacques Derrida’s (1978/2001) understanding of the “absent origin,” I assert that Pokémon Black and White emphasize a deconstructionist approach to intuitive gameplay and heroism, dismantling the traditional structure of Pokémon games and inviting a disruptive form of narrative play. Within this context, the interactions between players and Pokémon Black & White are significantly different from previous entries, undermining structuralist approaches to gameplay, heroism, and player positionality.
Copyright (c) 2026 Christopher Jolivette http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Perfectionism is a multidimensional personality trait, characterised by concern over mistakes, unrealistic standards and critical self-evaluation. This research investigated the effects of perfectionism, game performance, and their interaction on gaming experience. Forty undergraduates were recruited for an in-person experiment. The study recorded participants’ perfectionism levels using an adapted version of the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale - Brief (FMPS-B) (Burgess et al., 2016). Participants played Super Mario Run (Nintendo EPD, 2016), with a task and time limit, using success/failure as a measure of game performance. The Game Experience Questionnaire (GEQ) (IJsselsteijn et al., 2013) was used to measure the game experience. Game experience scores were compared between groups, across low and high perfectionism, and low and high game performance. Key findings included no relationship between game experience and perfectionism scores and no interaction effect between perfectionism and game performance on the game experience. The findings may suggest that those with high perfectionism do not possess the same concern over mistakes when playing games as they do in other task performance contexts, such as in academia, sport or in the workplace. A significant effect was found, however, between game performance and game experience score.
Copyright (c) 2026 Edward Melvin, Liam Challenor, Gráinne Kirwan http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Playfully Anachronistic and Historically Inauthentic
This article examines backlash against marginalized identity representation in Call of Duty: Vanguard (Sledgehammer Games, 2021), with a focus on the r/CODVanguard community. An inductive thematic analysis of history-oriented posts shows that many players criticize Vanguard’s characters for perceived inauthenticity or historical inaccuracies. However, discussions range from criticism over the game’s narrative, weaponry, and other historical gadgets to disparaging comments on the characters’ sexualities, physical appearances, or racial backgrounds, implying that identity, not just history, is a crucial component of player critiques. With that in mind, this paper examines the construction of exclusionary discourse, drawing on contemporary debates about identity politics in gaming culture. The findings show that the r/CODVanguard authenticity discourse, which claims its historical setting is mostly inaccurate, delegitimizes the contributions of marginalized communities during World War II (WWII), and reinforces hegemonic expectations as the standard by which successful WWII games should be judged. This article contributes to existing literature by highlighting how some gamers’ discursive fixation on historical accuracy perpetuates an exclusionary status quo within gaming culture.
Copyright (c) 2026 Andrew J. Wilson http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Review: Posthuman Gaming: Avatars, Gamers, and Entangled Subjectivities
Review: Posthuman Gaming: Avatars, Gamers, and Entangled Subjectivities, by Poppy Wilde. 2023. Routledge. 232 pp.
Copyright (c) 2025 Chelsea Russell http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Can Ordinary Horror Games Reduce Avoidant and Safety Behaviours in Players with Anxiety Disorders?
Since 2010, several studies have highlighted the ability of therapeutic video games to reduce avoidant and safety behaviours in individuals with anxiety disorders (ADs). However, there has been little exploration into whether horror games can have similar effects on these behaviours without incorporating explicit therapeutic design strategies. This paper provides an exploratory heuristic analysis of Carbon Steel (Klubnika, 2022), an indie puzzle horror game, to investigate its potential impact on reducing avoidant and safety behaviours in players with ADs. Carbon Steel evokes fear and tension, elements that are typically seen as counterproductive in anxiety management, yet it may offer players controlled exposure to fear-inducing events, which are central to therapeutic techniques like cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), attention bias modification (ABM), and exposure training. The analysis explores how Carbon Steel, though not designed as a therapeutic tool, might indirectly provide benefits for players with anxiety disorders. This paper advocates for further research into how ordinary horror games could be adapted to serve as supplementary tools for more accessible and engaging mental health interventions, offering diverse approaches to anxiety management and prevention.
Copyright (c) 2025 Lara Ann Wood http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
“The Playful Postcolonial: Culturing Videogames in India” Special Issue Editorial
Copyright (c) 2024 Zahra Rizvi, Souvik Kar http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Inspired by a dearth of research in the increasingly popular genre of horror video games, this study piloted a method focused on comparing fixations on visual horror across the variables of differing horror interests and gaming habits. 12 participants were recruited and split into groups after answering questions pertaining to group identification and the Fear Questionnaire (video game player/ horror fan, N = 5; non-player/ horror, N = 2; player/ non-horror, N = 5). Tobii Pro Eye-Tracking Glasses were then equipped to allow for the recording and subsequent calculation of fixation number and fixation threat percentage while playing a short video game demo, Resident Evil 7 Teaser: Beginning Hour (CAPCOM, 2016). Following an independent T-Test for each dataset, horror vs. non-horror and player vs. non-player, this study revealed significant differences in percentage threat fixation in the second of the two scenarios extracted from the demo for analysis. This research concludes that game design or resilience/desensitisation can explain a lack of consistently significant results, as can a lack of sample power. Overall, the research method attains ideal replicability, consequently lending itself to suggestions for continued studies in this area. Noteworthy future directions include a focus on evolving technologies in horror gaming and how non-horror fans interact with the genre.
Copyright (c) 2026 Oliver James Griffith, Benjamin T. Sharpe http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Indian scholars and boardgames museum curators Souvik Mukherjee and Amrita Sen speak with Zahra Rizvi and Souvik Kar about the Gautam Sen Memorial Boardgames Museum. This interview delves into the conception, creation, and curation of the museum, before launching into a deeper discussion pertaining to the geopolitical dimensions of studying and curating boardgames in India. Mukherjee and Sen shed light on the past, present, and future of boardgames and play in India and the Global South.
Empathy displayed by healthcare practitioners is linked to improved treatment outcomes for patients. Current methods for developing empathy in healthcare students include narrative medicine, an arts-based program used to inform students on how to reflect on and react to the experiences of their patients. An alternative arts-based approach may be through playing digital games, which have been used successfully in healthcare communication education. This research undertakes a review of the academic literature to show the current understanding of the use of digital games to promote empathy towards suffering, illness, or hardship and to outline potential serious game design considerations for this area. We demonstrate that commercially available “empathy games” have potential use in developing clinical empathy, but only one game has been shown to achieve this experimentally. Meanwhile, serious games used in healthcare education to increase empathy do not utilise the same game design elements found in commercial games. The theme of loss in serious games is underexplored, and walking simulators are a genre of game that seems to be particularly suited to the narrative medicine pedagogical framework.
Copyright (c) 2026 Ruaridh Dall, Daisy Abbott, Dr George Cherukara, Professor Jaya Jayasinghe http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This paper recounts the first part of a larger research-creation project on perceivable logical contradictions in video games. Inspired by research on impossible worlds theory, which is a derivative of possible worlds theory, as well as similar research mainly in literature, it seeks to expand the concept within video games, mainly from the standpoint of a creator. The paper begins by acknowledging the already significant presence of perceivable logical contradictions in popular video games. It then describes an inductive process that led to the elaboration of a database of operations capable of intentionally generating various sorts of logical contradictions in a video game world. From this database, it details a 2-layers typology which simultaneously offers insight on the range of aspects logical contradictions can affect in games and specifies general technical means of exploring those contradictions as a video game developer. Finally, it offers a range of functions that such logical contradictions may serve, both in terms of traditional game design and more artistic endeavours.
Copyright (c) 2026 Jesse Aidyn http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Review: The Stuff Games Are Made Of, by Pippin Barr. 2023. MIT Press. 184 pp.
Copyright (c) 2025 Luke Thomley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Review: The Privilege of Play: A History of Hobby Games, Race, and Geek Culture
Review: The Privilege of Play: A History of Hobby Games, Race, and Geek Culture, by Aaron Trammell. 2023. New York University Press. xiii + 221 pp.
Copyright (c) 2025 Mark Hines http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Review: Bioware’s Mass Effect, by Jerome Winter. 2022. Palgrave Macmillan Cham. v + 96 pp.
Copyright (c) 2025 Tony Payment http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Review: Przygody cyfrowego tułacza. Interpretacje groznawcze
Review: Przygody cyfrowego tułacza. Interpretacje groznawcze, by Michał Kłosiński. 2023. University of Silesia Press. 295 pp.
Copyright (c) 2025 Kacper Karwacki http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
From Walking Simulator to Reflective Simulator
The aim of this paper is to contribute both theoretically and methodologically to discussions on walking simulator video games. We base our reflection on results grounded in a video game design project conducted as part of our master's thesis. Our research perspective is rooted in pragmatist and constructivist theories of design, such as the epistemology of practice (Schön, 1983; 1992) and project-grounded research (Findeli, 2005). To define the player's experience, we relied on John Dewey's (1934) concept of aesthetic experience. In this context, an individual's experience is characterised as reflective, i.e., meaningful, introspective, creative, and situated. Our project consisted in designing a tailored reflective experience for a unique player—the designer's younger sister. This involved creating a playable prototype featuring gameplay characteristics that game theorists and critics might consider elements of a walking simulator. We describe how the player had a reflective experience both during her interaction with the game and thereafter. Adopting a reflective approach allowed us to better describe and appreciate the life-changing potential of simulators and to ultimately shed light on their capabilities, rather than concentrate on their limitations (Clarke, 2017). We therefore propose a new label, namely, “reflective simulator,” as a way to contribute to theoretical discussions about walking simulators. This case study provides a methodological contribution to thefield of game studies by describing and reflecting upon the theoretical anchors underpinning game design
Copyright (c) 2019 Alexandra Ferland-Beauchemin, Dave Hawey, Jocelyn Benoit
Since the 1980s, creative job seekers have turned to nontraditional and interactive resume formats to help set themselves apart from other candidates. The “game resume” is one such example that continues to garner praise eleven years after the first publicly available example by graphic designer Robby Leonardi. This study investigates: a) the history of nontraditional and interactive resumes leading up to resumes that are playable; b) a do-it-yourself (DIY) game development culture setting the conditions for short, personal games; and c) the characteristics of an ever-expanding game resume collection on the itch.io games sharing platform. Thirty-three game resumes were isolated and manually reviewed against a comprehensive playtesting protocol, examining key design choices and features. A qualitative analysis of findings was conducted, leading to a more complete understanding of this online phenomenon, and beginning the process of characterizing and solidifying it as an emerging practice. We may reasonably conclude that: a) game resumes are almost always created by game designers, developers, and adjacent creative personalities seeking employment in the games industry; b) common game conventions such as scoring, power-ups, health bars, and inventory systems are intentionally kept light or even omitted altogether; and c) game resumes are designed to be short (less than five minutes of gameplay) and easy (player immortality) to enable an uninterrupted single playthrough.
Review: L’esperienza del videogioco. Una ricognizione estetica del videogioco tra senso, arte e cultura
Review: L’esperienza del videogioco. Una ricognizione estetica del videogioco tra senso, arte e cultura, by Manuel Maximilian Riolo. 2020. Eurolink University Press. 282 pp.
Copyright (c) 2024 Pierre Gabriel Dumoulin
Given that the fundamental element of Minecraft (Mojang Studios, 2011) is appreciably large, what its players discover is a sandbox-style game in which the ubiquitous block, Minecraft’s atom, stands for an unparalleled degree of immediacy. Alongside the seemingly counteractive effort of modding communities to overhaul a videogame with higher-resolution textures and examples drawn from a range of other media, this article reinterprets Minecraft’s functionally retrograde look as symptomatic of nostalgia for a mechanically direct conception of reality and what Henri Lefebvre (1974/1991) theorized as any space’s continuous “production.” Compared with the endless regression of nature—and, consequently, its decreasing comprehensibility—implicit in a materialist worldview, the geo- and biological stratigraphy of a Minecraft environment may be thought ontically homogeneous, insofar as a house and mountain will vary principally in their number of 16 px3 blocks. These issues are motivated toward a consideration of the artificial shortcomings of digital games generally, or their “fictional incompleteness,” and the paradoxes that arise from the suggestion of visual depth. After introducing what I describe as the translation from life, or “itemization,” of those objects, settings, and events that form the content of digital games, a final discussion of the miniature allows me to revisit Minecraft’s appeal at the phenomenological level. In turn, the clean manageability of ludic artifacts is understood as a desire for control in increasingly opaque daily life.
Enrolment in geology-related courses has declined over the last few decades, in part due to a lack of understanding of the subject and its relevance to contemporary society. Although a popular medium for entertainment, video games also hold significant pedagogical potential to overcome this problem by immersing players in geology-related topics through the portrayal of a broad range of geological disciplines in the medium’s dynamic environments. This paper focuses on volcanology as portrayed in Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda series’ (1986-present) Death Mountain, a recurring volcanic peak in the franchise. Volcanic features in each game are documented and compared to real-world examples to determine the accuracy of how the volcanism evolves over time across instalments in the series. I argue that the volcanic history of Death Mountain provides a reasonably realistic evolution, beginning with volcanic hazards like rockfalls and lava from an active stratovolcano, and progressing over time to introduce hydrothermal systems. Then, during divergent timelines, Death Mountain’s volcanism shifts to either explosive, shallow-water eruptions or to showing evidence of massive explosive activity. Through this, I argue that the popularity of The Legend of Zelda series and the gradual introduction of volcanic features can be used together to change the perception of geology as “boring” and encourage people to study the subject by offering a fun and immersive means to engage with its content.
In tackling chronophobia, which Svetlana Boym (2001) defines as the anxiety of deciding how to use our time meaningfully as it depletes, video games become purposeful spaces where we can revisit the things we have lost, or what we anticipate will be lost with time. As such, video games are ideal tools that help us retreat from chronophobia. However, following Boym, I argue that this “does not help us to deal with the future” (2001, p. 351). To revisit or experience what is already “lost” with time through games, players must lose more time and resources in the present to pursue it. This circular use of nostalgia may leave players with chronophobia and in a state of feeling “lost again.” This paper presents three case studies where nostalgic players have “found” something generative for their present and future, rather than feeling “lost again.” This original solution to chronophobia combines Boym’s work, game studies, and nostalgia research, amounting to my contribution of what I call “refractive nostalgia.”
Review: Who Are You? Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance Platform
Review: Who Are You? Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance Platform, by Alex Custodio. 2020. MIT Press. ix + 270 pp.
Copyright (c) 2024 Edcel Javier Cintron-Gonzalez
Review: Une histoire du jeu vidéo en France, 1960-1991 : des labos aux chambres d’ados
Review: Une histoire du jeu vidéo en France, 1960-1991 : des labos aux chambres d’ados, by Alexis Blanchet and Guillaume Montagnon. 2020. Pix’n Love. 447 pp.
Defining Art Styles in Games and Their Influence on Creative Expression
This article explores and highlights the differences between art styles in video games, and details how the use of them can allow for the expression of creative ideas and communicate messages through games as a medium. This article also investigates existing research and analyses various case studies of games with distinctive art styles. The term “art style” in the context of this article pertains to visual elements such as proportions and shading techniques, as opposed to encompassing sound design or animation. To effectively showcase the influence of art styles on creative expression, I have developed a practical prototype in the form of an art game titled The Maze of Nightmares, which contains features such as the ability to switch between multiple art styles as a creative tool to overcome obstacles. By doing so, the game addresses the topic of significant personal changes and how impactful they can be towards one’s life, especially in the context of overcoming obstacles and solving problems. This way, players and audiences can observe differences between art styles in the context of an experience that reinforces the benefits of change.
Since 2004, the tabletop board game market has seen a surge in solo compatibility. COVID-19 restricted multiplayer board gaming, attracting new players to the world of solo play. Despite that, games research has somewhat overlooked explanations as to why solo board gaming is a growing phenomenon. This paper takes a multidisciplinary approach, considering scoresheets, gaming capital, and chores, to examine whether sociality exists in solo board games. The importance of sociality in solo board games is also brought into question, highlighting benefits and flaws of group presence, including negative effects of social influence. Motivations of solo players are explored through a questionnaire and session report, presenting three themes: social reasons, genre preferences, and playstyle choices. Conclusions drawn provide practical applications for tabletop designers, outlining how they can more effectively approach the design of solo games or solo variants.
This research delves into the narrative of the role-playing game OMORI (OMOCAT, 2020). We use Urie Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological systems theory as an analytical framework to investigate character portrayal and development. Our study employed descriptive and interpretive qualitative methods and used a three-phased approach to scrutinise OMORI’s narrative, expound and dissect character portrayals within their broader contexts, and note important character developments throughout the game. Our findings highlight the substantial influence of immediate and non-immediate external environments—family dynamics, societal norms, and cultural elements—on the development of the primary characters within OMORI’s narrative. More specifically, this paper emphasises the roles of culture, capitalism, and religion within the game. The study’s significance lies in its presentation of interconnected relationships among the systems posited by Bronfenbrenner. We offer insights for further research studying games through their socio-historical contexts and scrutinising characters’ backstories. This is particularly relevant where it has been theorised that youth in advanced capitalist societies might be swayed by cultural values that affect their well-being and life contentment (Butler, 2021).
Copyright (c) 2024 Ronnel Bermas, Jenelle Capati, Francis Calubayan