Routledge Advances in Game Studies
About the Book Series
Games studies is now firmly established as a popular, important and significant area of study in the academic world. Bringing together theories and thought from a wide range of disciplines, this series features cutting-edge research addressing the major issues in game studies today.
To submit a proposal for this series, please contact:
Suzanne Richardson, Commissioning Editor for Media, Cultural and Communication Studies
[email protected]
Videogames and the Gothic
1st Edition
By Ewan Kirkland
January 29, 2024
This book explores the many ways Gothic literature and media have informed videogame design. Through a series of detailed case studies, Videogames and the Gothic illustrates the extent to which particular tropes of Gothic culture –neo-medieval aesthetics, secret-filled labyrinthine spaces, the...
Representing Conflicts in Games: Antagonism, Rivalry, and Competition
1st Edition
Edited
By Björn Sjöblom, Jonas Linderoth, Anders Frank
December 30, 2022
This book offers an overview of how conflicts are represented and enacted in games, in a variety of genres and game systems. Games are a cultural form apt at representing real world conflicts, and this edited volume highlights the intrinsic connection between games and conflict through a set of ...
Videogames and Agency
1st Edition
By Bettina Bódi
December 30, 2022
Videogames and Agency explores the trend in videogames and their marketing to offer a player higher volumes, or even more distinct kinds, of player freedom. The book offers a new conceptual framework that helps us understand how this freedom to act is discussed by designers, and how that in turn ...
Hybrid Play: Crossing Boundaries in Game Design, Players Identities and Play Spaces
1st Edition
Edited
By Adriana de Souza e Silva, Ragan Glover-Rijkse
August 29, 2022
This book explores hybrid play as a site of interdisciplinary activity—one that is capable of generating new forms of mobility, communication, subjects, and artistic expression as well as new ways of interacting with and understanding the world. The chapters in this collection explore hybrid making...
The Paradox of Transgression in Games
1st Edition
By Torill Mortensen, Kristine Jørgensen
August 29, 2022
The Paradox of Transgression in Games looks at transgressive games as an aesthetic experience, tackling how players respond to game content that shocks, disturbs, and distresses, and how contemporary video games can evoke intense emotional reactions. The book delves into the commercial success of ...
Comics and Videogames: From Hybrid Medialities to Transmedia Expansions
1st Edition
Edited
By Andreas Rauscher, Daniel Stein, Jan-Noël Thon
August 01, 2022
This book offers the first comprehensive study of the many interfaces shaping the relationship between comics and videogames. It combines in-depth conceptual reflection with a rich selection of paradigmatic case studies from contemporary media culture. The editors have gathered a ...
Forms and Functions of Endings in Narrative Digital Games
1st Edition
By Michelle Herte
August 01, 2022
This book looks closely at the endings of narrative digital games, examining their ways of concluding the processes of both storytelling and play in order to gain insight into what endings are and how we identify them in different media. While narrative digital games share many representational ...
Independent Videogames: Cultures, Networks, Techniques and Politics
1st Edition
Edited
By Paolo Ruffino
August 01, 2022
Independent Videogames investigates the social and cultural implications of contemporary forms of independent video game development. Through a series of case studies and theoretical investigations, it evaluates the significance of such a multi-faceted phenomenon within video game and digital ...
The Playful Undead and Video Games: Critical Analyses of Zombies and Gameplay
1st Edition
Edited
By Stephen J. Webley, Peter Zackariasson
September 30, 2021
This book explores the central role of the zombie in contemporary popular culture as they appear in video games. Moving beyond traditional explanations of their enduring appeal – that they embody an aesthetic that combines horror with a mindless target; that lower age ratings for zombie games widen...
Evolutionary Psychology and Digital Games: Digital Hunter-Gatherers
1st Edition
Edited
By Johannes Breuer, Daniel Pietschmann, Benny Liebold, Benjamin P. Lange
June 30, 2020
Evolutionary Psychology and Digital Games: Digital Hunter-Gatherers is the first edited volume that systematically applies evolutionary psychology to the study of the use and effects of digital games. The book is divided into four parts:Theories and MethodsEmotion and MoralitySocial ...
Fans and Videogames: Histories, Fandom, Archives
1st Edition
Edited
By Melanie Swalwell, Angela Ndalianis, Helen Stuckey
December 10, 2019
This anthology addresses videogames long history of fandom, and fans’ important role in game history and preservation. In order to better understand and theorize video games and game playing, it is necessary to study the activities of gamers themselves. Gamers are active creators in generating ...
Identity and Play in Interactive Digital Media: Ergodic Ontogeny
1st Edition
By Sara M. Cole
December 10, 2019
Recent shifts in new literacy studies have expanded definitions of text, reading/viewing, and literacy itself. The inclusion of non-traditional media forms is essential, as texts beyond written words, images, or movement across a screen are becoming ever more prominent in media studies. Included in...