Digital Gameplay: Essays on the Nexus of Game and Gamer

Front Cover
Nate Garrelts
McFarland, Sep 17, 2014 - Games & Activities - 268 pages

In recent years, computer technology has permeated all aspects of life--not just work and education, but also leisure time. Increasingly, digital games are the way we play.

This volume addresses the world of digital games, with special emphasis on the role and input of the gamer. In fifteen essays, the contributors discuss the various ways the game player interacts with the game. The first half of the book considers the physical and mental aspects of digital game play. The second section concentrates on other factors that influence play. Essays cover the full range of digital gaming, including computer and video games. Topics include several detailed investigations of particular, often controversial games such as Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, as well as a consideration of the ways in which game-playing crosses socioeconomic, age, gender and racial lines. The concluding essays discuss scholars' perceptions of digital media and efforts to frame them.

Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

 

Contents

Negotiating the Digital GameGamer Intersection
1
MachineGods and the Creation
36
Virtual Bodies or Cyborgs Are People
52
A Psychoanalytic Investigation
69
Grand Theft Auto in the Panopticon
80
Tori Hamilton
91
Conquering Athletic Space White
110
Playing Diablo II Outside
130
Women as PlayerCharacters
160
Why Women Flock
174
Augusto Boal Enters Norrath
189
Video Games in the Drama
208
Storytelling in the Neverwinter Vault
221
Why Digital Games
232
About the Contributors
249
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About the author (2014)

Nate Garrelts is a professor of English at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan.

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