Board Games as Media

Description

Leading expert Paul Booth explores the growth in popularity of board games today, and unpacks what it means to read a board game. What does a game communicate? How do games play us? And how do we decide which games to play and which are just wastes of cardboard? With little scholarly research in this still-emerging field, Board Games as Media underscores the importance of board games in the ever-evolving world of media. Title Page Copyright Page Contents Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: Board Games as Media Part One: Textual Analysis Chapter 1: Meeples, Miniatures, and CubesLudo-Textual Analyses of Board Games Chapter 2: A Depressing Choose-Your-Own AdventureThe Interactive Potentiality of Board Games Chapter 3: Colonizing Mars: Ludic Discourse Analysis Chapter 4: The Designer as Créateur: The Board Game Industry and Constructed Authorship Chapter 5: The Player as FanLudic Fandom in Board Game Cultures Part Two: Ethnographic Analysis Chapter 6: Surveying Board Game Players: Who Plays What . . . Chapter 7: . . . and Why: Examining Motivations and Popularity of Board Games Chapter 8: Cultural Studies of Games: Diversity and Inclusion in the Board Game Industry and Hobby Chapter 9: The Epic Adventure of Grundy and Trixie: An Autoethnographic Journey through Gloomhaven Conclusion: The Board Gaming Environment Appendix 1: Survey Questions Appendix 2: Data from Survey Notes References Index