Ctrl-Alt-Play: Essays on Control in Video Gaming

The word "control" has many implications for video games. On a basic level, without player control, there is no experience. Much of the video game industry focuses on questions of control and ways to improve play to make the gamer feel more connected to the virtual world.

The sixteen essays in this collection offer critical examinations of the issue of control in video games, including different ways to theorize and define control within video gaming and how control impacts game design and game play.

Close readings of specific games--including Grand Theft Auto IV, Call of Duty: Black Ops, and Dragon Age: Origins--consider how each locates elements of control in their structures. As video games increasingly become a major force in the media landscape, this important contribution to the field of game studies provides a valuable framework for understanding their growing impact.

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Ctrl-Alt-Play: Essays on Control in Video Gaming

The word "control" has many implications for video games. On a basic level, without player control, there is no experience. Much of the video game industry focuses on questions of control and ways to improve play to make the gamer feel more connected to the virtual world.

The sixteen essays in this collection offer critical examinations of the issue of control in video games, including different ways to theorize and define control within video gaming and how control impacts game design and game play.

Close readings of specific games--including Grand Theft Auto IV, Call of Duty: Black Ops, and Dragon Age: Origins--consider how each locates elements of control in their structures. As video games increasingly become a major force in the media landscape, this important contribution to the field of game studies provides a valuable framework for understanding their growing impact.

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Ctrl-Alt-Play: Essays on Control in Video Gaming

Ctrl-Alt-Play: Essays on Control in Video Gaming

by Matthew Wysocki (Editor)
Ctrl-Alt-Play: Essays on Control in Video Gaming

Ctrl-Alt-Play: Essays on Control in Video Gaming

by Matthew Wysocki (Editor)

eBook

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Overview

The word "control" has many implications for video games. On a basic level, without player control, there is no experience. Much of the video game industry focuses on questions of control and ways to improve play to make the gamer feel more connected to the virtual world.

The sixteen essays in this collection offer critical examinations of the issue of control in video games, including different ways to theorize and define control within video gaming and how control impacts game design and game play.

Close readings of specific games--including Grand Theft Auto IV, Call of Duty: Black Ops, and Dragon Age: Origins--consider how each locates elements of control in their structures. As video games increasingly become a major force in the media landscape, this important contribution to the field of game studies provides a valuable framework for understanding their growing impact.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781476600413
Publisher: McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date: 02/07/2013
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 228
File size: 2 MB
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Matthew Wysocki is an assistant professor at Flagler College, teaching cinema and media studies. He lives in St. Augustine, Florida.
Matthew Wysocki is an assistant professor at Flagler College, teaching cinema and media studies. He lives in St. Augustine, Florida.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction (Matthew Wysocki)
Section 1: Theories and Definitions of Control
Criticism and Control: Gameplay in the Space of Possibility
delete(Gerald Voorhees)
The Psychology of Control and Video Games (Paul Toprac)
Controller Controls: Haptics, Ergon, Teloi and the Production
deleteof Affect in the Video Game Text (Nadav Lipkin)
Just One More Turn: Player Control and Addiction
delete(Thijs van den Berg)
Section 2: Control and Game Design/Play
Controlling a Sandbox (Nick Webber)
The Illusion of Agency and the Affect of Control within
deleteVideo Games (David Owen)
It’s All Part of the Game: The Emergence of Narrative and
deleteMeaning in Play (Meagan Rothschild, Amanda Ochsner
deleteand Jonathan Gray)
Press Start to Continue: The Effects of ­Pseudo-­Authorial
deleteControl on Video Game Narratives (Shawn Edrei)
On Couches and Controllers: Identification in the Video
deleteGame Apparatus (Peter McDonald)
Standing in the Way of Control: Relationships between
deleteGestural Interfaces and Game Spaces (Alison Gazzard)
Section 3: Reading Control in Video Games
“Now I know I’m a lowlife”: Controlling Play in GTA:
deleteIV, Red Dead Redemption and LA Noire (Chris Pallant)
Perceptions of Control: Open World Formats v. Online
deleteMultiplayer First Person Shooters (Brent Kice)
The Good, the Bad and the Neutral: Problems with the Ethical
deleteConstructions of Video and Computer Games
delete(Karl Babij)
For Those About to Rock: Gender as Instrument in Rock Band
delete(Elisa Meléndez)
­Obey-­Play: Passive Play and Productive Submission to the Code
delete(M.-Niclas Heckner)
“Would you kindly?” BioShock and the Question of Control
delete(Matthew Wysocki and Matthew Schandler)
About the Contributors
Index
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