An examination of subversive games-games designed for political, aesthetic, and social critique.
New technology has brought with it new tools for learning, and research has shown that the educational potential of video games resonates with teachers and pupils alike. Klopfer here describes the largely untapped potential of mobile learning games to make a substantial impact on education.
Overview: We purchase video games to play them, not to save them. What happens to video games when they are out of date, broken, nonfunctional, or obsolete? Should a game be considered an "ex-game" if it exists only as emulation, as an artifact in museum displays, in an archival box, or at the bottom of a landfill? In Game After, Raiford Guins focuses on video games not as hermetically sealed w…
"In Cheating, Mia Consalvo investigates how players choose to play games and what happens when they can't always play the way they'd like. She explores a broad range of player behavior, including cheating (alone and in groups); examines the varying ways that players and industry define cheating; describes how the game industry itself has helped systematize cheating; and studies online cheating …
How game designers can use the psychological phenomenon of loss aversion to shape player experience. Getting something makes you feel good, and losing something makes you feel bad. But losing something makes you feel worse than getting the same thing makes you feel good. So finding $10 is a thrill; losing $10 is a tragedy. On an "intensity of feeling" scale, loss is more intense than gain. This…
In Unit Operations, Ian Bogost argues that similar principles underlie both literary theory and computation, proposing a literary-technical theory that can be used to analyze particular videogames. Moreover, this approach can be applied beyond videogames: Bogost suggests that any medium--from videogames to poetry, literature, cinema, or art--can be read as a configurative system of discrete, in…
OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.
"This book goes beyond dualisms and surpasses the pivotal paradigm of (inter)activity, searching for other forms of playful aesthetic expression and perception facilitated within the digital realm"--OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.
"Peterson animates the history of role-playing games found in zines, from the collision of the niche audiences of war gaming and fantasy in the 60s to the extreme commercial growth of D&D in the 80s"--OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.
How computer games can be designed to create ethically relevant experiences for players."Today's blockbuster video games -- and their never-ending sequels, sagas, and reboots -- provide plenty of excitement in high-resolution but for the most part fail to engage a player's moral imagination. In Beyond Choices, Miguel Sicart calls for a new generation of video and computer games that are ethical…