Player one, playing with others virtually: what’s next in game and player studies

This essay describes current research in player studies, focusing on how play is a social activity, and how sociality is mediated and performed in a variety of settings. It starts by explaining the concept of tandem play and then moves to an exploration of gameplay that is performed for differently sized audiences via the Twitch.tv platform. Our research finds that even single-player gameplay can very often be a social activity. Additionally, how we perform gameplay is contingent on multiple factors, including where we and others are physically located, whether play is professional or amateur, and how particular play platforms shape our expectations for play and spectatorship actions.