Description
Book SynopsisExplores how games actively influence the ways people interpret and relate to American life. In 1975, design engineer Dave Nutting completed work on a new arcade machine. A version of Taito's Western Gun, a recent Japanese arcade machine, Nutting's Gun Fight depicted a classic showdown between gunfighters. Rich in Western folklore, the game seemed perfect for the American market; players easily adapted to the new technology, becoming pistol-wielding pixel cowboys. One of the first successful early arcade titles, Gun Fight helped introduce an entire nation to video-gaming and sold more than 8,000 units. In Gamer Nation, John Wills examines how video games co-opt national landscapes, livelihoods, and legends. Arguing that video games toy with Americans' mass cultural and historical understanding, Wills show how games reprogram the American experience as a simulated reality. Blockbuster games such as Civilization, Call of Duty, and Red Dead Redemption repackage the past, refashioning
Trade ReviewThis book could prove useful for those interested in the impact of video games in the contemporary perception of America such as scholars and professionals in the fields of communication, political activism, and other social sciences.
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Communication Booknotes QuarterlyTable of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction. A New Realm of Play
Chapter One. Games and New Frontiers
Chapter Two. Playing Cowboys and Indians in the Digital Wild West
Chapter Three. Cold War Gaming
Chapter Four. 9/11 Code
Chapter Five. Fighting the Virtual War on Terror
Chapter Six. Grand Theft Los Angeles
Chapter Seven. Second Life, Second America
Conclusion. Converging Worlds
Notes
References
Index
