Description
Book SynopsisFrom school lunchrooms to the White House press room, video games are an integral part of our popular culture, and the industry behind them touches all aspects of our lives, gamer and non-gamer alike. Business and entertainment, health and medicine, politics and war, social interaction and education, all fall under its influence. Virtual Ascendance tells the story of a formerly fringe enterprise that, when few were paying attention, exploded into a multi-billion dollar industry affecting the very way we live. Griffiths paints a thorough and vivid picture of the video game industry, illuminating the various, and often bizarre, ways it's changing how we work, play and live. He brings readers along on his own journey of discovery, from the back room of a small Irish pub where members of the second-largest industry enclave meet each month, to a university clinic where the Wii is being used to treat Parkinson's sufferers and everywhere in between.Virtual Ascendance is more than just a stor
Trade ReviewThis slim volume (171 pages of text) will be an eye-opener for anyone wanting to understand the world of gaming from a sociological viewpoint. Griffiths (who runs his own business communication company) is quick to both acknowledge and dispel cultural clichés surrounding gamers (geeks and dorks, socially maladjusted young males), and in a sense, this is the key to the book. While providing a concise popular history of computer and console gaming, the author demonstrates that gamers and gaming are pervasive in contemporary society–to an extent that few are aware of. He points to the money generated by the industry, to its emerging champion players, and to its prominence in all forms of media. This book should be required reading for legislators as they grapple with violence and attempt to link it to video gaming, if only to force them to look at the phenomenon in its entirety. It is an excellent primer on video gaming and its present place in culture. Summing Up: Essential. All readers. * CHOICE *
His brief history of gaming time periods is well-researched, and never once do you question his enthusiasm....he clearly has an affection and wistfulness for his subject, and a desire to see their wonders go even further mainstream than they already are. At best, Virtual Ascendance is an enthusiastic piece, perfect for the gamers and open-minded parents of gamers who don't understand the background behind their favorite flashing lights and sounds. * Notes from the Conquistadork *
Virtual Ascendance is an excellent descriptive account of the increasingly widespread use of digital games in our lives, from serious games to playful entertainment. -- J. Talmadge Wright, graduate program director, department of sociology, Loyola University Chicago
Videogames matter. Probably more than you even realize. And here Devin Griffiths sets out, in an informed and engaging manner, exactly why and how they matter. From hardcore gamers, to those with a passing interest, or even for those with no knowledge of gaming at all, this book will tell you what you need to know, and why you need to know it. -- Garry Crawford, professor of sociology, author of Video Games
Reading Virtual Ascendence is like playing a great videogame – the paths taken are often surprising, the environment is rendered in engaging detail, and the characters are richly drawn. From casual games to war games, Devin Griffiths writes with a warmly intellectual sense of wonder, purpose and play. -- Derek A. Burrill, associate professor of Media and Cultural Studies, U.C. Riverside
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1: Down The Rabbit Hole I Am Therefore I Game 2: From The Coin-op To The Console: How Did We Get Here? Let The Games Begin 1972: A Pong Odyssey 3: Let The Games Begin: Competitive Videogaming And The Birth Of The Cyberathlete Cyberathletes And The Leagues Who Love Them 4: Alphabet Soup: MMOs, MUDs, And RPGs—D&D In The 21st Century 5: No Console Required: Casual Games (or, Gaming For The Rest Of Us) 6: Dressed For The Symphony: Videogames Take Center Stage 7: From The Flat Screen To The Big Screen: Videogames Invade Hollywood Star Wars 1313: The Empire Strikes Back 8: Virtual Life 9: And We Are Merely Players: Videogames And Society Good Enough For Government Work: CDC Gets Into The Game 10: Games For Health From Rehab to Wii-hab:Using Videogames to Heal 11: War Games: Combat Evolved 12: It’s William Gibson’s World, We’re Just Living In It Bibliography
