Computer Games as a Sociocultural Phenomenon

Computer Games as a Sociocultural Phenomenon PDF Author: A. Jahn-Sudmann
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 023058330X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 229

Book Description
Internationally renowned media and literature scholars, social scientists, game designers and artists explore the cultural potential of computer games in this rich anthology, which introduces the latest approaches in the central fields of game studies and provides an extensive survey of contemporary game culture.

Video Games

Video Games PDF Author: Arthur Asa Berger
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351299948
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 119

Book Description
From their inception, video games quickly became a major new arena of popular entertainment. Beginning with very primitive games, they quickly evolved into interactive animated works, many of which now approach film in terms of their visual excitement. But there are important differences, as Arthur Asa Berger makes clear in this important new work. Films are purely to be viewed, but video involves the player, moving from empathy to immersion, from being spectators to being actively involved in texts. Berger, a renowned scholar of popular culture, explores the cultural significance of the expanding popularity and sophistication of video games and considers the biological and psychoanalytic aspects of this phenomenon.Berger begins by tracing the evolution of video games from simple games like Pong to new, powerfully involving and complex ones like Myst and Half-Life. He notes how this evolution has built the video industry, which includes the hardware (game-playing consoles) and the software (the games themselves), to revenues comparable to the American film industry.

Guns, Grenades, and Grunts

Guns, Grenades, and Grunts PDF Author: Gerald A. Voorhees
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1441191445
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 448

Book Description
Known for their visibility and tendency to generate controversy, first-person shooter (FPS) games are cultural icons and powder-kegs in American society. Contributors will examine a range of FPS games such as the Doom, Half-Life, System Shock, Deus Ex, Halo, Medal of Honor and Call of Duty franchises. By applying and enriching a broad range of perspectives, this volume will address the cultural relevance and place of the genre in game studies, game theory and the cultures of game players. Guns, Grenades, and Grunts gathers scholars from all disciplines to bring the weight of contemporary social theory and media criticism to bear on the public controversy and intellectual investigation of first-person shooter games. As a genre, FPS games have helped shepherd the game industry from the early days of shareware distribution and underground gaming clans to contemporary multimillion dollar production budgets, Hollywood-style launches, downloadable content and worldwide professional gaming leagues. The FPS has been and will continue to be a staple of the game market.

Gaming Cultures and Place in Asia-Pacific

Gaming Cultures and Place in Asia-Pacific PDF Author: Larissa Hjorth
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135843171
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 314

Book Description
This collection explores the relationship between digital gaming and its cultural context by focusing on the burgeoning Asia-Pacific region. Encompassing key locations for global gaming production and consumption such as Japan, China, and South Korea, as well as increasingly significant sites including Australia and Singapore, the region provides a wealth of divergent examples of the role of gaming as a socio-cultural phenomenon. Drawing from micro ethnographic studies of specific games and gaming locales to macro political economy analyses of techno-nationalisms and trans-cultural flows, this collection provides an interdisciplinary model for thinking through the politics of gaming production, representation, and consumption in the region.

Changing the Rules of the Game

Changing the Rules of the Game PDF Author: S. Hotho
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137318414
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 219

Book Description
The computer games industry is one of the most vibrant industries today whose potential for growth seems inexhaustible. This book adopts a multi-disciplinary approach and captures emerging trends as well as the issues and challenges faced by businesses, their managers and their workforce in the games industry.

Computer Games and the Social Imaginary

Computer Games and the Social Imaginary PDF Author: Graeme Kirkpatrick
Publisher: Polity
ISBN: 0745641105
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 229

Book Description
Computer games have fundamentally altered the relation of self and society in the digital age. Analysing topics such as technology and power, the formation of gaming culture and the subjective impact of play with computer games, this text will be of great interest to students and scholars of digital media, games studies and the information society.

Construction of Chinese Nationalism in the Early 21st Century

Construction of Chinese Nationalism in the Early 21st Century PDF Author: Suisheng Zhao
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317677595
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 391

Book Description
Chinese nationalism is powered by a narrative of China's century of shame and humiliation in the hands of imperialist powers and calls for the Chinese government to redeem the past humiliations and take back all "lost territories." The continuing surge of Chinese nationalism in the early 21st century therefore has fed a roiling sense of anxiety in many political capitals about whether a virulent nationalism has emerged to make China’s rise anything but peaceful. This book addresses this anxiety by examining the domestic sources and foreign policy implications of Chinese nationalism in the early 21st century. It is divided into three parts. Part I is an overview of the scholarly debate about if the rise of Chinese nationalism has driven China’s foreign policy in a more irrational and inflexible direction in the first one and half decades of the 21st century. Part II analyzes the construction of Chinese nationalism by a variety of domestic forces, including the communist state, the angry youth (fen qing), liberal intellectuals, and ethnic groups. Part III explores whether Chinese nationalism is affirmative, assertive, or aggressive through the case studies of China’s maritime territorial disputes with Japan in the East China Sea and with several Southeast Asian countries in the South China Sea, the border controversy over the ancient Koguryo with Korea, and the cross-Taiwan Strait relations. This book was based on articles published in the Journal of Contemporary China.

Social Exclusion, Power, and Video Game Play

Social Exclusion, Power, and Video Game Play PDF Author: David G. Embrick
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739138626
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 284

Book Description
While many books and articles are emerging on the new area of game studies and the application of computer games to learning, therapeutic, military and entertainment environments, few have attempted to contextualize the importance of virtual play within a broader social, cultural and political environment that raises the question of the significance of work, play, power and inequalities in the modern world. Many studies tend to concentrate on the content of virtual games, but few have questioned how power is produced or reproduced by publishers, gamers or even social media; how social exclusion (e.g., race, class, gender, etc.) in the virtual environments are reproduced from the real world; and how actors are able to use new media to transcend their fears, anxieties, prejudices and assumptions. The articles presented by the contributors in this volume represent cutting-edge research in the area of critical game play with the hope to draw attention to the need for more studies that are both sociological and critical.

Exploring Animal Crossing

Exploring Animal Crossing PDF Author: Bruce Baer Arnold
Publisher: Anthem Press
ISBN: 1839980087
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 144

Book Description
Animal Crossing is an innovative virtual world with a global audience beyond traditional online gamers. The book is the first major study, offering an interdisciplinary exploration of copyright and other laws, user creativity and sociability, psychology, the virtual world’s economic and technological basis, uptake during COVID-19, gamification of offline brands, relationships with past/contemporary computer games, and Animal Crossing as an example of the Japanification of online popular culture. The book provides insights for students, researchers and non-specialist readers.

Routledge Handbook of New Media in Asia

Routledge Handbook of New Media in Asia PDF Author: Larissa Hjorth
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317684982
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 488

Book Description
While a decade ago much of the discussion of new media in Asia was couched in Occidental notions of Asia as a "default setting" for technology in the future, today we are seeing a much more complex picture of contesting new media practices and production. As "new media" becomes increasingly an everyday reality for young and old across Asia through smartphones and associated devices, boundaries between art, new media, and the everyday are transformed. This Handbook addresses the historical, social, cultural, political, philosophical, artistic and economic dimensions of the region’s new media. Through an interdisciplinary revision of both "new media" and "Asia" the contributors provide new insights into the complex and contesting terrains of both notions. The Routledge Handbook of New Media in Asia will be the definitive publication for readers interested in comprehending all the various aspects of new media in Asia. It provides an authoritative, up-to-date, intellectually broad, conceptually cutting-edge guide to the important aspects of new media in the region — as the first point of consultation for researchers, advanced level undergraduate and postgraduate students in fields of new media and Asian studies.