Video Games as Culture: Considering the Role and Importance of Video Games in Contemporary Society

Description

Cover Endorsement Page Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Page Table of Contents List of Illustrations Figures Table Preface and Acknowledgements Chapter 1: Introduction: contemporary culture through the lens of video games Introduction Why video games? Methods Book structure: X marks the spot Notes References Ludography Chapter 2: The emergence and consolidation of video games as culture Introduction Defining video game culture Gamifying reality: gamification, serious games, and augmented reality The growing importance of video games among the general public A thriving video game industry Video games: blurring the lines between play, education, and work The work of play Education in/by video games Blurring the boundaries between play, labour, and education The construction of a video gaming audience Video games and academia Video games and culture Conclusions Notes References Ludography Other software Films, television series, and music Chapter 3: Video games and agency within neoliberalism and participatory culture Introduction Video games and the contemporary nature of agency Video games as dispositifs Agency and neoliberal political rationalities Control, freedom, and responsibility Beyond neoliberal political rationalities: participatory culture Conclusions References Ludography Chapter 4: Video games as experience Introduction Translating experiences Narrating experiences Enacting experiences Embodied experiences Social reality as a set of designed experiences Video games and the postphenomenological approach to experience Conclusions Notes References Ludography Films and television Chapter 5: Video games beyond escapism: empathy and identification Introduction Escapism and video games Connecting with other realities The limits of video games as mediators of experience Conclusions Notes References Ludography Film Chapter 6: Video gamers and (post-)identity Introduction The question of identity in contemporary society Identity in crisis The gamer conundrum Hardcore-subcultural gamer Casual gamers Gamer as a foodie-connoisseur The cultural–intellectual Everyone is a gamer The post-identity hypothesis Short facts Communities with nothing in common Just a gamer: outside the defining axes of identity Conclusions Notes References Ludography Chapter 7: Conclusion: this is not a video game, or is it? Reference Ludography Glossary Index