The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies / Edition 1

by Mark Wolf, Bernard Perron

Overview

The number of publications dealing with video game studies has exploded over the course of the last decade, but the field has produced few comprehensive reference works. The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies, compiled by well-known video game scholars Mark J. P. Wolf and Bernard Perron, aims to address the ongoing theoretical and methodological development of game studies, providing students, scholars, and game designers with a definitive look at contemporary video game studies.

Features include:

• comprehensive and interdisciplinary models and approaches for analyzing video games;
• new perspectives on video games both as art form and cultural phenomenon;
• explorations of the technical and creative dimensions of video games;
• accounts of the political, social, and cultural dynamics of video games.

Each essay provides a lively and succinct summary of its target area, quickly bringing the reader up-to-date on the pertinent issues surrounding each aspect of the field, including references for further reading. Together, they provide an overview of the present state of game studies that will undoubtedly prove invaluable to student, scholar, and designer alike.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138657052
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/13/2016
Series:	Routledge Media and Cultural Studies Companions
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	544
Product dimensions:	6.88(w) x 9.69(h) x (d)

About the Author

Mark J. P. Wolf is a Full Professor and Department Chair in the Communication Department at Concordia University, Wisconsin. His books include Abstracting Reality, The Medium of the Video Game, Virtual Morality, The Video Game Theory Reader, The Video Game Explosion, The Video Game Theory Reader 2, Myst and Riven: The World of the D'ni, Before the Crash, The Encyclopedia of Video Games, and Building Imaginary Worlds. With Bernard Perron, he is the co-editor of the Landmark Video Game book series.

Bernard Perron is Full Professor of Cinema at the University of Montreal. His books include The Video Game Theory Reader, The Video Game Theory Reader 2, Horror Video Games, Silent Hill: The Terror Engine, and Figures de Violence. With Mark J. P. Wolf, he is the co-editor of Landmark Video Game book series.

Table of Contents

TECHNOLOGICAL ASPECTS

1. Artifact (Olli Sotamaa)

2. Artificial Intelligence (Robin Johnson)

3. Controllers (Sheila C. Murphy)

4. Emulation (Simon Dor)

5. Interface (Vincent Mauger)

6. Platforms (Bobby Schweizer)

7. Resolution (Mark J. P. Wolf)

FORMAL ASPECTS

8. Art and Aesthetics (Grant Tavinor)

9. Color (Simon Niedenthal)

10. Conventions (Bernard Perron)

11. Design (Richard Rouse III)

12. Dimensionality (John Sharp)

13. Levels (Martin Picard)

14. Perspective (John Sharp)

15. Sound (Mark Grimshaw)

16. Worlds (Mark J. P. Wolf)

PLAYFULNESS ASPECTS

17. Casualness (Julia Raz)

18. Challenge (Robert Furze)

19. Cheating (Mia Consalvo)

20. Competition / Co-operation (Emma Witkowski)

21. Conflict (Marko Siitonen)

22. Interactivity (Lori Landay)

23. Ludology (Espen Aarseth)

24. Objectives (Louis-Martin Guay)

25. Players / Gamers (Frédéric Clément)

26. Repetition (Christopher Hanson)

27. Single-player / Multiplayer (Daniel Joseph & Lee Knuttila)

GENERIC ASPECTS

28. Action (Dominic Arsenault)

29. Adventure (Clara Fernandez-Vara)

30. Role-playing (Andrew Burn)

31. Shooting (Gerald Voorhees)

32. Simulation (Seth Giddings)

33. Sports Games (Andrew Baerg)

34. Strategy (Simon Dor)

CULTURAL ASPECTS

35. Convergence (Robert Alan Brookey)

36. Culture (Frans Mäyrä)

37. Cut-scenes (Rune Klevjer)

38. Death (Karin Wenz)

39. Education (Rick Ferdig)

40. Media Ecology (Kevin Schut)

41. Research (David Myers)

42. Retrogaming (Michael Thomasson)

43. Violence (Peter Krapp)

SOCIOLOGICAL ASPECTS

44. Characters (Jessica Aldred)

45. Community (Carly Kocurek)

46. Femininity (Carrie Heeter)

47. Masculinity (Michael Z. Newman & John Vanderhoef)

48. Performance (Michael Nitsche)

49. Race (Anna Everett)

50. Sociology (Andras Lukacs)

PHILOSOPHICAL ASPECTS

51. Cognition (Andreas Gregerson)

52. Emergence (Joris Dormans)

53. Fiction (Grant Tavinor)

54. Ideology (Mark Hayse)

55. Immersion (Carl Therrien)

56. Meaning (Christopher A. Paul)

57. Ethics (Mark Hayse)

58. Narratology (Dominic Arsenault)

59. Ontology (Espen Aarseth)

60. Transcendence (Mark Hayse)

Editorial Reviews

"The Companion covers a vast range of materials regarding video games. Some of its seven major perspective open games to specific kinds of analysis where others are more general and suggest a different approach to video games... [it is] a very good introduction to video games." - Paul A. Soukup, S.J., Santa Clara University, Comminication Research Trends

From the Publisher