Examines the world of videogames from a global perspective. Highly illustrated throughout, the book is structured around ten essays focusing on key themes, from characters in games to future technical developments. Writers include J C Herz, Steven Poole and Henry Jenkins. Short essays by players also appear.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• The Demanding Nature of Video Game Play by Nicholas D. Bowman
• Video Games and Cognitive Skills by C. Shawn Green
• The Role of Engagement in Facilitating Game-Based Persuasion by Brett Sherrick
• Research on the Emotions Caused by Video Games Demands Integration by Matthew Grizzard and C. Joseph Francemone
• Gaming Is Awesome! A Theoretical Model on Cognitive Demands and the Elicitation of Awe during Video Game Play by Danile Possler, Christoph Klimmt and Arthur A. Raney
• Behavioral Demands as Behavioral Affordances in Video Games by Allison Eden, David R. Ewoldsen, Joomi Lee, and David Beyea
• Applying Psychological Theory to In-Game Moral Behaviors Through the Development of a Purpose-Made Game by Sarah E. Hodge, John McAlaney, Christos Gatzidis, Eike Falk Anderson, Davide Melacca, and Jacqui Taylor
• A Communication Model of Social Demands in Video Games by Jorge Pena
• Tandem Play: Theorizing Sociality in Single Player Gameplay by Mia Consalvo, Jason Begy, Sarah Christina Ganzon, and Rainforest Scully-Blaker
• Social Demand in Video Games and the Synchronization Theory of Flow by Kevin Kryston, Eric Novotny, Ralf Schmalzle, and Ron Tamborini
• Explicating the Electricity of eSports: Motivations for Play and Consumption by Kenon A. Brown, Andrew C. Billings, Melvin Lewis, and Kimberly Bissell
• Live Streams and Revenue Streams: Twitch as a Hybrid Gaming Culture by John A. Velez, Melissa R. Gotlieb, Geoffrey Graybeal, Alan Abitbol, and Jonathan A. Villarreal Development of the Video Game Demand Scale by Nicholas David Bowman, Joseph Wasserman, and Jaime Banks.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This entry in the BEA Electronic Media Research Series, born out of the April 2017 BEA Research Symposium, takes a look at video games, outlining the characteristics of them as cognitive, emotional, physical, and social demanding technologies, and introduces readers to current research on video games. The diverse array of contributors in this volume offer bleeding-edge perspectives on both current and emerging scholarship. The chapters here contain radical approaches that add to the literature on electronic media studies generally and video game studies specifically. By taking such a forward-looking approach, this volume aims to collect foundational writings for the future of gaming studies.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

We cannot think of modern society without also thinking of video games. And we cannot think of video games without thinking of history either. Games that deal with history are sold in ever-increasing numbers, striving to create increasingly lively images of things past. For the science of history, this means that the presentation of historical content in such games has to be questioned, as well as the conceptions of history they embody. How do games create the feeling that they portray a past acceptable to their players? Do these popular representations of history intersect with academic narratives, or not? While a considerable body of work on similar questions already exists, both for medieval history as well as for those games dealing with the 20th century, early modernity has not yet been treated in this context. As many games draw their imagery - perhaps their success, too? - from the years between 1450 and 1815, it is to their understanding that this volume is dedicated. The contributions encompass a wide range of subjects and games, from Age of Empires to Assassin's Creed, from Critical Discourse Analysis to Ludology. One aim unites them, namely an understanding of what happens when video games encounter early modernity.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction
• The prehistory of video games
• Baer's brown box
• Spacewar!
• Atari's born
• VES vs VCS
• Oregon Trail
• A tale of two adventures
• Uncle Clive and Big Jack
• Atari shock!
• The golden age of the arcades
• The rise of Nintendo
• Simpatico
• Doom 101
• The console war
• The 'Nintendo' PlayStation
• A dream dies
• An ugly motherfucker
• Pocket monsters: the history of handhelds
• Mobile gaming
• eSports
• Metal... gear?
• Here comes everybody
• Revolution
• Steam and valve
• Go anywhere, do anything: Grand Theft Auto
• Indie-pendence
• Continue?

"This Brief History provides a unique look at the history and culture of video games, starting with the 1960s classics like Pong to modern favorites such as Grand Theft Auto V and Bioshock. Focusing on creative and scientific advances between 1962 and today, "A Brief History of Video Games" offers a global perspective on gaming s past and its cutting-edge future with the evolution of virtual reality, 3D graphics, and thought-interface technology. It also addresses the design process from concept to packaging, considers the influence of manga and anime, and explores the relationship between video games and movies."-- Provided by publisher.

Thirty-nine essays explore the vast diversity of video game history and culture across all the world's continents. Video games have become a global industry, and their history spans dozens of national industries where foreign imports compete with domestic productions, legitimate industry contends with piracy, and national identity faces the global marketplace. This volume describes video game history and culture across every continent, with essays covering areas as disparate and far-flung as Argentina and Thailand, Hungary and Indonesia, Iran and Ireland. Most of the essays are written by natives of the countries they discuss, many of them game designers and founders of game companies, offering distinctively firsthand perspectives. Some of these national histories appear for the first time in English, and some for the first time in any language. Readers will learn, for example, about the rapid growth of mobile games in Africa; how a meat-packing company held the rights to import the Atari VCS 2600 into Mexico; and how the Indonesian MMORPG Nusantara Online reflects that country's cultural history and folklore. Every country or region's unique conditions provide the context that shapes its national industry; for example, the long history of computer science in the United Kingdom and Scandinavia, the problems of piracy in China, the PC Bangs of South Korea, or the Dutch industry's emphasis on serious games. As these essays demonstrate, local innovation and diversification thrive alongside productions and corporations with global aspirations. Africa * Arab World * Argentina * Australia * Austria * Brazil * Canada * China * Colombia * Czech Republic * Finland * France * Germany * Hong Kong * Hungary * India * Indonesia * Iran * Ireland * Italy * Japan * Mexico * The Netherlands * New Zealand * Peru * Poland * Portugal * Russia * Scandinavia * Singapore * South Korea * Spain * Switzerland * Thailand * Turkey * United Kingdom * United States of America * Uruguay * Venezuela.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction--N.B. Huntemann and B. Aslinger MACRO Who Plays, Who Pays? Mapping Video Game Production and Consumption Globally-- R. Nichols Women in Video Games: The Case of Hardware Production and Promotion-- N.B. Huntemann Redefining the Console for the Global, Networked Era-- B. Aslinger Snapshot
• 1: Video Game Development in Brazil-- J. Portnow, A. Protasio, K. Donaldson Snapshot
• 2: Video Game Development in Argentina-- A. Perez Fernandez PLAY PRACTICES Snapshot
• 3: Crafting a Path into Gaming Culture-- S.C. Duncan Heterogeneity in Game Histories-- P. Tan and K. Mitgutsch Playing at Being Social: A Cross-Generational Case Study of Social Gaming in Shanghai, China-- L. Hjorth and M. Arnold Unintended Travel: ROM Hackers and Fan Translations of Japanese Video Games-- M. Consalvo LOCALIZATION Equip Shield: The Role of Semi-Permeable Cultural Isolation in the History of Games and Comics-- B. P. Johnson Indiana Jones Fights the Communist Police: Local Appropriation of the Text Adventure Genre in 1980s Czechoslovakia-- J. Svelch How Do You Say Gamer in Hindi?: Exploratory Research on the Indian Digital Game Industry and Culture-- A. Shaw Snapshot
• 4: Australian Video Games: The Collapse and Reconstruction of an Industry-- C. McCrea STRATGIES Snapshot
• 5: Game Censorship and Regulation in the United States-- C.A. Kocurek Space Wars: The Politics of Games Production in Europe-- A. Kerr Internet Development and the Commercialization of Online Gaming in China-- P. Chung and A. Fung Video Game Development in the Middle East: Iran, the Arab World, and Beyond-- V. Sisler.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Video games are inherently transnational by virtue of its industrial, textual, and player practices. This collection includes essays from scholars from seven countries analyzing game cultures on macro- and micro-levels and investigates the growing transnat.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Finding balance in an unbalanced discussion
• How to understand a video game
• Making the immaterial playable: games, religion, and spirituality
• Games and the culture of destruction: violence and ethics in video
• Games
• Escape!: the peril of addiction and the promise of fantasy
• Real men, real women, unreal games
• The school of Mario: the brain, education, and video games
• Making a different world: Christians building video games
• Plays well with others: the social side of gaming
• Do you want to continue playing?

• Introduction
• 1: Down The Rabbit Hole I Am Therefore I Game
• 2: From The Coin-op To The Console: How Did We Get Here? Let The Games Begin
• 1972: A Pong Odyssey
• 3: Let The Games Begin: Competitive Videogaming And The Birth Of The Cyberathlete Cyberathletes And The Leagues Who Love Them
• 4: Alphabet Soup: MMOs, MUDs, And RPGs-D&D In The 21st Century
• 5: No Console Required: Casual Games (or, Gaming For The Rest Of Us)
• 6: Dressed For The Symphony: Videogames Take Center Stage
• 7: From The Flat Screen To The Big Screen: Videogames Invade Hollywood Star Wars
• 1313: The Empire Strikes Back
• 8: Virtual Life
• 9: And We Are Merely Players: Videogames And Society Good Enough For Government Work: CDC Gets Into The Game
• 10: Games For Health From Rehab to Wii-hab:Using Videogames to Heal
• 11: War Games: Combat Evolved
• 12: It's William Gibson's World, We're Just Living In It Bibliography.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

From school lunchrooms to the White House press room, video games are an integral part of our popular culture, and the industry behind them touches all aspects of our lives, gamer and non-gamer alike. Business and entertainment, health and medicine, politics and war, social interaction and education, all fall under its influence. Virtual Ascendance tells the story of a formerly fringe enterprise that, when few were paying attention, exploded into a multi-billion dollar industry affecting the very way we live. Griffiths paints a thorough and vivid picture of the video game industry, illuminating the various, and often bizarre, ways it's changing how we work, play and live. He brings readers along on his own journey of discovery, from the back room of a small Irish pub where members of the second-largest industry enclave meet each month, to a university clinic where the Wii is being used to treat Parkinson's sufferers - and everywhere in between. Virtual Ascendance is more than just a story about video games, though. It's the story of an awakening, of a realization that a childhood pastime has exploded into a thriving enterprise - one rooted in entertainment but whose tendrils reach into virtually all aspects of life and society.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Discusses the history of the zinester videogame scene and advises the reader on how best to make their own videogames.

• Chapter 1. Everybody hates videogames
• PART 1: VIDEOGAMES AS REPRESENTATIONAL SYSTEMS
• Chapter 2. Talking about videogames
• Chapter 3. Videogames and/as stories
• Chapter 4. Things to make and do: fanart, music and cosplay
• PART 2: VIDEOGAMES AS CONFIGURATIVE PERFORMANCES
• Chapter 5. Game Guides, walkthroughs and FAQs
• Chapter 6. Superplay, Sequence Breaking And Speedrunning
• PART 3: VIDEOGAMES AS TECHNOLOGY
• Chapter 7. Codemining, Modding and Gamemaking Notes References.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

"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.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Maybe it was the recent Atari 2600 milestone anniversary that fueled nostalgia for the golden days of computer and console gaming. Every Game Boy must ponder his roots from time to time. But whatever is driving the current retro gaming craze, one thing is certain: classic games are back for a big second act, and they're being played in both old and new ways. Whether you've just been attacked by Space Invaders for the first time or you've been a Pong junkie since puberty, Chris Kohler's "Retro Gaming Hacks" is the indispensable new guide to playing and hacking classic games. Kohler has complied tons of how-to information on retro gaming that used to take days or weeks of Web surfing to track down and sort through, and he presents it in the popular and highly readable Hacks style. "Retro Gaming Hacks" serves up 85 hard-nosed hacks for reviving the classic games. Want to game on an original system? Kohler shows you how to hack ancient hardware, and includes a primer for home-brewing classic software. Rather adapt today's equipment to run retro games? Kohler provides emulation techniques, complete with instructions for hacking a classic joystick that's compatible with a contemporary computer. The book also teaches readers to revive old machines for the original gaming experience: hook up an Apple II or a Commodore 64, for example, and play it like you played before. A video game journalist and author of "Power Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life", Kohler has taught the history of video games at Tufts University. In "Retro Gaming Hacks" he locates the convergence of classic games and contemporary software, revealing not only how to retrofit classic games for today's systems, but how to find the golden oldies hidden in contemporary programs as well. Whether you're looking to recreate the magic of a Robotron marathon or simply crave a little handheld Donkey Kong, "Retro Gaming Hacks" shows you how to set the way-back dial.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Normal0falsefalsefalseMicrosoftInternetExplorer4In his 2004 book Game Work, Ken S. McAllister proposed a rigorous critical methodology for the discussion of the "video game complex"--the games themselves, their players, the industry that produces them, and those who review and market them. Games, McAllister demonstrated, are viewed and discussed very differently by different factions: as an economic force, as narrative texts, as a facet of popular culture, as a psychological playground, as an ethical and moral force, even as a tool for military training. In Gaming Matters, McAllister and coauthor Judd Ruggill turn from the broader discussion of video game rhetoric to study the video game itself as a medium and the specific features that give rise to games as similar and yet diverse as Pong, Tomb Raider, and Halo. In short, what defines the computer game itself as a medium distinct from all others? Each chapter takes up a different fundamental characteristic of the medium. Games are: - Idiosyncratic, and thus difficult to apprehend using the traditional tools of media study- Irreconcilable, or complex to such a degree that developers, players, and scholars have contradictory ways of describing them- Boring, and therefore obligated to constantly make demandson players' attention- Anachronistic, or built on age-old tropes and forms of playwhile ironically bound to the most advanced technologies- Duplicitous, or dependent on truth-telling rhetoric even when they are about fictions, fantasies, or lies- Work, or are often better understood as labor rather than play- Alchemical, despite seeming all-too mechanical or predictableVideo games are now inarguably a major site of worldwide cultural production. Gaming Matters will neither flatter game enthusiasts nor embolden game detractors in their assessments. But it will provide a vocabulary through which games can be discussed in academic settings and will create an important foundation for future academic discourse.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Playing the past: an introduction / Laurie N. Taylor and Zach Whalen
• pt.
• 1. Playing in the past, negotiating nostalgia and classic gaming. Why old school is 'cool': a brief analysis of classic video game nostalgia / Sean Fenty
• Homesick for Silent Hill: modalities of nostalgia in fan responses to Silent Hill --Playing the deja-new: "plug it in and play TV games" and the cultural politics of classic gaming / Matthew Thomas Payne
• Hacks, mods, Easter eggs, and fossils: intentionality and digitalism in the video game / Wm. Ruffin Bailey
• Screw the grue: mediality, metalepsis, recapture / Terry Harpold
• pt.
• 2. Playing and the past: understanding media history and video games. Unlimited minutes: playing games in the palm of your hand / Sheila C. Murphy
• Visions and revisions of the Hollywood golden age and America in the thirties and forties: Prince of Persia and Crimson Skies / Andrew E. Jankowich
• Toward a new sound for games / Thomas E. Gersic
• Remembrance of things fast: conceptualizing nostalgic-play in the Battlestar Galactica video game / Anna Reading and Colin Harvey
• pt.
• 3. Playing with the past: nostalgia and real history in video games. Just less than total war: simulating World War II as ludic nostalgia / James Campbell
• Performing the (virtual) past: online character interpretation as living history at Old Sturbridge Village / Scott Magelssen
• Documentary games: putting the player in the path of history / Tracy Fullerton
• Of puppets, automatons, and avatars: automating the reader-player in electronic literature and computer games / Robert P. Fletcher.

"Playing the Past" brings together an eclectic group of young scholars to examine the complementary notions of history and nostalgia as they are expressed through video games and in gaming culture. By focusing on specific games (e.g., Ms. Pac-Man and JFK: Reloaded), historical periods and media ecologies, these essays collectively take an in depth look at the related topics of nostalgia for classic gaming, gaming and histories of other media, and representations of real history in video games.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)