Editors of Play

Computer games can be described as assemblages which, to use a term borrowed from Science and Technology Studies, provide differen scripts, setting the scene for user practices. Scripts include the game  world’s possibilities, restrictions, and the degree of freedom provided tothe player. Lately, a new genre of games challenges these specifics. So-called editor games, like Minecraft or LittleBigPlanet, which entered the market with sweeping success, are not games in the traditional sense (in which players follow certain rules guided by narrative elements framing the gameplay). Instead, these sandbox games – often labeled as ‘digital LEGO’ or ‘co-creative open worlds’ – afford constructing a game world rather than playing within one. Following a praxeological approach, this essay will try to make co-creative processes in editor games accessible as a research object, by performing a critical evaluation of established methods within Game Studies, complemented by an experimental focus group analysis.