Player Connected: Understanding player orientations to videogame environments

“玩家连接”将培养玩家对电子游戏环境的理解。​​在“玩家连接”中，我希望通过改编诸如Ingold（2000年，2011年）和Merleau-Ponty（2002年）等理论家的工作，进一步探索居住在电子游戏环境中的概念，并探索所谓的“身体知识”（Moores， 2018年，第129页）。值得注意的是，虽然我的目标是进一步探索这个概念，但我意识到[理解虚拟与物理的定义并克服这个问题]这项研究将采取参与者主导的方法，让参与者自由地讨论他们认为最相关的游戏和主机。这种方法将减少偏见，并有望提供跨多个游戏和主机的广泛数据，以了解导致玩家与虚拟空间建立联系的因素。之前的电子游戏研究领域因将电子游戏玩家从主流文化中分离出来并将其视为独立的亚文化而受到批评（Shaw, 2010）。这忽略了那些通常与“极客”文化相关的白人、顺性、直男身份之外的人的经历（Shaw, 2010, p. x）。相反，本研究将通过采用非媒体中心的媒体研究方法来研究电子游戏在社会中的作用（Moores, 2012, 2018; Morley, 2007）。这种方法将媒体技术及其使用置于更大的背景下，通过检查媒体技术嵌入日常实践和日常生活的方式，将媒体技术及其使用置于更大的背景下。这项研究不仅询问了谁在玩电子游戏以及玩游戏的结果，还询问了玩游戏的方式、地点、时间、对象和原因。通过采用这种方法，该研究将着眼于文化中的电子游戏，从而巩固电子游戏研究作为媒体研究和文化研究的重要领域。

'Player Connected' will develop an understanding of formed by players to environments in videogames. This PhD will expand on the dissertation completed as part of my MA course which explored connections formed by players to the videogame environment in Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo EPD, 2020). This research highlighted the ways players exhibit characteristics of "at-homeness" (Seamon, 1979, p.69) whilst dwelling in environments in Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo EPD, 2020). In 'Player Connected' I hope to further explore the concept of dwelling within videogame environments by adapting the work of theorists such as Ingold (2000, 2011) and Merleau-Ponty (2002) and exploring what is described as "bodily knowledge" (Moores, 2018, p. 129). It is important to note that whilst I aim to explore this concept further, I am aware of [understanding definitions of virtual vs physical and overcoming this] This research will take a participant-led approach, giving participants freedom to discuss games and consoles which they find most relevant. This method will reduce bias and hopefully provide a wide range of data across multiple games and consoles to develop the understanding of factors which contribute to player connections to virtual spaces. Previous areas of videogames research have been criticised for segregating videogame players from mainstream culture and placing them as their own separate subculture (Shaw, 2010). This overlooks the experiences of those outside of the white, cis-gendered, straight male identity commonly associated with "geek" culture (Shaw, 2010, p. x). Instead, this research will look at the role of the videogame within society through the adoption of a non-media-centric media studies approach (Moores, 2012, 2018; Morley, 2007). This approach situates media technologies and their uses within the larger contexts in which they operate through examining the ways media technologies are embedded within routine practice and the day-to-day. This research not only asks who is playing videogame and the outcomes of that, but how, where, when, who with and why. By adopting this approach this research will instead look at videogames in culture, thus cementing videogame studies as a crucial area of both media studies and cultural studies.