Gaming as Culture: Essays on Reality, Identity and Experience in Fantasy Games

by J. Patrick Williams, Sean Q. Hendricks, W. Keith Winkler

Overview

Since tabletop fantasy role-playing games emerged in the 1970s, fantasy gaming has made a unique contribution to popular culture and perceptions of social realities in America and around the world. This contribution is increasingly apparent as the gaming industry has diversified with the addition of collectible strategy games and other innovative products, as well as the recent advancements in videogame technology.

This book presents the most current research in fantasy games and examines the cultural and constructionist dimensions of fantasy gaming as a leisure activity. Each chapter investigates some social or behavioral aspect of fantasy gaming and provides insight into the cultural, linguistic, sociological, and psychological impact of games on both the individual and society. Section I discusses the intersection of fantasy and real-world scenarios and how the construction of a fantasy world is dialectically related to the construction of a gamer's social reality. Because the basic premise of fantasy gaming is the assumption of virtual identities, Section II looks at the relationship between gaming and various aspects of identity. The third and final section examines what the personal experiences of gamers can tell us about how humans experience reality.

Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786424368
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	04/04/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.46(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

J. Patrick Williams is an assistant professor of Sociology at Arkansas State University. Sean Q. Hendricks is a lecturer and research consultant at the University of Georgia. W. Keith Winkler studied Anthropology and English at Emory University and International Business at Georgia State University. He is an adjunct faculty member at Murray State University in Kentucky.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     
Introduction: Fantasy Games, Gaming Cultures, and Social Life     

I. SOCIAL REALITY
1. The Role-Playing Game and the Game of Role-Playing: The Ludic Self and Everyday Life     
2. Incorporative Discourse Strategies in Tabletop Fantasy Role-Playing Gaming     
3. Social Events and Roles in Magic: A Semiotic Analysis     

II. IDENTITY
4. Consumption and Authenticity in the Collectible Strategy Games Subculture     
5. Desktop Conquistadors: Negotiating American Manhood in the Digital Fantasy Role-Playing Game     
6. Playing with Identity: Unconscious Desire and Role-Playing Games     
7. The Business and the Culture of Gaming     

III. EXPERIENCE
8. Online Gaming and the Interactional Self: Identity Interplay in Situated Practice     
9. Invoking the Avatar: Gaming Skills as Cultural and Out-of-Game Capital     
10. Vicarious Experience: Staying There Connected With and Through Our Own and Other Characters     

About the Contributors     
Index     

Editorial Reviews

perfect...studious and detailed”—Midwest Book Review; “impressive...superb...insightful perspectives”—Journal of Popular Culture; “this book presents the most current research in fantasy games”—New Books in the Communications Library.

From the Publisher

"this book presents the most current research in fantasy games"

New Books in the Communications Library

impressive...superb...insightful perspectives

Journal of Popular Culture

perfect...studious and detailed

Midwest Book Review