Video Games, Literature, and Close Playing: A Practical Guide

Video Games, Literature, and Close Playing: A Practical Guide offers twenty-four case studies of mainstream and independent video games from Tetris to The Sims, Undertale to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Assassin’s Creed to Gone Home in order to introduce key video game and literary studies concepts, ideas, definitions, and possibilities. The book also includes a brief history of video games and literature, critical questions and suggested readings for each chapter, and a collection of prompts, activities, and assignments for students and instructors to engage, adapt, and explore. The book is designed to be useful, modular, and playful, to provoke questions and conversation, to encourage connections and collaboration, and to inspire critical thinking.

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Video Games, Literature, and Close Playing: A Practical Guide

Video Games, Literature, and Close Playing: A Practical Guide offers twenty-four case studies of mainstream and independent video games from Tetris to The Sims, Undertale to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Assassin’s Creed to Gone Home in order to introduce key video game and literary studies concepts, ideas, definitions, and possibilities. The book also includes a brief history of video games and literature, critical questions and suggested readings for each chapter, and a collection of prompts, activities, and assignments for students and instructors to engage, adapt, and explore. The book is designed to be useful, modular, and playful, to provoke questions and conversation, to encourage connections and collaboration, and to inspire critical thinking.

54.99 Pre Order
Video Games, Literature, and Close Playing: A Practical Guide

Video Games, Literature, and Close Playing: A Practical Guide

Video Games, Literature, and Close Playing: A Practical Guide

Video Games, Literature, and Close Playing: A Practical Guide

eBook

$54.99 
Available for Pre-Order. This item will be released on September 8, 2025

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Overview

Video Games, Literature, and Close Playing: A Practical Guide offers twenty-four case studies of mainstream and independent video games from Tetris to The Sims, Undertale to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Assassin’s Creed to Gone Home in order to introduce key video game and literary studies concepts, ideas, definitions, and possibilities. The book also includes a brief history of video games and literature, critical questions and suggested readings for each chapter, and a collection of prompts, activities, and assignments for students and instructors to engage, adapt, and explore. The book is designed to be useful, modular, and playful, to provoke questions and conversation, to encourage connections and collaboration, and to inspire critical thinking.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781040404263
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Publication date: 09/08/2025
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 176

About the Author

Edmond Y. Chang is an Associate Professor of English at Ohio University. He has published on queer games, digital humanities, popular culture, and speculative literature of color including “Gaming While Asian” in Made in Asia/America, “Why are the Digital Humanities So Straight?” in Alternative Historiographies of the Digital Humanities, and “Queergaming” in Queer Game Studies. He is an editor for Analog Game Studies and a contributing editor for Gamers with Glasses.

Timothy J. Welsh is an Associate Professor of English at Loyola University New Orleans. He is the author of Mixed Realism: Videogames and the Violence of Fiction (University of Minnesota Press, 2016) as well as articles on video games, interactive narrative, and digital society such as “(Re)Mastering Dark Souls” (Game Studies, 2021) and "Doing Nothing in San Andreas: Contesting the Value of Play in Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V" (Configurations, 2024). He is managing editor of the Journal of Games Criticism.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Close Playing Our Classrooms

LORE I: Literary Gaming

01 ImmorTall

02 Tetris

03 Beginner’s Guide

04 Oblivion

05 BioShock

06 Assassin’s Creed

07 Undertale

SIDE QUESTS I: Activities and Assignments

LORE II: Literature and Video Games

08 The Sims

09 The Walking Dead

10 Portal

11 Red Dead Redemption

12 Super Columbine Massacre RPG

13 Dark Souls

14 NBA2K18

15 Pokèmon Go

16 Minecraft

SIDE QUESTS II: Activities and Assignments

LORE III: Gamifying Literature

17 Loved

18 Animal Crossing: New Horizons

19 Dragon Age

20 Barbie Dreamtopia: Adventure Games

21 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

22 Queers in Love at the End of the World

23 When Rivers Were Trails

24 Gone Home

SIDE QUESTS III: Activities and Assignments

LORE IV: Getting Messy

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