Research master student explores gaming culture in Ghana
Are you looking for a master's that offers in-depth knowledge of African realities? Read about research master student Ivan Anderegg's experiences. He did fascinating fieldwork in Ghana, where he explored the gaming culture."For my thesis I investigate the experiences of Ghanaian players and developers of digital games, looking at the challenges they face and how they navigate them. Africa is poised to become an important market for games thanks to a young population, expanding mobile infrastructure, and widespread digital finance, recently attracting investments by some of the games industry's biggest companies. Despite this, there has been little work on African contexts within the field of Game Studies. I aim to contribute towards filling this gap.
During my fieldwork, I engaged in participant-observation, attending various gaming events and interacting, interviewing and playing with players, organisers, and developers. Further, I utilised Think-Aloud and Stimulated Recall methods by recording play sessions and discussing them with my respondents. Through this, I hope to contribute towards methodologically centring the voices and experiences of people 'on the ground' within Game Studies.
My interviews revealed widespread frustration with inflation, power outages, expensive internet, and inaccessible global storefronts, each complicating the experience of playing games. Despite this, people create spaces to engage with games. By looking at obstacles, communities, and motivations I help build an understanding of Ghana's role in the digital media ecosystem for researchers, industry, and policy makers."
=> Are you eager to learn more about Africa? Apply for the two-year Research Master or the one-year Master African Studies at Leiden University!
=> The Research Master is unique in continental Europe for the interdisciplinary range of subjects offered and the long-term fieldwork in Africa.
=> The Master combines leading Africanist scholarship with practice-based learning, including a ten-weeks embedded research project with a professional organisation in Africa.
=> The Research Master is unique in continental Europe for the interdisciplinary range of subjects offered and the long-term fieldwork in Africa.
=> The Master combines leading Africanist scholarship with practice-based learning, including a ten-weeks embedded research project with a professional organisation in Africa.
Application deadline: 15 May!
Posted on 2 May 2025, last modified on 15 May 2025