The Video Game Theory Reader 2 picks up where the first Video Game Theory Reader (Routledge, 2003) left off, with a group of leading scholars turning their attention to next-generation platforms-the Nintendo Wii, the PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360-and to new issues in the rapidly expanding field of video games studies. The contributors are some of the most renowned scholars working on video games today including Henry Jenkins, Jesper Juul, Eric Zimmerman, and Mia Consalvo. While the first volume had a strong focus on early video games, this volume also addresses more contemporary issues such as convergence and MMORPGs. The volume concludes with an appendix of nearly 40 ideas and concepts from a variety of theories and disciplines that have been usefully and insightfully applied to the study of video games.
Acknowledgments
Foreword Tim Skelly
Introduction Bernard Perron and Mark J. P. Wolf
The Essays:
1. Gaming Literacy: Game Design as a Model for Literacy in the 21st Century Eric Zimmerman
2. Philosophical Game Design Lars Konzack
3. The Video Game Aesthetic: Play as Form David Myers
4. Embodiment and Interface Andreas Gregersen and Torben Grodal
5. Understanding Video Games as Emotional Experiences Aki Jarvinen
6. In the Frame of the Magic Cycle: The Circle(s) of Gameplay Dominic Arsenault and Bernard Perron
7. Understanding Digital Playability Sebastien Genvo
8. Z-axis Development in the Video Game Mark J. P. Wolf
9. Retro Reflexivity: La-Mulana, an 8-Bit Period Piece Brett Camper
10. "This is Intelligent Television": Early Video Games & Television in the Emergence of the Personal Computer Sheila C. Murphy
11. Too Many Cooks: Media Convergence and Self-Defeating Adaptations Trevor Elkington
12. Fear of Failing? The Many Meanings of Difficulty in Video Games Jesper Juul
13. Between Theory and Practice: The GAMBIT Experience Clara Fernandez-Vara, Neal Grigsby, Eitan Glinert, Philip Tan, and Henry Jenkins
14. Synthetic Worlds as Experimental Instruments Edward Castronova, Mark W. Bell, Robert Cornell, James J. Cummings, Matthew Falk, Travis Ross, Sarah B. Robbins and Alida Field
15. Lag, Language, & Lingo: Theorizing Noise in Online Game Spaces Mia Consalvo
16. Getting into the Game: Doing Multi-Disciplinary Game Studies Frans Mayra
Appendix: Video Games Through Theories and Disciplines
Works Cited
About the Contributors
Biography
Mark J. P. Wolf is an Associate Professor in the Communication Department at Concordia University Wisconsin. His books include Abstracting Reality: Art, Communication, and Cognition in the Digital Age (2000), The Medium of the Video Game (2001), Virtual Morality: Morals, Ethics, and New Media (2003), The Video Game Theory Reader (2003), The World of the D’ni: Myst and Riven (2006), The Video Game Explosion: A History from PONG to PlayStation and Beyond (2007), and J. R. R. Tolkien: Of Words and Worlds (forthcoming, 2009).
Bernard Perron is an Associate Professor of Cinema at the University of Montreal. He has co-edited The Video Game Theory Reader (2003), written Silent Hill: il motore del terrore (2006), an analysis of the Silent Hill videogame series, and is editing Gaming After Dark: Essays on Horror Video Games (forthcoming, 2009).
