Guns, Grenades, and Grunts

Joshua Call, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Grand View University. Katie Whitlock, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre at California State University, Chico.

• Introduction - Things That Go Boom: From Guns to Griefing -- Gerald Voorhees, Josh Call and Katie Whitlock I. Tutorial Chapter 1: BattleZone and the Origins of First-Person Shooting Games -- Mark JP Wolf Chapter 2: Call to Action, Invitation to Play: The Immediacy of the Caricature in Team Fortress 2 -- James ManningChapter 3: I Am a Gun: The Avatar and Avatarness in the FPS -- Victor Navarro Chapter 4: Monsters, Nazis and Tangos: The Normalization of the First-Person Shooter -- Gerald Voorhees Chapter 5: The Shameful Trinity: Game Studies, Empire, and the Cognitariat -- Toby Miller II. Campaign Chapter 6: Bigger, Better, Stronger, Faster: Disposable Bodies and Cyborg Construction -- Josh Call Chapter 7: Hatched from the Veins in Your Arms": Movement, Ontology and First-Person Gameplay in BioShock -- Gwyneth Peaty Chapter 8: Meat Chunks in the Metro: The Apocalyptic Soul of the Ukrainian Shooter -- Dan Pinchbeck Chapter 9: More Bang For Your Buck -- Hardware Hacking, Real Money Trade and Transgressive Play within Console Based First Person Shooters --Alan Meades Chapter 10: 'Tips and tricks to take your game to the next level': Expertise and Identity in FPS Games --Daniel Ashton & James Newman III. Multiplayer Chapter 11: 'A Silent Team is a Dead Team': Communicative Norms in Team-based Halo 3 Play -- Nick TaylorChapter 12: Challenging the Rules and Roles of Gaming: Griefing as Rhetorical Tactic -- Evan Snider, Tim Lockridge & Dan Lawson Chapter 13: The Best Possible Story? Learning about WWII from FPS Video Games -- Stephanie Fisher Chapter 14: Taking Aim at Sexual Harassment: Feminized Performances of Hegemonic Masculinity in the First-Person Shooter Hey Baby -- Jessy Ohl & Aaron DuncanChapter 15: Invigorating Play: The Role of Affect in Online Multiplayer FPS Games -- Chris MooreChapter 16: Repelling the Invasion of the 'Other': Post-Apocalyptic Alien Shooter Videogames Addressing Contemporary Cultural Attitudes -- Ryan LizardiChapter 17: Face to Face: Humanizing the Digital Display in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 -- Timothy Welsh About the Contributors Index

‘First person shooters’ are one of the most fundamental and important videogame genres. Many critiques of this type of game have been put forth by those with little experience of actual game play. Voorhees, Call, and Whitlock include here essays that explore the genre in specific and useful detail from the perspective of the expert player. The essays are nuanced, carefully researched and supported critiques of specific aspects of first-person shooters. James Manning’s analysis of the heads-up display in Team Fortress 2 and Gwyneth Peaty’s discussion of the permability of avatar bodies in Bioshock are especially strong. Summing Up: Recommended. All Readers.