The Business and Culture of Digital Games Gameork and Gameplay [Paperback]

This book explores the lifecycle of digital games. Drawing upon a broad range of media studies perspectives with aspects of sociology, social theory, and economics, Aphra Kerr explores this all-pervasive, but under-theorized, aspect of our media environment.This book explores the lifecycle of digital games. Drawing upon a broad range of media studies perspectives with aspects of sociology, social theory, and economics, Aphra Kerr explores this all-pervasive, but under-theorized, aspect of our media environment. Fusing digital technologies and cultural creativity, exploiting global networks of production and distribution with little regulation and embodying the liberal ideas of individual choice and agency, digital games seem to epitomize global post-industrial neo-liberal cultural products. Kerr finds reality a bit more complex. For all their globality, she says digital games must still attend to local cultural practices, tastes, and social structures if they are to succeed across the major markets. She set out to establish just how global and new digital games are, and to assess the findings in terms of previous media and social theories. I was intrigued by the behind-the-scenes information, as the book is riddled with interesting facts only those in the digital game industry know. Kerr offers a large amount of information . . . this is a timely book that contributes much to the understanding of video games and the culture associated with them. Introduction
Digital Games as Text
Digital Games as Cultural Industry
Global Networks and Cultures of Production
Digital Game Players, Game Pleasures and Play Contexts
Non-Entertainment Uses of Digital Games
Conclusion