Game Work

by McAllister, Ken S.

• ISBN13: 9780817354206
• ISBN10: 0817354204
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-12-01
• Publisher: Univ of Alabama Pr

Summary

*Selected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title Ken S. McAllisteris Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Composition, and the Teaching of English at the University of Arizona and Co-Director of the Learning Games Initiative, a research collective that studies, teaches with, and builds video games.

Author Biography

Ken S. McAllister is Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Composition, and the Teaching of English at the University of Arizona and Co-Director of the Learning Games Initiative, a research collective that studies, teaches with, and builds video games.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Acknowledgments	xiii
PART 1 INTRODUCTION TO PART 1
1. Studying the Computer Game Complex	5	(22)
Computer Games as Mass Culture	9	(4)
Computer Games as Mass Media	13	(1)
Computer Games as Psychophysiological Force	14	(4)
Computer Games as Economic Force	18	(6)
Computer Games as Instructional Force	24	(1)
So, Why Study Computer Games?	25	(2)
2. A Grammar of Gamework	27	(44)
Rhetoric and Dialectic	29	(2)
Propositions of the Gamework	31	(3)
The Problematic of Play	34	(7)
The Grammar of Gameworks: Analyzing the Computer Game Complex	41	(30)
PART 2 INTRODUCTION TO PART 2
3. Capturing Imaginations: Rhetoric in the Art of Computer Game Development	71	(47)
Rhetorical Functions Revisited	78	(2)
Rhetoric in the Discourse of Game Developers	80	(34)
Working Through the Grammar of Gameworks: Agents, Influences, Manifestations, and Transformative Locales	114	(4)
4. Making Meanings Out of Contradictions: The Work of Computer Game Reviewing	118	(22)
Computer Game Reviewing Online	120	(6)
Computer Game Reviewing in Print	126	(3)
Playing Up Influence to Influence Play	129	(10)
Reviewing the Meanings of the Computer Game Complex	139	(1)
5. The Economies of Black & White	140	(29)
Defining Economies	144	(5)
The "Purchase" of Natural Resources	149	(5)
The "Purchase" of Spiritual Resources	154	(2)
The "Purchase" of Temporal Resources	156	(1)
The Work of Black & White	157	(9)
Transformative Locales: Economic Force as Game Work	166	(3)
Epilogue	169	(2)
Appendices	171	(34)
Notes	205	(14)
Works Cited	219	(8)
Index	227

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