Game Cultures: Computer Games as New Media

Introduction: Computer Games as New Media
The Ludological Turn: What Play Theory Brings to the Analysis of New Media
Why We Get the Games We Get: The Political Economy of Games Networks Of Technicity
Understanding Games as ‘Texts’
Cyborg Spectatorship: Untying the Knots of Gameplay
Interventions and Recuperations

This book introduces the critical concepts and debates that are shaping the emerging field of game studies. Exploring games in the context of cultural studies and media studies, it analyses computer games as the most popular contemporary form of new media production and consumption.

The book:

• Argues for the centrality of play in redefining reading, consuming and creating culture
• Offers detailed research into the political economy of games to generate a model of new media production
• Examines the dynamics of power in relation to both the production and consumption of computer games

This is key reading for students, academics and industry practitioners in the fields of cultural studies, new media, media studies and game studies, as well as human-computer interaction and cyberculture.