The Video Game Theory Reader 2
Language: English
Pages: 456
ISBN: 0415962838
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
The Video Game Theory Reader 2 picks up where the first Video Game Theory Reader (Routledge, 2003) left off, with a group of leading scholars turning their attention to next-generation platforms-the Nintendo Wii, the PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360-and to new issues in the rapidly expanding field of video games studies. The contributors are some of the most renowned scholars working on video games today including Henry Jenkins, Jesper Juul, Eric Zimmerman, and Mia Consalvo. While the first volume had a strong focus on early video games, this volume also addresses more contemporary issues such as convergence and MMORPGs. The volume concludes with an appendix of nearly 40 ideas and concepts from a variety of theories and disciplines that have been usefully and insightfully applied to the study of video games.
Tools crap: for the warmth. Like Vinyl [vs.] CD. I think pixels have reached that status.11 What Fish is describing in the vernacular is a phenomenon that media theorists Bolter and Grusin call remediation.12 As particular media technologies mature, we become comfortable with them and the artifacts that they bring to representation—the grain on celluloid film-stock that began as a barrier to capturing the “true” image ceases to be seen as noise, and instead becomes a hallmark of authenticity.
upon film-like special effects and celebrity-power to stand out in the marketplace. Likewise, the technologies used for computer-generated imagery (CGI) in film are more and more often the same technologies used to develop video games, to the point that artists and technicians are able to move between the two industries with increasing fluidity. This process of convergence is expedited by the rapid expansion of the video game market and the horizontal integration of the media industry. The
for all game developers (academic and commercial) is that of enjoyment. The player base must desire to play the game (explore the environment, participate in the world’s action, etc.), and be motivated to engage with it. If this requirement is not met, the fickle population will move on to other games. Therefore, the researcher must strive, when Synthetic Worlds . 293 building or selecting a world to work in, to find an environment that will hold, at the very least, enough interest to fulfill
experience of phenomena, and regarding the need for immersion for the understanding of people in their lifeworlds.10 One approach would be to adopt the critical gesture called “hermen- eutic reduction”; rather than aiming to study all kinds of empirical actualizations that games become when they are played out, a researcher would instead focus on some “typical” or “ideal” form, derived in expert analysis. Espen Aarseth has spoken in favor of such approach. In his DiGRA 2007 conference paper,
literature, as well as co-editor of the essay collection Transnational Cinema in a Global North: Nordic Cinema in Transition, which positions the film industries of the five Nordic countries in a globalized context. He received his PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Washington in 2001. [trevorelkington@hotmail.com] Matthew Falk earned his BSc and MA at Ohio University. He is currently a PhD student in Telecommunications at Indiana University, working with the Synthetic