Playful Materialities: The Stuff That Games Are Made Of

by Benjamin Beil (Editor), Gundolf S. Freyermuth (Editor), Hanns Christian Schmidt (Editor), Raven Rusch (Editor)

Overview

Game culture and material culture have always been closely linked. Analog forms of rule-based play (ludus) would hardly be conceivable without dice, cards, and game boards. In the act of free play (paidia), children as well as adults transform simple objects into multifaceted toys in an almost magical way. Even digital play is suffused with material culture: Games are not only mediated by technical interfaces, which we access via hardware and tangible peripherals. They are also subject to material hybridization, paratextual framing, and processes of de-, and re-materialization.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783837662009
Publication date:	08/27/2022
Series:	Studies of Digital Media Culture
Pages:	404
Sales rank:	839,583
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.86(h) x (d)

About the Author

Benjamin Beil (Prof. Dr.) is a professor of media studies and digital culture at the department of media culture and theatre at Universität zu Köln. His research interests include game studies, inter- and transmediality, digital media in museums, and participatory cultures.
Gundolf S. Freyermuth (Prof. Dr.) is a professor of media and game studies and co-director of the Cologne Game Lab at TH Köln. He is also an associate professor of comparative media studies at ifs Internationale Filmschule Köln.
Hanns Christian Schmidt is a professor for Game Design at Macromedia University for Applied Sciences (Cologne) and a research assistant at the Institute of Media Culture and Theater at the University of Cologne.
Raven Rusch is an artist, musician and game developer. He is co-ceo of the start-up neoludic games, and works part-time as research assistant at the Cologne Game Lab of the Technical University Cologne.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter 1
Table of Contents 5
Preface and Acknowledgments 7
Vegas, Disney, and the Metaverse 17
Augmenting Materialities 99
Let's Play the Exhibition! 123
To Craft a Game Arts Curators Kit 145
On Chainsaws and Display Cases 159
Unpacking the Blackbox of 'Normal Gaming' 187
Being a Child Again Through Gameplay 223
Lego Level Up 253
Beyond Pawns and Meeples 279
Have We Left the Paperverse Yet? 315
Keep the Innovation Rolling 351
Immateriality and Immortality 379
Contributors 399