Paratextualizing Games: Investigations on the Paraphernalia and Peripheries of Play

by Benjamin Beil (Editor), Gundolf S. Freyermuth (Editor), Hanns Christian Schmidt (Editor)

Overview

Gaming no longer only takes place as a ›closed interactive experience‹ in front of TV screens, but also as broadcast on streaming platforms or as cultural events in exhibition centers and e-sport arenas. The popularization of new technologies, forms of expression, and online services has had a considerable influence on the academic and journalistic discourse about games. This anthology examines which paratexts gaming cultures have produced - i.e., in which forms and formats and through which channels we talk (and write) about games - as well as the way in which paratexts influence the development of games. How is knowledge about games generated and shaped today and how do boundaries between (popular) criticism, journalism, and scholarship have started to blur? In short: How does the paratext change the text?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783732854219
Publisher:	transcript Verlag
Publication date:	11/30/2021
Series:	Bild und Bit. Studien zur digitalen Medienkultur , #13
Sold by:	Libreka GmbH
Format:	eBook
Pages:	406
File size:	9 MB

About the Author

Benjamin Beil (Prof. Dr.) is a professor of media studies and digital culture at the department of media culture and theatre at Universität zu Köln. His research interests include game studies, inter- and transmediality, digital media in museums, and participatory cultures. Gundolf S. Freyermuth (Prof. Dr.) is a professor of media and game studies and co-director of the Cologne Game Lab at TH Köln. He is also an associate professor of comparative media studies at ifs Internationale Filmschule Köln. Hanns Christian Schmidt is a professor for Game Design at Macromedia University for Applied Sciences (Cologne) and a research assistant at the Institute of Media Culture and Theater at the University of Cologne.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter 1
Table of Contents 5
Preface and Acknowledgements 9
Paratext . Paraplay 13
"And You Didn't Even Look at It!" 55
The Cartography of Virtual Empires 75
Unboxing AGE OF EMPIRES 97
Making Mario 131
Player Agency in Audience Gaming 165
Material Culture on Twitch 181
Benefits of Including Let's Play Recordings in Close Readings of Digital Game Texts 213
Fame or Infamy: The Influence of Let's Plays on Independent Game Developers 237
"Here Comes a New Challenger" 257
The Impending Demise of Video Game Packaging: An Eulogy 281
The Ludic Nature of Paratexts 293
[Para]Textually Here: Paratexts and Presence in Games 319
Isekai: Tracing Interactive Control in Non-interactive Media 341
The Paratext, the Palimpsest, and the Pandemic 373
Contributors 399