Theorising Competencies and Literacies in Video Games and Industry Practices

This research examines how the video game industry conceptualises the skillsets players utilise during gaming and how producer conceptions of audiences' skillsets affect video game texts, production, publishing and distribution. The project will compare games according to the consumercentric categories used by games market intelligence agencies, comparing the different skillsets required by the Entertainment Screen (i.e. console games) and the Personal Screen (i.e. mobile games). I will critically interrogate academic and industrial conceptualisations of literacy and competency in order to 1) determine their usefulness in the textual and industrial analysis of gameplay construction and 2) whether these or similar terms feature in industry discourse.