Spelhistoriens arvingar : En arkivstudie av svenska spelares attityder till digitalt spelbevarande

Sammanfattning: This thesis aims to elicit different attitudes toward digital game preservation among Swedish digital game players. The questions in focus can be divided into two groups: the attitudes toward preservation of the games themselves, and the attitudes toward safeguarding the sociocultural aspects that stem from player interaction with digital games. Players are often regarded as vital in preserving digital games through different knowledge practices and conservation. This is generally seen in stark contrast to what is done by game companies and the varied stances reflected by contemporary ALM institutions. The study therefore takes the opportunity to probe player attitudes and what significance they hold in the preservation of digital games as a cultural landscape. Attitudes are collected quantitatively through a questionnaire distributed on two Swedish game forums online and the author's account on Twitter. The questionnaire consists of both closed and open-ended answers, presented as statistics and analyzed with archival paradigm theory, actor-network theory and phenomenology. The results show that to understand what digital games means for people and the culture in general, you can’t ignore the sociocultural practices - games do not exist in a vacuum. Memory institutions need to be mindful of this. Knowledgeproduction by gamers online is additionally becoming a more integral part of different gaming experiences. The views on if it should have precedence over preserving the actual games and the gaming companies official material, varies though. Furthermore, players are generally flexible in how games are played and preserved. As it stands, the games are almost viewed to be in a constant state of “becoming”, making it problematic in terms of the archival notions of stability and authenticity. Lastly, the scarce access to buying older games complicates the views on how game companies manage their history, as well as the notion of “remaking” older classics.