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How to Play Video Games

Author: Matthew Thomas Payne

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2019-03-26

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 1479805920

Forty original contributions on games and gaming culture What does Pokémon Go tell us about globalization? What does Tetris teach us about rules? Is feminism boosted or bashed by Kim Kardashian: Hollywood? How does BioShock Infinite help us navigate world-building? From arcades to Atari, and phone apps to virtual reality headsets, video games have been at the epicenter of our ever-evolving technological reality. Unlike other media technologies, video games demand engagement like no other, which begs the question—what is the role that video games play in our lives, from our homes, to our phones, and on global culture writ large? How to Play Video Games brings together forty original essays from today’s leading scholars on video game culture, writing about the games they know best and what they mean in broader social and cultural contexts. Read about avatars in Grand Theft Auto V, or music in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. See how Age of Empires taught a generation about postcolonialism, and how Borderlands exposes the seedy underbelly of capitalism. These essays suggest that understanding video games in a critical context provides a new way to engage in contemporary culture. They are a must read for fans and students of the medium.

Videogames

Author: James A. Newman

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 0415669162

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"James Newman's lucid and engaging introduction guides the reader through the world of videogaming, providing a history of the videogame from its origins in the computer lab to its contemporary status as a global entertainment industry, with characters such as Lara Croft and Sonic the Hedgehog familiar even to those who've never been near a games console. Topics covered include: classifications, game theory and interactivity - what is a videogame? the videogame audience the videogame industry videogame structure narratives and play- approaches to the study of videogames videogames, avatars and virtual worlds social gaming and the culture of videogames This second edition updates the book to include recent developments such as: the popularity of the wii and the increase in non-traditional gamers and more physical gaming the development of MMOGs (massively multiplayer online games) such as World of Warcraft games being downloaded as apps or accessed via mobile phones, iPods and social networking sites"--

Player and Avatar

Author: David Owen

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2017-06-19

Total Pages: 239

ISBN-13: 1476629420

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Do you make small leaps in your chair while attempting challenging jumps in Tomb Raider? Do you say "Ouch!" when a giant hits you with a club in Skyrim? Have you had dreams of being inside the underwater city of Rapture? Videogames cast the player as protagonist in an unfolding narrative. Like actors in front of a camera, gamers' proprioception, or body awareness, can extend to onscreen characters, thus placing them "physically" within the virtual world. Players may even identify with characters' ideological motivations. The author explores concepts central to the design and enjoyment of videogames--affect, immersion, liveness, presence, agency, narrative, ideology and the player's virtual surrogate: the avatar. Gamer and avatar are analyzed as a cybernetic coupling that suggests fulfillment of Atonin Artaud's vision of the "body without organs."

Videogames

Author: James Newman

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 9780415281911

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Newman's lucid and engaging introduction guides the reader through the world of videogaming. It traces the history of the videogame, from its origins in the computer lab, to its contemporary status as a global entertainment industry, where characters such as Lara Croft and Sonic the Hedgehog are familiar even to those who've never been near a games console.Topics covered include:* What is a videogame?* Why study videogames?* a brief history of videogames, from Pac-Man to Pokémon* the videogame industry* who plays videogames?* are videogames bad for you?* the narrative structure of videogames* the future of videogames.

Playing with Videogames

Author: James Newman

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2008-08-18

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1134173016

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Playing with Videogames documents the richly productive, playful and social cultures of videogaming that support, surround and sustain this most important of digital media forms and yet which remain largely invisible within existing studies. James Newman details the rich array of activities that surround game-playing, charting the vibrant and productive practices of the vast number of videogame players and the extensive 'shadow' economy of walkthroughs, FAQs, art, narratives, online discussion boards and fan games, as well as the cultures of cheating, copying and piracy that have emerged. Playing with Videogames offers the reader a comprehensive understanding of the meanings of videogames and videogaming within the contemporary media environment.

What Is a Game?

Author: Gaines S. Hubbell

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2020-02-14

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 1476639019

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What is a videogame? What makes a videogame "good"? If a game is supposed to be fun, can it be fun without a good story? If another is supposed to be an accurate simulation, does it still need to be entertaining? With the ever-expanding explosion of new videogames and new developments in the gaming world, questions about videogame criticism are becoming more complex. The differing definitions that players and critics use to decide what a game is and what makes a game successful, often lead to different ideas of how games succeed or fail. This collection of new essays puts on display the variety and ambiguity of videogames. Each essay is a work of game criticism that takes a different approach to defining the game and analyzing it. Through analysis and critical methods, these essays discuss whether a game is defined by its rules, its narrative, its technology, or by the activity of playing it, and the tensions between these definitions. With essays on Overwatch, Dark Souls 3, Far Cry 4, Farmville and more, this collection attempts to show the complex changes, challenges and advances to game criticism in the era of videogames.

The Debate about Playing Video Games

Author: Rachel Seigel

Publisher: North Star Editions, Inc.

Published: 2018-01-01

Total Pages: 48

ISBN-13: 1635176689

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Provides a thorough overview of the major pros and cons of playing video games. Readable text, interesting sidebars, and illuminating infographics invite readers to jump in and join the debate.

Learning by Playing

Author: Fran Blumberg

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 019989664X

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There is a growing recognition in the learning sciences that video games can no longer be seen as impediments to education, but rather, they can be developed to enhance learning. Educational and developmental psychologists, education researchers, media psychologists, and cognitive psychologists are now joining game designers and developers in seeking out new ways to use video game play in the classroom. In Learning by Playing, a diverse group of contributors provide perspectives on the most current thinking concerning the ramifications of leisure video game play for academic classroom learning. The first section of the text provides foundational understanding of the cognitive skills and content knowledge that children and adolescents acquire and refine during video game play. The second section explores game features that captivate and promote skills development among game players. The subsequent sections discuss children and adolescents' learning in the context of different types of games and the factors that contribute to transfer of learning from video game play to the classroom. These chapters then form the basis for the concluding section of the text: a specification of the most appropriate research agenda to investigate the academic potential of video game play, particularly using those games that child and adolescent players find most compelling. Contributors include researchers in education, learning sciences, and cognitive and developmental psychology, as well as instructional design researchers.