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<\/a>It seems that a lot of the people I\u2019ve been talking to seem to think that I research games because I know a lot about them. They seem to think that I\u2019ve embarked on the study of games because I\u2019m already an expert. But such assumptions couldn\u2019t be further from the truth.<\/p>\nI study games because I don\u2019t<\/em> know as much about them as I\u2019d like. Because I don\u2019t<\/em> feel like an expert and because I want to know more.<\/p>\n As I read over those last lines, I wonder if such a disclosure is controversial in any way. It might seem so, especially since gaming culture and identities seem to be predicated on the idea of expertise, of extensive knowledge of gaming history or game mechanics. But I think there\u2019s a lot to unpack when we think about the various connotations or constructions of expertise.<\/p>\n I also wonder if people might write off such a disclosure as some sort of product of impostor syndrome. That I think these things because I think I’m some sort of fraud. And that’s definitely not the case. I mean, okay, sure, I\u2019ll admit that I do suffer from bouts of impostor syndrome from time to time, but that\u2019s a conversation for another day. And I don\u2019t think that\u2019s what\u2019s going on here, specifically. So let’s push that to the side.<\/p>\n As I\u2019ve mentioned previously, as\u00a0a Ph.D. candidate in the English Department at Purdue, I work within the area of 20th<\/sup> and 21st<\/sup> century literature. But, more specifically, my research focuses on video games as a form of contemporary narrative because, ultimately, I think that those of us operating within the field of literary studies could benefit from the incorporation of video games into our work. In other words, by thinking about how video games tell stories and by\u00a0thinking about how video games might allow us to consider the manner in which\u00a0narrative forms evolve, the academic discourse of the literature department might, then, have the opportunity\u00a0to evolve along with the narratives being discussed.<\/p>\n What I find interesting, though, is the fact that,\u00a0when I discuss the above with other people who work within the field of literature, they often seem to think that any feedback or guidance they might give me wouldn\u2019t be helpful because, as they often confess, they don\u2019t know much about video games. But I don\u2019t agree\u2014I find conversations with such\u00a0people to be vital. For a couple reasons.<\/p>\n<\/a>Rather, I think my feeling that I don\u2019t know as much about games as I should stems from my positionality and from the fact that I work within the field of literature. I\u2019ve briefly mentioned my entrenchment within the area of literary studies in past posts<\/a>, and I think that teasing out the implications of my location within this field can help me explain where I\u2019m going with all this.<\/p>\n