Computer Games as a Sociocultural Phenomenon Games Without Frontiers, Wars Without Tears

by Jahn-Sudmann, Andreas; Stockmann, Ralf

• ISBN13: 9780230545441
• ISBN10: 0230545440
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780230583306
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-03-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• More Book Details
• Purchase Benefits

Summary

In the course of their increasing sociocultural importance, the academic interest in computer games has been growing considerably in the last years. This profound anthology comprehensibly introduces latest approaches in the central fields of game studies and provides an extensive survey of the contemporary game culture. Internationally renowned media and literature scholars, social scientists, game designers, and artists explore the cultural potential of computer games and present new concepts of researching sociocultural, industrial, and aesthetic aspects of digital entertainment.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. viii
Notes on the Contributors	p. ix
Introduction	p. xiii
Game Design and Aesthetics
The Aesthetic Vocabulary of Video Games	p. 3
Can Games Get Real? A Closer Look at 'Documentary' Digital Games	p. 12
Emotional Design of Computer Games and Fiction Films	p. 22
'Applied Game Theory': Innovation, Diversity, Experimentation in Contemporary Game Design	p. 32
Space and Time
There and Back Again: Reuse, Signifiers and Consistency in Created Game Spaces	p. 47
Another Bricolage in the Wall: Deleuze and Teenage Alienation	p. 56
War and Violence
Programming Violence: Language and the Making of Interactive Media	p. 69
Impotence and Agency: Computer Games as a Post-9/11 Battlefield	p. 78
S(t)imulating War: From Early Films to Military Games	p. 87
Ethics and Morality
Player in Fabula: Ethics of Interaction as Semiotic Negotiation Between Authorship and Readership	p. 99
'Moral Management': Dealing with Moral Concerns to Maintain Enjoyment of Violent Video Games	p. 108
Beyond Good and Evil: The Inhuman Ethics of Redemption and Bloodlines	p. 119
Politics and Ideology
Preconscious Apocalypse: The Failure of Capitalism in Computer Games	p. 131
Borders and Bodies in City of Heroes: (Re)imaging American Identity Post 9/11	p. 140
Anti-PC Games: Exploring Articulations of the Politically Incorrect in GTA San Andreas	p. 150
Strip - Shift - Impose - Recycle - Overload - Spill - Breakout - Abuse. Artists' (Mis-)Appropriations of Shooter Games	p. 162
Computer Game Play(ers) and Cultural Identities
Presence-Play: The Hauntology of the Computer Game	p. 175
Negotiating Online Computer Games in East Asia: Manufacturing Asian MMORPGs and Marketing 'Asianness'	p. 186
Teenage Girls 'Play House': The Cyber-drama of The Sims	p. 197
Cited Computer Games	p. 207
References	p. 211
Index	p. 226
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.