Mixed realism : videogames and the violence of fiction / Timothy J. Welsh.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Welsh, Timothy J., 1980- author.

Series:

Electronic mediations ; v. 50.

Electronic mediations ; 50

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Violence in video games.

Video games--Psychological aspects.

Violence in literature.

Physical Description:

x, 206 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis, MN : University of Minnesota Press, [2016]

Summary:

Today's wired culture is a mixed reality comprised of exchanges between virtual and material contexts. We make balance transfers at ATMs, update Facebook timelines, and squeeze in sessions of Angry Birds on the subway. Nonetheless, the "virtual" is still frequently figured as imaginary, as opposed to "real." Even though the vision first proposed by writers in the 1990s, of a future that would pit virtual reality against actual reality has never materialized, it continues to haunt cultural criticism. Our ongoing anxiety about immersive media now surrounds videogames-especially "shooter games"- and manifests as a fear that gamers might not know the difference between the virtual and the real. This, Timothy J. Welsh notes, is the paradox of real virtuality. We understand that the media-gene rated virtualities that fill our lives are not what they represent. But what are they if not real? Do they have presence, significance, or influence exceeding their material existence and the user processes that invoke them? What relationships do they establish through and beyond our interactions with them? Welsh's innovative methodology offers a new understanding of the expanding role of virtuality in contemporary life and shows how videogames, like novels, both promise and trouble experiences of media immersion. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction: the paradox of real virtuality: super Columbine Massacre RPG!

History, theory, methodology. Immersive fictions in the dot-com era

Reading In cold blood today: toward a model of mixed realism

Incomplete worlds: videogames beyond immersion

Gaming in context: self-reflexive strategies in Prince of Persia: sands of time, eternal darkness, and .hack//infection

Metafiction and the perils of ubiquitous mediation

Extended studies. When what's real doesn't matter: House of leaves

Acceptable losses: Call of duty: modern warfare 2

Coda. The rock of the virtual: violence in Blood meridian and Red dead redemption.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Welsh, Timothy J., 1980- author. Mixed realism

ISBN:

9780816689439

0816689431

9780816696086

081669608X

OCLC:

951158094