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Few books have attempted to contextualize the importance of video game play with a critical social, cultural and political perspective that raises the question of the significance of work, pleasure, fantasy and play in the modern world. The study of why video game play is "fun" has often been relegated to psychology, or the disciplines of cultural anthropology, literary and media studies, communications and other assorted humanistic and social science disciplines. In Utopic Dreams and Apocalyptic Fantasies, Talmadge Wright, David Embrick and Andras Lukacs invites us to move further and consider questions on appropriate methods of researching games, understanding the carnival quality of modern life, the role of marketing in altering game narratives, and the role of fantasy and desire in modern video game play. Embracing an approach that combines a cultural and/or critical studies approach with a sociological understanding of this new media moves the debate beyond simple media effects, moral panics, and industry boosterism to one of asking critical questions, what does modern video game play "mean," what questions should we be asking, and what can sociological research contribute to answering these questions. This collection includes works which use textual analysis, audience based research, symbolic interactionism, as well as political economic and psychoanalytic perspectives to illuminate areas of inquiry that preserves the pleasure of modern play while asking tough questions about what such pleasure means in a world divided by political, economic, cultural and social inequalities.
List of Tables ix
Acknowledgements xi
Chapter 1 Introduction J. Talmadge Wright David G. Embrick András Lukács 1
Part I Modern Play and Technology-Defining Digital Play
Chapter 2 Play and Cultural Transformation-Or, What Would Huizinga Think of Video Games? Thomas S. Henricks 15
Chapter 3 "Is He 'Avin a Laugh?": The Importance of Fun to Virtual Play Studies Ken S. McAllister Judd Ethan Ruggill 43
Chapter 4 Capitalism, Contradiction, and the Carnivalesque: Alienated Labor vs. Ludic Play Lauren Langman András Lukács 59
Chapter 5 Sneaking Mission: Late Imperial America and Metal Gear Solid Derek Noon Nick Dyer-Witheford 73
Chapter 6 I Blog, Therefore I Am: Virtual Embodiment and the Self Alanna R. Miller 97
Part II Marketing Culture and the Video Game Business
Chapter 7 Marketing Computer Games: Reinforcing or Changing Stereotypes? Paul R. Ketchum B. Mitchell Peck 125
Chapter 8 Censoring Violence in Virtual Dystopia: Issues in the Rating of Video Games in Japan and of Japanese Video Games Outside Japan William H. Kelly 143
Chapter 9 Coding Culture: Video Game Localization and the Practice of Mediating Cultural Difference Rebecca Carlson Jonathan Corliss 161
Part III Researching Video Game Play
Chapter 10 Beyond "Sheeping the Moon"-Methodological Considerations for Critical Studies of Virtual Realms András Lukács 187
Chapter 11 The Chorus of the Dead: Roles, Identity Formation, and Ritual Processes Inside an FPS Multiplayer Online Game Nicolas Ducheneaut 199
Chapter 12 The Quantitative-Qualitative Antimony in Virtual World Studies Samuel Coavoux 223
Part IV Summary and Conclusions
Chapter 13 Virtual Today, Reality Tomorrow: Taking Our Sociological Understanding of Virtual Gameplay to the Next Level András Lukács J. Talmadge Wright David G. Embrick 247
Index 255
About the Contributors 271
Overview
Few books have attempted to contextualize the importance of video game play with a critical social, cultural and political perspective that raises the question of the significance of work, pleasure, fantasy and play in the modern world. The study of why video game play is "fun" has often been relegated to psychology, or the disciplines of cultural anthropology, literary and media studies, communications and other assorted humanistic and social science disciplines. In Utopic Dreams and Apocalyptic Fantasies, ...