Books in the Studies in Gaming series

This collection of new essays explores what Pokemon Go can tell us about how and why we play. Covering a range of topics from mobile hardware and classroom applications to social conflict and urban planning, the contributors approach Pokemon Go from both practical and theoretical angles.

Presents essays that show how playing Skyrim, in many ways, is akin to ""playing"" 21st century America with its various crises, conflicts, divisions, and inequalities. Topics covered include racial inequality and white supremacy, gender construction and misogyny, the politics of modding, rhetorics of gameplay, and narrative features.

Explores how to define actual play, how fans interact with and affect the narrative and gameplay of actual play, the diversity of gamers (or lack thereof) within actual play media, and how audiences can use actual play media for more than mere entertainment.

Role-playing games seemed to appear of nowhere in the early 1970s and have been a quiet but steady presence in American culture ever since. This new look at the hobby searches for the historical origins of role-playing games deep in the imaginative worlds of Western culture.

A lot of work has been done talking about what masculinity is and what it does within video games, but less has been given to considering how and why this happens, and the processes involved. This book considers the array of daily relationships involved in producing masculinity and how those actions and relationships translate to video games.

Featuring interviews with the creators of 39 popular video games, this book gives a behind-the-scenes look at the origins of some of the most iconic shooter games. Interviewees recount endless hours of painstaking development, the challenges of working with mega-publishers, the growth of the genre, and the creative process.

Featuring interviews with the creators of 31 popular video games - including Grand Theft Auto, Strider, Maximum Carnage and Pitfall - this book gives a behind-the-scenes look at the origins of some of the most enjoyable and iconic adventure games of all time.

Explores video games as important cultural artifacts and as sources of powerful, compelling storytelling. It begins by considering the fundamental structures of video games. The book then moves from the theoretical to the practical by considering numerous modern games and the stories they tell through careful, considered analysis of each title's story.

This first full-length study examines Bloodborne's themes of dangerous knowledge and fatal pride and its aesthetics in the context other works on game studies, horror and the Gothic. The book's three parts focus on lore and narrative, the game's nightmarish world, and its mechanics.

Containing interviews with the developers of thirty-six of the coolest games in video game history from Deus Ex and Night Trap to Mortal Kombat, Wasteland and NBA Jam, The Minds Behind the Games gives you an inside look at how some of the most influential, iconic, infamous and forgotten games of all-time were created.

This collection of essays puts on display the variety and ambiguity of video games. Each essay is a work of game criticism that takes a different approach to defining the game and analysing it. The book attempts to show the complex changes, challenges and advances to game criticism in the era of video games.

These essays examine the phenomenon of women and "modding", focusing on such titles as Skyrim, Dragon Age, and The Sims. Topics include the relationship between "modders" and developers, the history of "modding", and the relationship between "modding" and disability, race, sexuality and gender identity.

Taking a holistic view, this study explores how ludology, narratology, visual rhetoric, musical theory and player psychology work (or don't work) together to create a cohesive experience and to provide a unified framework for understanding video games.

In this examination of how video gaming and video gaming culture are depicted in science fiction, Jason Barr examines how preconceived, media-fueled paranoia about video gaming, first formed almost fifty years ago, still resonate in modern science fiction prose.

Historian Johan Huizinga once described game playing as the motor of humanity's cultural development, predating art and literature. Since the late 20th century, Western society has undergone a "ludification," as the influence of game-playing has grown ever more prevalent. At the same time, new theories of postmodernism have emphasized the importance of interactive, playful behavior. Core concepts of postmodernism are evident in pen-and-paper role-playing, such as Dungeons and Dragons. Exploring the interrelationships among narrative, gameplay, players and society, the author raises questions regarding authority, agency and responsibility, and discusses the social potential of RPGs in the 21st century.

Call of Duty is one of the most culturally significant video game franchises of the 21st century. Since the first game was released for PC in 2003, the first-person shooter has sold over 250 million copies across a range of platforms, along with merchandise ranging from toys and comic books to a special edition Jeep Wrangler. Top players can compete for millions in prize money in tournaments sanctioned by the Call of Duty World League. While the gaming community has reported on and debated each development, Call of Duty has received little scholarly attention. This collection of new essays examines the ideologically charged campaign mode of major franchise releases, with a special focus on militarism, realism and gender.