The republic of games : textual culture between old books and new media / Elyse Graham.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Graham, Elyse, 1985- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Electronic publishing.

Gamification.

Social media.

Physical Description:

viii, 168 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Montreal : McGill-Queen's University Press, [2018]

Summary:

"The Republic of Games examines the fate of the models of print culture in an age of digitization. Drawing on methods from social-text analysis, platform studies, and game studies, the book examines the digital practice of imbricating game mechanics into other kinds of activities and the effects that these mechanics have had on specific textual communities. It shows that embedding game structures into the operations of digital platforms--even when doing so begins with the addition of a few small mechanics--has large cumulative effects on textual ecosystems. The book also intervenes in discussions of voluntary labor online. In the decades since Richard Barbrook first gave a name to "hi-tech gift culture," media scholars have often appealed to the gift as a framework for understanding free exchange online. The Republic of Games shows that some of the most popular online platforms for the free production of texts utilize game mechanics, which, in combination with higher-order systems of play that users build atop these platforms, can have powerful effects on amateur literary production online. The chapters follow a general thematic progression: the first two chapters examine creators of digital platforms, who are in a privileged position to register changes in the material conditions of textuality online. The third chapter examines amateur writing communities, who build higher-order systems from the mechanics they're given. The final chapter focuses on scholars, who must reconcile their efforts to gain critical distance from the new system with their own structural subordination within it."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Play and the platform era

The republic of games

The great game

The printing press as metaphor

Epilogue.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Graham, Elyse, author. Republic of games.:

ISBN:

9780773553392

0773553398

9780773553385

077355338X

OCLC:

1013530634