Understanding Video Games: The Essential Introduction

by Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Jonas Heide Smith, Susana Pajares Tosca

Overview

The fifth edition of this pioneering textbook takes video game studies into the next decade, highlighting changes in mobile, social, and casual gaming.

This book introduces students to both the major theories used to analyze games, such as ludology and narratology, and the commercial and organizational aspects of the game industry. Drawing from historical and contemporary examples, this student-friendly text also explores the aesthetics of games, evaluates the cultural position of video games, and considers the potential effects of both violent and "serious" games. This new edition includes updates to the history, statistics, and developments in the vast game studies landscape throughout. The book has been expanded with additional theory, research, and insights from scholars around the world, making it more inclusive and broadening its global perspective.

Extensively illustrated and featuring discussion questions, a glossary of key terms, and a detailed video game history timeline, Understanding Video Games, Fifth Edition is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in examining the ways video games are reshaping entertainment, education, and society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780429777042
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/11/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	414
Sales rank:	947,197
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen is CEO of Serious Games Interactive and DiBL. He has a PhD from IT-University of Copenhagen in Games and Learning. Previously he worked as an assistant professor at the Center for Computer Games Research at the IT University of Copenhagen.

Jonas Heide Smith has a PhD in Games and is Head of Digital at SMK – National Gallery of Denmark where he works on digital cultural heritage.

Susana Pajares Tosca is Professor of Media Studies at the University of Southern Denmark. Over the last 20 years, her research has combined aesthetic and media studies approaches to investigating the reception of digital media, with a focus on games, transmedial worlds, and Japanese media mix. She is a founding editor of the journal Gamestudies.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION 1. STUDYING VIDEO GAMES 2. THE GAME INDUSTRY 3. WHAT IS A GAME? 4. HISTORY 5. VIDEO GAME AESTHETICS 6. VIDEO GAMES IN CULTURE 7. NARRATIVE 8. SERIOUS GAMES AND GAMIFICATON—WHEN ENTERTAINMENT IS NOT ENOUGH 9. VIDEO GAMES AND RISKS 10. THE FUTURE OF THE GAME STUDIES

What People are Saying About This

Kurt Squire

A book like this needs to get written and will undoubtedly some day become a standard. (Kurt Squire, University of Wisconsin-Madison; co-director, The Education Arcade; co-founder, joystick101)

Editorial Reviews

Understanding Video Games: The Essential Introduction is a must-read primer for any student considering game studies. A handbook that is clear, precise, up-to-date and extremely useful for tackling video games, a cultural and technical phenomenon of great complexity and full of nuances." — Belen Mainer Blance, Professor and Director of the Videogames Department at University Francisco de Vitoria

Understanding Video Games is the text that is needed to secure a durable place for game studies in the academic curriculum." — Marie-Laure Ryan, author of Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media

Understanding Video Games has remained an essential guide since its first edition. Ever attentive to the practicalities of classroom needs, this superb update presents its most complete and accessible overview of game studies yet." — Soraya Murray, University of California, Santa Cruz

Understanding Video Games is an admirably comprehensive treatment of the video game industry, history, culture, and theory. This new edition remains the best general textbook I've found for teaching video games in the college classroom." — Alf Seegert, University of Utah

From the Publisher