Computer Games

Text, Narrative and Play

Diane Carr, David Buckingham, Andrew Burn, Gareth Schott

• Publisher: Polity
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780745634012, 9780745634005
• eBook ISBN: 9780745687506
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Media Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Computer games are one of the most exciting and rapidly evolving media of our time. Revenues from console and computer games have now overtaken those from Hollywood movies; and online gaming is one of the fastest-growing areas of the internet. Games are no longer just kids' stuff: the majority of players are now adults, and the market is constantly broadening. The visual style of games has become increasingly sophisticated, and the complexities of game-play are ever more challenging. Meanwhile, the iconography and generic forms of games are increasingly influencing a whole range of other media, from films and television to books and toys.

This book provides a systematic, comprehensive introduction to the analysis of computer and video games. It introduces key concepts and approaches drawn from literary, film and media theory in an accessible and concrete manner; and it tests their use and relevance by applying them to a small but representative selection of role-playing and action-adventure games. It combines methods of textual analysis and audience research, showing how the combination of such methods can give a more complete picture of these playable texts and the fan cultures they generate. Clearly written and engaging, it will be a key text for students in the field and for all those with an interest in taking games seriously.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Studying Computer Game
• 2 Defining Game Genres
• 3 Games and Narrative
• 4 Play and Pleasure
• 5 Space, Navigation and Affect
• 6 Playing Roles
• 7 Reworking the Text: Online Fandom
• 8 Motivation and Online Gaming
• 9 Social Play and Learning
• 10 Agency in and around Play
• 11 Film, Adaptation and Computer Games
• 12 Games and Gender
• 13 Doing Game Analysis
• Notes
• Games Cited
• References
• Index