Description
Book SynopsisUtopic Dreams and Apocalyptic Fantasies invites us to examine critical questions about video game play, pleasure, and fantasy from a sociological perspective.
Trade ReviewAs 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. -- Gary Alan Fine, Northwestern University
This collection enchants the intellect and lifts the spirit as it explores the transformative potential of play, urging us to reimagine ourselves through playing and researching video games. The superb essays, grounded in fresh readings of Marx, Freud, Durkheim, Huizinga, Turner, and others, are pure pleasure to read, and add striking new depth and interest to games scholarship. -- Bonnie Nardi, University of California, Irvine and author of My Life as Night Elf Priest: An Anthropological Account of World of Warcraft
The essays in this volume together accomplish a rare feat in Game Studies. They exhibit a sustained and nuanced treatment of games and play embedded in their historical and cultural contexts while also grappling with the most intricate of current conceptual issues in the field. -- Thomas Malaby, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Utopic Dreams and Apocalyptic Fantasies is a fascinating collection that critically interrogates video game play from a wide range of perspectives. From questions of method to questions of marketing, from issues of localization to issues of embodiment, this volume will be invaluable to scholars and designers from a range of disciplines. -- Tom Boellstorff, University of California, Irvine and author of Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human
Table of ContentsPart 1 I. Introduction Chapter 2 1. Introduction to Utopic Dreams and Apocalyptic Fantasies Part 3 II. Modern Play and Technology-Defining Digital Play Chapter 4 2. The Transformation of Cultural Play Chapter 5 3. "Is He 'Avin a Laugh?": The Importance of Fun to Virtual Play Studies Chapter 6 4. Capitalism, Contradiction and the Carnivalesque: Alienated Labor vs. Ludic Play Chapter 7 5. Sneaking Mission: Late Imperial America and Metal Gear Solid 8 6. I Blog, Therefore I Am: Virtual Embodiment and the Self 9 III. Marketing Culture and the Video Game Business Chapter 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 Japan Chapter 12 9. Coding Culture: Video game Localization and the Practice of Mediating Cultural Difference Part 13 IV.Researching Video Game Play Chapter 14 10. Beyond Sheeping the Moon - Methodological Considerations for Critical Studies of Digital Play Chapter 15 11. The Chorus of the Dead: Roles, Identity Formation, and Ritual Processes inside a FPS multiplayer online game Chapter 16 12. The Quantitative/Qualitative Antimony in Virtual World Studies Part 17 V.Summary and Conclusions Chapter 18 13. Virtual Today, Reality Tomorrow: Taking Our Sociological Understanding of Virtual Game play to the Next Level
