How to Play Video Games

How to Play Video Games

In: User's Guides to Popular Culture, 1

Edited by: Matthew Thomas Payne and Nina B. Huntemann

New York University Press | 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18574/9781479830404

Overview
Contents

About this book

Forty original contributions on games and gaming culture

What does Pokémon Go tell us about globalization? What does Tetris teach us about rules? Is feminism boosted or bashed by Kim Kardashian: Hollywood? How does BioShock Infinite help us navigate world-building?

From arcades to Atari, and phone apps to virtual reality headsets, video games have been at the epicenter of our ever-evolving technological reality. Unlike other media technologies, video games demand engagement like no other, which begs the question—what is the role that video games play in our lives, from our homes, to our phones, and on global culture writ large?

How to Play Video Games brings together forty original essays from today’s leading scholars on video game culture, writing about the games they know best and what they mean in broader social and cultural contexts. Read about avatars in Grand Theft Auto V, or music in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. See how Age of Empires taught a generation about postcolonialism, and how Borderlands exposes the seedy underbelly of capitalism. These essays suggest that understanding video games in a critical context provides a new way to engage in contemporary culture. They are a must read for fans and students of the medium.

Author information

Payne Matthew Thomas :

Matthew Thomas Payne is an associate professor in the Department of Film, Television, & Theatre at the University of Notre Dame. He is author of Playing War: Military Video Games after 9/11, and is co-editor of the anthologies Flow TV: Television in the Age of Media Convergence and Joystick Soldiers: The Politics of Play in Military Video Games.Huntemann Nina B. :

Nina B. Huntemann is Director of Academics and Research at edX, a nonprofit online education provider founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is co-editor of Global Gaming: Production, Play and Place (Palgrave, 2013) and Joystick Soldiers: The Politics of Play in Military Video Games (Routledge, 2010).

Reviews

An indispensable collection of original key terms and case studiesall the best scholarship in the field is here. Canonical voices in the field as well as a newer generation of scholars bring welcome approaches to ethics, labor, race, gender, sexuality, capitalism, and affect to the table. Anyone can read this carefully curated book; everyone should.

Across a broad range of diverse and accessible perspectives on gaming culture from many of the leading authorities in the field, Payne and Huntemann offer a valuable companion to those interested in the past and present of the games we play.

This text is an approachable and relevant edited collection of essays that examine a broad array of video games through a critical academic lens. Despite its title, this book is not a guide on how to play video games, as is explained by the editors in the introduction, but can be a provocation to reflect on deeper aspects of culture and media while playing them… this text is an excellent introduction to game studies. It is also a valuable resource for any course that includes content related to gaming, such as media studies, digital studies, STS (science, technology, society), sociology of games/media, and literary analysis of games as text.

Frontmatter Free access PDF PDF	i
Contents Free access PDF PDF	vii
Foreword Ethan Thompson and Jason Mittell Free access PDF PDF	xi
Introduction Matthew Thomas Payne and Nina B. Huntemann Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	1
I. Game Form
1. FiFa Steven Conway Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	13
2. Tetris Rolf F. Nohr Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	21
3. King’s Quest Anastasia Salter Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	29
4. Grand theft auto V Harrison Gish Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	36
5. Sid Meier’s Civilization Peter Krapp Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	44
6. Planescape: Torment Evan Torner Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	52
7. Don’t Starve Christopher Hanson Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	59
8. Braid Jesper Juul Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	67
9. BioShock Infinite Mark J. P. Wolf Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	75
10. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Dan Golding Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	82
II. Representation
11. Kim Kardashian: Hollywood Shira Chess Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	93
12. The Last of Us Soraya Murray Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	101
13. Leisure Suit Larry Adrienne Shaw Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	110
14. The Queerness and Games Conference Bonnie Ruberg Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	118
15. NBA 2K16 Treaandrea M. Russworm Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	126
16. PaRappa the Rapper Katherine Isbister Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	134
17. Sniper Elite III Amanda Phillips Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	141
18. Papers, Please Miguel Sicart Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	149
19. Age of Empires Souvik Mukherjee Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	157
20. Borderlands Matthew Thomas Payne and Michael Fleisch Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	165
III Industry
21. Miyamoto/Kojima Jennifer deWinter Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	177
22. Clash Royale Mia Consalvo Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	185
23. Game Dev Tycoon Casey O’Donnell Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	193
24. Cookie Clicker Sebastian Deterding Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	200
25. Ball- and- Paddle Games Michael Z. Newman Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	208
26. Angry Birds Gregory Steirer and Jeremy Barnes Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	216
27. Lego Dimensions Derek Johnson Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	224
28. Tomb Raider Jessica Aldred Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	233
29. Medal of Honor Tanner Mirrlees Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	242
30. Pokémon Go Randy Nichols Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	250
IV. Game Practices
31. Pelé’s Soccer Ian Bogost Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	261
32. Nes D- pad David O’Grady Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	269
33. Minecraft James Newman Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	277
34. Quake Henry Lowood Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	285
35. Counter- Strike Emma Witkowski Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	293
36. EVE Online Kelly Bergstrom Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	301
37. Night Trap Carly A. Kocurek Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	309
38. Shovel Knight John Vanderhoef Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	317
39. Tempest Judd Ethan Ruggill and Ken S. McAllister Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	325
40. Walden, a game Tracy Fullerton Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	333
Acknowledgments Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	341
Appendix. Video Games Discussed in this Volume Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	343
Contributors Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	351
Index Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	359

How to Play Video Games

Details

Formats