Games are not : the difficult and definitive guide to what video games are / David Myers.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Myers, David, 1953- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Video games--Social aspects.

Video games.

Physical Description:

vii, 214 pages ; 20 cm

regular print

Place of Publication:

Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2017.

Summary:

The nascent field of game studies has raised many questions that, so far, it has been unable to answer. Among these questions is a foundational one: what is a game? Despite the widespread appeal of games, and despite the rise of digital games as a global cultural phenomenon, vexing problems confront those who design, play, and think about games. How do we reconcile a videogame industry's insistence that games positively affect human beliefs and behaviours with the equally prevalent assumption that games are 'just games'? How do we reconcile accusations that games make us violent and antisocial and unproductive with the realisation that games are a universal source of human joy? In Games are not, David Myers demonstrates that these controversies and conflicts surrounding the meanings and effects of games are not going away; they are essential properties of the game's paradoxical aesthetic form. Buttressed by more than three decades of game studies scholarship, Myers offers an in-depth examination of games as objects of leisure, consumption, and art. Games are not focuses on games writ large, bound by neither digital form nor by cultural interpretation. Interdisciplinary in scope and radical in conclusion, Games are not positions games as unique objects evoking a peculiar and paradoxical liminal state - a lusory attitude - that is essential to human creativity, knowledge, and sustenance of the species.

Contents:

Games are not cooperative

Games are not designer intentions

Games are not references (of the conventional sort)

Games are not narratives

Games are not beliefs

Games are not gameplay

Games are not toys

Games are not simulations: part one

Games are not simulations: part two

Games are not commodities

Games are not what you think

Games are art (because games are not art).

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 197-208) and index.

Other Format:

Ebook version :

ISBN:

9781526121653

1526121654

OCLC:

973921061