Computer Game Worlds

Erscheinungsjahr 2017
ISBN: 978-3-0358-0013-5
Verlag: diaphanes

Buch, Englisch, 352 Seiten, Format (B × H): 153 mm x 233 mm, Gewicht: 605 g

Reihe: sequenzia

Computer games dominate millions of private computer screens. For half a century they have no longer been the exclusive business of laboratories, military advisors and subcultures. Nevertheless, no one has ever posed the most obvious of all questions: why do computer games exist? Computer games (as we know them) came unasked for and cannot be taken for granted, if only for this one simple reason. But what peculiar date and place brought such completely heterogeneous appliances, bodies and symbolisms together to form (long-prepared and yet sudden) this totally new kind of game? What type of knowledge is it that cuts across technologies, institutions and machines striving to shape today’s games? Pias’s archaeology of the computer game is not solely a survey of the numerous objects, apparatus and ensembles which have been crafted, constructed and installed only to reappear one day as commercial products. It is, simultaneously and exceedingly, also an epistemical reconstruction of game playing at and with computers and by computers themselves, an archaeology of the computer game which no longer relies on the individual’s freedom from 'his' or 'her' game. It is the economies of time, decision and regulation, embodied in hard- and software, that form the materiality of the games in which information societies think their own game.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Pias, Claus

Weitere Mitwirkende

Pakis, Valentine A.

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Kommunikationswissenschaften Digitale Medien, Internet, Telekommunikation
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften Medientheorie, Medienanalyse

Inhaltsverzeichnis

7 - 13Introduction (Claus Pias)15 - 181. Kairos (Claus Pias)18 - 222. Experimental Psychology (Claus Pias)22 - 313. Army Mental Tests (Claus Pias)32 - 594. Ergonomics (Claus Pias)59 - 715. Calculating Motion (Claus Pias)72 - 936. Visibility and Commensurability (Claus Pias)94 - 1097. A New Ergonomics (Claus Pias)110 - 1238. Computer Games (Claus Pias)125 - 1319. Caves (Claus Pias)131 - 15010. The Construction of the Artificial World (Claus Pias)150 - 16411. Narratives (Claus Pias)165 - 19912. Programs, Labyrinths, Graphs (Claus Pias)201 - 20813. "That Naïve Concept of Utility" (Claus Pias)208 - 21414. Chess and Computers (Claus Pias)214 - 24015. Tactical Chess and War Games (Claus Pias)240 - 25716. Operations Research and the Weather (Claus Pias)257 - 28417. The 1950s (Claus Pias)284 - 31318. The 1960s (Claus Pias)313 - 32419. The 1970s (Claus Pias)325 - 326Afterword (Claus Pias)327 - 347Works Cited (Claus Pias)349 - 355Index (Claus Pias)

7 - 13Introduction (Claus Pias)15 - 181. Kairos (Claus Pias)18 - 222. Experimental Psychology (Claus Pias)22 - 313. Army Mental Tests (Claus Pias)32 - 594. Ergonomics (Claus Pias)59 - 715. Calculating Motion (Claus Pias)72 - 936. Visibility and Commensurability (Claus Pias)94 - 1097. A New Ergonomics (Claus Pias)110 - 1238. Computer Games (Claus Pias)125 - 1319. Caves (Claus Pias)131 - 15010. The Construction of the Artificial World (Claus Pias)150 - 16411. Narratives (Claus Pias)165 - 19912. Programs, Labyrinths, Graphs (Claus Pias)201 - 20813. "That Naïve Concept of Utility" (Claus Pias)208 - 21414. Chess and Computers (Claus Pias)214 - 24015. Tactical Chess and War Games (Claus Pias)240 - 25716. Operations Research and the Weather (Claus Pias)257 - 28417. The 1950s (Claus Pias)284 - 31318. The 1960s (Claus Pias)313 - 32419. The 1970s (Claus Pias)325 - 326Afterword (Claus Pias)327 - 347Works Cited (Claus Pias)349 - 355Index (Claus Pias)

Über Autor(innen)

Pias, Claus
Claus Pias ist Professor für Mediengeschichte und Medientheorie an der Leuphana Universität Lüneburg. Zuvor lehrte er in Weimar, Bochum, Essen und Wien. Seine Forschungsschwerpunkte sind Technikgeschichte und Medientheorie.