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Levelling Up: The Cultural Impact of Contemporary Videogames
This volume was first published by Inter-Disciplinary Press in 2016. Videogames have come a long way from Super Mario Bros and Pong. After thirty years of technological advancements and academic criticisms, videogames have become a fertile ground for social change and virtual identity creation. Where big game companies like Bioware, Bethesda, and Rockstar Games have begun to include more inclusive narratives, independent game companies are beginning to delve into the field of ‘serious games,’ capitalising on the popularity and prevalence of social networking to inspire and assist non-game-related fields. While all of this is happening, a new subculture has become to dominate social media: that of the fanboy and the Let’s Play YouTube video phenomenon. It is a dynamic time in videogame studies, from the perspective of player, designer and theorist. However, with the advent of virtual reality, the question remains: where will videogames, and subsequently our society, ‘level up’ to next?
Moral Conversion and Video Games
Moral Conversion and Video Games is an in-depth exploration of Spec Ops: The Line, a critically acclaimed video game that subverts its genre by confronting players with the psychological and moral consequences of war. Disguised as a standard third-person shooter, the game gradually reveals a dark, self-critical narrative in which the player’s choices, though seemingly free, lead to horrifying outcomes, most notably a white phosphorus attack on civilians. Praised for its story, aesthetic, and philosophical depth, the game has been interpreted as a critique of glorified violence, American exceptionalism, and the illusion of meaningful choice in video games. Its use of cognitive and ludo-narrative dissonance forces players to reflect on their own complicity in virtual violence. The game’s mirrored reference to Raphael’s Sistine Madonna, recast as a burned mother and child, deepens its ethical and even theological resonance. This insightful and in-depth study will interest researchers and students of video game studies, moral philosophy, and cultural theology.
Power in Language, Culture, Literature and Education
In one of the contributions to this edited volume an interviewee argues that "English is power". For researchers in the field of English Studies this raises the questions of where the power of English resides and which types and practices of power are implied in the uses of English. Linguists, scholars of literature and culture, and language educators address aspects of these questions in a wide range of contributions. The book shows that the power of English can oscillate between empowerment and subjection, on the one hand enabling humans to develop manifold capabilities and on the other constraining their scope of action and reflection. In this edited volume, a case is made for self-critical English Studies to be dialogic, empowering and power-critical in approach.
Fictional Practices of Spirituality I
»Fictional Practices of Spirituality« provides critical insight into the implementation of belief, mysticism, religion, and spirituality into worlds of fiction, be it interactive or non-interactive. This first volume focuses on interactive, virtual worlds – may that be the digital realms of video games and VR applications or the imaginary spaces of life action role-playing and soul-searching practices. It features analyses of spirituality as gameplay facilitator, sacred spaces and architecture in video game geography, religion in video games and spiritual acts and their dramaturgic function in video games, tabletop, or LARP, among other topics. The contributors offer a first-time ever comprehensive overview of play-rites as spiritual incentives and playful spirituality in various medial incarnations.
Poetiken der Kontrolle
Was meint das Spielen digitaler Spiele? Welche Handlungen vollziehen sich im spielerischen Umgang mit diesen algorithmischen Medien, die Bedingungen algorithmischer Kontrolle ästhetisch erfahrbar machen? Anhand poetologischer Einzelstudien sowie Diskursen zu algorithmischer Prozessualität, verkörperter medialer Erfahrung und handlungsphilosophischen Konzepten entwickelt das Buch eine medienästhetische Theorie des Handelns in digitalen Spielen.
Genre and Video Game
Vollständige Übersicht zum Thema Videospielgenres im deutschsprachigen RaumAktuelle FallbeispieleBeschreibt und positioniert erstmals soziale Genres im Videospieldiskurs
Mixed Reality and Games
Videogames allow us to immerse ourselves in worlds that are reflective of cultural phenomena. At the same time, games are in the process of occupying and utilising the real world as a part of the game. The book provides a combination of theoretical and practical approaches to mixed reality through the lenses of game studies and pedagogy. These novel approaches invite the reader to rethink their conceptions of games and mixed reality. They are complemented with classical analyses of games and applications in educational contexts. In uniting theory and hands-on approaches, the book provides a broad spectrum that facilitates and inspires interdisciplinary thinking and work.
