Utopic Dreams and Apocalyptic Fantasies

Critical Approaches to Researching Video Game Play

Inbunden, Engelska, 2010

AvTalmadge J. Wright,David G. Embrick,Andras Lukacs

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Few books have attempted to contextualize the importance of video game play with a critical social, cultural and political perspective that raises the question of the significance of work, pleasure, fantasy and play in the modern world. The study of why video game play is "fun" has often been relegated to psychology, or the disciplines of cultural anthropology, literary and media studies, communications and other assorted humanistic and social science disciplines. In Utopic Dreams and Apocalyptic Fantasies, Talmadge Wright, David Embrick and Andras Lukacs invites us to move further and consider questions on appropriate methods of researching games, understanding the carnival quality of modern life, the role of marketing in altering game narratives, and the role of fantasy and desire in modern video game play. Embracing an approach that combines a cultural and/or critical studies approach with a sociological understanding of this new media moves the debate beyond simple media effects, moral panics, and industry boosterism to one of asking critical questions, what does modern video game play "mean," what questions should we be asking, and what can sociological research contribute to answering these questions. This collection includes works which use textual analysis, audience based research, symbolic interactionism, as well as political economic and psychoanalytic perspectives to illuminate areas of inquiry that preserves the pleasure of modern play while asking tough questions about what such pleasure means in a world divided by political, economic, cultural and social inequalities.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2010-09-25
Mått163 x 240 x 24 mm
Vikt594 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor286
FörlagBloomsbury Publishing Plc
ISBN9780739147009

Tillhör följande kategorier

Part 1 I. IntroductionChapter 2 1. Introduction to Utopic Dreams and Apocalyptic FantasiesPart 3 II. Modern Play and Technology-Defining Digital PlayChapter 4 2. The Transformation of Cultural PlayChapter 5 3. "Is He 'Avin a Laugh?": The Importance of Fun to Virtual Play StudiesChapter 6 4. Capitalism, Contradiction and the Carnivalesque: Alienated Labor vs. Ludic PlayChapter 7 5. Sneaking Mission: Late Imperial America and Metal Gear Solid8 6. I Blog, Therefore I Am: Virtual Embodiment and the Self9 III. Marketing Culture and the Video Game BusinessChapter 10 7. Marketing Computer Games: Reinforcing or Changing Stereotypes?Chapter 11 8. Censoring Violence in Virtual Dystopia: Issues in the Rating of Videogames in Japan and of Japanese Videogames outside JapanChapter 12 9. Coding Culture: Video game Localization and the Practice of Mediating Cultural DifferencePart 13 IV.Researching Video Game PlayChapter 14 10. Beyond Sheeping the Moon - Methodological Considerations for Critical Studies of Digital PlayChapter 15 11. The Chorus of the Dead: Roles, Identity Formation, and Ritual Processes inside a FPS multiplayer online gameChapter 16 12. The Quantitative/Qualitative Antimony in Virtual World StudiesPart 17 V.Summary and ConclusionsChapter 18 13. Virtual Today, Reality Tomorrow: Taking Our Sociological Understanding of Virtual Game play to the Next Level

As tabletop wargames and fantasy role-playing games have morphed into video-games, scholars have recognized that these new game forms demand attention. With their economic impact and social consequences, they are far from trivial child's play, but are central to how we conceive ourselves. Utopic Dreams and Apocalyptic Fantasies demonstrates conclusively that to understand our values and our lives, the appreciation of video games are central. But more than just describing the content of the games and the techniques of play, these authors go much deeper, demonstrating the theoretical underpinnings of contemporary leisure: sometimes joyful, sometimes troubling, sometimes transgressive, sometimes filled with sex and violence, and occasionally suggesting the budding of a new age of social justice.