Books in the Routledge Advances in Game Studies series

This volume brings together essays that explore game fandom from diverse perspectives to offer a broad and holistic understanding of the complex processes at work in the phenomenon of game fandom and its practices.

This volume brings together essays that explore game fandom from diverse perspectives to offer a broad and holistic understanding of the complex processes at work in the phenomenon of game fandom and its practices.

This volume offers the latest research findings on online gaming, social forms of gaming, identification, gender issues and games for change, primarily applying a social-scientific approach.

Drawing on qualitative player studies and approaches from media aesthetics theory, The Paradox of Transgression in Games looks at transgressive games as an aesthetic experience, tackling how players respond to game content that shocks, disturbs, and distresses, and how contemporary video games can evoke intense emotional reactions.

This book analyzes the effect of policy on the digital game complex: government, industry, corporations, distributors, players, and the like.

This volume offers the latest research findings on online gaming, social forms of gaming, identification, gender issues and games for change, primarily applying a social-scientific approach.

Independent Videogames investigates the social and cultural implications of contemporary forms of independent video game development. Through a series of case studies and theoretical investigations, it evaluates the significance of such a multi-faceted phenomenon within video game and digital cultures.

This volume is an investigation of "dark play" in video games, or game play with controversial themes as well as controversial play behaviour. It covers such questions as: Why do some games stir up political controversies? How do games invite, or even push players towards dark play through their design? Where are the boundaries for what can be presented in a games? Are these boundaries different from other media such as film and books, and if so why? What is the allure of dark play and why do players engage in these practices?