Video and Computer Games
- LAST REVIEWED: 06 May 2016
- LAST MODIFIED: 28 October 2011
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791286-0063
- LAST REVIEWED: 06 May 2016
- LAST MODIFIED: 28 October 2011
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791286-0063
Introduction
It almost goes without saying that video games have made a profound impact across culture and society. According to the Electronic Software Association, 67 percent of households within the United States play video and/or computer games. The average video game player is age thirty-four and has been playing games for well over a decade. Gamer demographics have also shifted significantly, as women and girls constitute 40 percent of gamers while, in 2010, 26 percent of gamers are over the age of fifty. Economically, video games have made a huge contribution to the global economy, with US sales estimated at $10.5 billion in 2009. Culturally, video games have radically reshaped our engagements with play, social experience, daily life, art, learning, new media, and our understandings and practices of culture in general. Video games have become part of our everyday life, as we experience them on our phones (42 percent of Americans play games on their mobile devices), online, at home, and increasingly within institutions of higher education. The first decade of the 21st century witnessed a significant growth in the scholarly study of video games, best evidenced by the emergence of game studies across North America, Europe, and Australasia. This growth would certainly give credence to Espen Aarseth’s declaration in Game Studies that 2001 is “year one of Computer Game Studies as an emerging, viable, international, academic field.” Where in the late 20th century a handful of academic texts helped initiate video games as an important research subject within the humanities and social sciences, today numerous universities offer courses on video games as part of their undergraduate curriculum and/or graduate programs; the professional study of games is further supported by peer-reviewed journals, international organizations, book series on major university presses, and through no shortage of academic conferences. Themes prevalent to the teaching and research of video games include, but are not limited to, the following: history; design and aesthetics; criticism and theory; worlds and spaces of games; play and players; identity, industry, business, and labor; civic engagement and ethics; military and the military entertainment complex; education and learning; regulation and law; transmedia and media convergence; hardware and storage media; and preservation.
Textbooks
As with any discipline or field of study, both students and teachers require accessible texts to help facilitate the teaching and learning of video games. Wolf 2001 was the first major text to pursue games as a scholarly medium. However, subsequent publications have produced compelling expansions beyond this book’s formal analysis. Neilsen, et al. 2008 makes a laudable effort at covering most critical subjects within video game studies. Newman 2004, and Dovey and Kennedy 2006 both frame their overviews through the disciplines of media and cultural studies. Raessens and Goldstein 2005 combines useful structure and significant contributors into a classroom-oriented collection of essays. Similarly written for teaching, Mäyrä 2008 begins with general explanation of game studies before moving into more detailed territory, and provides useful pedagogic additions of chapter summaries and student assignments.
Dovey, Jon, and Helen Kennedy. Game Cultures: Computer Games as New Media. Milton Keynes, UK: Open University Press, 2006.
Framed by the fields of cultural studies and media studies, Dovey and Kennedy’s text centers the subject and practice of play as vital for our understandings of games. It invests in both the consumption of games as well as their production with a firm grasp on the political economy of game culture.
Mäyrä, Frans. An Introduction to Game Studies: Games in Culture. London: SAGE, 2008.
Beginning with a discussion of the field of game studies, the book then moves into chapters on game culture and play to help establish its decadal management of game genres and types from the 1970s to the early 21st century. Mäyrä provides summaries, further readings, and assignments for the book’s readers at the end of each chapter.
Neilsen, Simon Egenfeldt, Jonas Heide Smith, and Susana Pajares Tosca. Understanding Video Games: The Essential Introduction. London: Routledge, 2008.
Provides its readers with thematic access points to structure the unwieldy study of games. Chapters are organized by Game Industry, History, Aesthetics, Game and Player Culture, Narrative, Serious Gaming, and the book’s final chapter, on games in the social sphere, is framed by the category of Risk.
Newman, James. Videogames. Routledge Introductions to Media and Communications. London: Routledge, 2004.
Attempts a thorough introduction to the medium of games in the early 21st century. Subjects include definitions of games, development, players, game design, game narrative and space, the social context of play, and a conclusion nodding toward future possibilities of gaming.
Raessens, Joost, and Jeffrey Goldstein, eds. Handbook of Computer Game Studies. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005.
Designed for classroom use as well as a guide for researchers, Handbook of Computer Game Studies includes wide coverage of the major subjects contributing to the study of games in the mid-21st century. The collection’s longevity and strength reside in the editor’s intelligent structure and the original contributions by the book’s influential contributors.
Wolf, Mark J. P., ed. The Medium of the Videogame. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001.
While the balance of this edited collection may appear a little strange (with the bulk of the content provided by the book’s editor), it nonetheless was a seminal publication when it debuted in 2001. It was one of the first books to adopt a scholarly tone in explaining the formal aspects of the video game.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- Accounting, Motion Picture
- Acting
- Action Cinema
- Adaptation
- Advertising and Promotion
- African American Cinema
- African American Stars
- African Cinema
- Akerman, Chantal
- Allen, Woody
- Almodóvar, Pedro
- Alphaville
- Altman, Robert
- American Cinema, 1895-1915
- American Cinema, 1939-1975
- American Cinema, 1976 to Present
- American Independent Cinema
- American Independent Cinema, Producers
- American Public Broadcasting
- Animals in Film and Media
- Animation and the Animated Film
- Anime
- Arbuckle, Roscoe
- Argentine Cinema
- Aronofsky, Darren
- Art Cinema
- Arzner, Dorothy
- Asian American Cinema
- Asian Television
- Astaire, Fred and Rogers, Ginger
- Australian Cinema
- Auteurism
- Avant-Garde and Experimental Film
- Bachchan, Amitabh
- Battle of Algiers, The
- Bazin, André
- Bergman, Ingmar
- Bertolucci, Bernardo
- Bigelow, Kathryn
- Biopics
- Birth of a Nation, The
- Blade Runner
- Blockbusters
- Brakhage, Stan
- Brando, Marlon
- Brazilian Cinema
- Bresson, Robert
- British Cinema
- Broadcasting, Australian
- Burnett, Charles
- Buñuel, Luis
- Cameron, James
- Campion, Jane
- Canadian Cinema
- Capra, Frank
- Casablanca
- Cassavetes, John
- Cavell, Stanley
- Censorship
- Chan, Jackie
- Chaplin, Charles
- Children in Film
- Chinese Cinema
- Cinecittà Studios
- Cinema and Media Industries, Creative Labor in
- Cinema and the Visual Arts
- Cinematography and Cinematographers
- Cinephilia
- Citizen Kane
- City in Film, The
- Cocteau, Jean
- Cognitive Film Theory
- Color
- Comedy, Film
- Comedy, Television
- Comics, Film, and Media
- Computer-Generated Imagery
- Coppola, Francis Ford
- Copyright and Piracy
- Costume and Fashion
- Cronenberg, David
- Cuban Cinema
- Cult Cinema
- Dance and Film
- de Oliveira, Manoel
- Dean, James
- Deleuze, Gilles
- Denis, Claire
- Deren, Maya
- Design, Art, Set, and Production
- Detective Films
- Dietrich, Marlene
- Digital Media and Convergence Culture
- Directors
- Disability
- Disney, Walt
- Doctor Who
- Documentary Film
- Dreyer, Carl Theodor
- Eastwood, Clint
- Ecocinema
- Eisenstein, Sergei
- Epic Film
- Essay Film
- Ethnographic Film
- European Television
- Exhibition and Distribution
- Exploitation Film
- Fairbanks, Douglas
- Fan Studies
- Fantasy
- Fellini, Federico
- Feminist Film Theory
- Festivals
- Film Aesthetics
- Film and Literature
- Film, Historical
- Film Noir
- Film Preservation and Restoration
- Film Theory
- Film Theory Before 1945
- Finance Film, The
- Ford, John
- French Cinema
- Game of Thrones
- Gance, Abel
- Gangster Films
- Garbo, Greta
- Garland, Judy
- Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Queer, and Transgendered (GLBQT) C...
- German Cinema
- Global Television Industry
- Godard, Jean-Luc
- Godfather Trilogy, The
- Godzilla
- Greek Cinema
- Griffith, D.W.
- Hammett, Dashiell
- Hawks, Howard
- Haynes, Todd
- Hepburn, Katharine
- Herzog, Werner
- Hindi Cinema, Popular
- Hitchcock, Alfred
- Hollywood Studios
- Holocaust Cinema
- Homeland
- Hong Kong Cinema
- Horror-Comedy
- Hsiao-Hsien, Hou
- Hungarian Cinema
- Immigration and Cinema
- Indigenous Media
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers
- Iranian Cinema
- Irish Cinema
- Israeli Cinema
- It Happened One Night
- Italian Cinema
- Italian-Americans in Cinema and Media
- Japanese Cinema
- Jazz Singer, The
- Jews in American Cinema and Media
- Keaton, Buster
- King Kong
- Korean Cinema
- Kracauer, Siegfried
- Kubrick, Stanley
- Latin American Cinema
- Latina/o Americans in Film and Television
- Lee, Ang
- Lee, Spike
- Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The
- Los Angeles and Cinema
- Lubitsch, Ernst
- Lumet, Sidney
- Lupino, Ida
- Lynch, David
- Marker, Chris
- Marxism
- Masculinity in Film
- Melodrama
- Memory and the Flashback in Cinema
- Metz, Christian
- Mexican Film
- Micheaux, Oscar
- Ming-liang, Tsai
- Minnelli, Vincente
- Méliès, Georges
- Modernism and Film
- Mészáros, Márta
- Music and Cinema, Classical Hollywood
- Music and Cinema, Global Practices
- Music Video
- Musicals
- Narrative
- Native Americans
- New Media Art
- New Media Policy
- New Media Theory
- New York City and Cinema
- New Zealand Cinema
- Opera and Film
- Ophuls, Max
- Orphan Films
- Oshima, Nagisa
- Panh, Rithy
- Pasolini, Pier Paolo
- Passion of Joan of Arc, The
- Peckinpah, Sam
- Pedagogy
- Philosophy and Film
- Pickford, Mary
- Poems, Novels, and Plays About Film
- Poitier, Sidney
- Polanski, Roman
- Polish Cinema
- Politics, Hollywood and
- Pop, Blues, and Jazz in Film
- Pornography
- Postcolonial Theory in Film
- Potter, Sally
- Prime Time Drama
- Psycho
- Psychoanalytic Film Theory
- Queer Theory
- Race and Cinema
- Ray, Nicholas
- Ray, Satyajit
- Reality Television
- Religion and Film
- Remakes, Sequels and Prequels
- Renoir, Jean
- Repo Man
- Resnais, Alain
- Romanian Cinema
- Romantic Comedy, American
- Rossellini, Roberto
- Russian Cinema
- Scandinavian Cinema
- Science Fiction Film Theory and Criticism
- Searchers, The
- Sennett, Mack
- Sesame Street
- Shakespeare on Film
- Silent Film
- Simpsons, The
- Singin’ in the Rain
- Sirk, Douglas
- Soap Operas
- Social Class
- Social Problem Films
- Soderbergh, Steven
- Sound Design, Film
- Sound, Film
- Spanish Cinema
- Spanish-Language Television
- Spielberg, Steven
- Sports and Media
- Sports in Film
- Stand-Up Comedians
- Star Trek
- Star Wars
- Stardom
- Stop-Motion Animation
- Sturges, Preston
- Surrealism and Film
- Taiwanese Cinema
- Talk Shows
- Tarantino, Quentin
- Tarkovsky, Andrei
- Television Audiences
- Television Celebrity
- Television, History of
- Television Industry, American
- Theater and Film
- Transnational and Diasporic Cinema
- Trauma Theory
- Trinh, T. Minh-ha
- Truffaut, François
- Turkish Cinema
- Twilight Zone, The
- Varda, Agnès
- Vertigo
- Vertov, Dziga
- Video and Computer Games
- Violence and Cinema
- Von Sternberg, Josef
- Von Stroheim, Erich
- von Trier, Lars
- War Film
- Warhol, The Films of Andy
- Wayne, John
- Weerasethakul, Apichatpong
- Weir, Peter
- Welles, Orson
- Whedon, Joss
- Whiteness
- Wilder, Billy
- Wiseman, Frederick
- Women and Film
- Women and the Silent Screen
- Wong, Anna May
- Wong, Kar-wai
- Woo, John
- Wood, Natalie
- YouTube
- Yugoslav and Post-Yugoslav Cinema
- Zinnemann, Fred
- Zombies in Cinema and Media