Cultural Game Studies

Critical Approaches
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-041-15513-3
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 306 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Cultural Game Studies provides a comprehensive framework for understanding games and play as interconnected cultural phenomena, examining their roles as art, entertainment, and human experience within contemporary society.

This edited volume delivers a societally and culturally informed critical framework that enables readers to develop nuanced understanding of game cultures and their scholarship. Rather than studying games or players in isolation, the book contextualizes the uses, design, and meanings of play as an interconnected whole. Readers will gain detailed insights into the scholarly history of game studies and its key methodologies, while exploring essential themes including player identities, game production, cultural literacy, and game preservation. The book’s comprehensive approach opens new perspectives for cultural analysis and provides tools for understanding how games increasingly permeate and inform modern society and culture.

This book is written for researchers, scholars, and advanced students in game studies, cultural studies, media studies, and digital humanities. It is ideal for academics seeking to deepen their theoretical understanding of game cultures, graduate students conducting research in game-related fields, and instructors teaching courses on digital culture, media theory, or contemporary cultural phenomena.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate, Undergraduate Advanced, and Undergraduate Core

Autoren/Hrsg.

Mäyrä, Frans

Koskimaa, Raine

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Mediensoziologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction to the Cultural Game Studies: The Emergence of the Research Field 1. Understanding Games: Hermeneutic Approaches to Game Studies 2. Understanding Players 3. Politics of Games, Play and Critical Game Studies: What Does it Mean to be ‘Critical’? 4. Games and Art 5. Games and Transmedia 6. Games, Play and Online Videos 7. Storyworlds and Game Characters 8. The Changing Landscape of Game Production 9. The Many Cultures of Game Production 10. Game Jams and Game Culture 11. Identity and Game Culture: The Limits of Game Cultural Participation and Agency 12. Cultivating a Bildung of Gaming: Doing Socially and Culturally Engaged Game Studies 13. Nondigital Games and Culture 14. Emergence of Game Cultural Institutions: Hobbyist Efforts, Policymaking and Lucky Accidents 15. Critical Game Heritage: On Collaboration, Controversies and Contextualization 16. Well-being and Game Design 17. Gambling and Cultural Game Studies 18. Cultures of Competitive Gaming

Über Autor(innen)

Frans Mäyrä, PhD, is a Professor at the Tampere University and founder of the Game Research Lab, with its over 50 externally funded game research projects, having served also as the Director of the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies. As a leading expert in socio-cultural issues relating to games, play and playfulness, he has published widely on topics ranging from game cultures, meaning making through playful interaction and online social play, to borderlines, identity, and transmedial fantasy and science fiction.

Raine Koskimaa, PhD, is a Professor of Contemporary Culture Studies at the University of Jyväskylä and the Vice Director of the CoE in Game Culture Studies. He conducts research in the fields of game studies, transmedia storytelling and digital culture. Koskimaa has published widely, and his writings have been translated to several languages. His current research interests include eSports, games and transmedia, and machine learning based digital humanities methods.