On Video Games
The Visual Politics of Race, Gender and Space
Published on 25. February 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
336 pages
978-1-350-21770-6 (ISBN)
Description
Today over half of all American households own a dedicated game console and gaming industry profits trump those of the film industry worldwide. Soraya Murray's insightful study examines issues of gender, race, and space in relation to a range of popular contemporary games. She explores blockbusters including The Last of Us, Metal Gear Solid, Spec Ops: The Line, Tomb Raider and Assassin's Creed to show how they are deeply entangled with American ideological positions and contemporary political, cultural and economic conflicts. As quintessential forms of visual material in the twenty-first century, mainstream games both mirror and spur larger societal fears, hopes and dreams, and even address complex struggles for recognition.
Murray examines the elaborately constructed characters and densely layered worlds of these popular games, tracing how their social and environmental landscapes reflect ideas about gender, race, globalization, and urban life. In this emerging field of study, Murray provides novel theoretical approaches to discussing games and playable media as culture.
Murray examines the elaborately constructed characters and densely layered worlds of these popular games, tracing how their social and environmental landscapes reflect ideas about gender, race, globalization, and urban life. In this emerging field of study, Murray provides novel theoretical approaches to discussing games and playable media as culture.
Reviews / Votes
Weaving together insights drawn from visual culture studies, media studies, and cultural studies, On Video Games offers penetrating analyses into the textual poetics of blockbuster titles. Soraya Murray demonstrates the utility of careful interpretation to reveal how games function as popular vessels of ideology and political identity, and-as importantly-the necessity to take these playthings seriously. -- Matthew Thomas Payne, author of Playing War: Military Video Games after 9/11 On Video Games makes a compelling argument for bringing frameworks from cultural studies and visual studies to video games. Murray's work is invaluable for anyone interested in exploring how issues like race and gender manifest in complex ways through interactive digital media -- Dr Bonnie Ruberg, Department of Film & Media Studies, University of California, Irvine, USAMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
29 bw illus
Dimensions
Height: 213 mm
Width: 138 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
602 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-21770-6 (9781350217706)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
10/2017
1st Edition
I.B. Tauris
€27.49
Available for download
Person
Soraya Murray is an Associate Professor in the Film and Digital Media Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), USA, where she is also affiliated with the Digital Arts and New Media MFA Program, and the Art + Design: Games + Playable Media Program. She is an interdisciplinary scholar of visual culture, with a particular interest in cultural studies, contemporary art, film and video games. Murray holds a PhD in the History of Art and Visual Studies from Cornell University.
Content
1. Is the 'Culture' in Game Culture the
'Culture' of Cultural Studies?
Video Games and the Matter of Culture
Games in the Academy
Which Games?
On the Importance of Cultural Studies for Game Studies
Cultural Studies Meets Game Studies
Form and/as Identity Politics in Games
Being Critical
GamerGate, Games Criticism and Gender Problems
Looking Ahead
Poetics of Form and Politics of Identity; Or, Games
as Cultural Palimpsests
2. A Digital Politics of Identity
Introduction
The Poetics of Form in Liberation
Aveline as Queered, Creole, Intersectional
Playability and Phantasms
'History is Our Playground'
Conclusion: Embracing the Mess
3. Aesthetics of Ambivalence and Whiteness in Crisis
Introduction
Cultural Context: Whiteness in Crisis, Racial
Violence and Games
The Last of Us
Critical Whiteness Studies and Whiteness After 9/11
The Last of Us and Imperiled Whiteness
Spec Ops: Th e Line and the White Hero Interrupted
Tomb Raider, Whiteness and the Female Heroine
in Peril
Conclusion: A Trauma Narrative of Whiteness
4: The Landscapes of Games as Ideology
Introduction
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Game Spaces and World- Building: Formalism
Studying Game Space in a Cultural Context
Theorizing Game Space as Ideological Landscape
There is No Such Place: Afghanistan in The Phantom
Pain
Conclusion: A Particular View of a Particular World
5: The World is a Ghetto: Imaging the Global
Metropolis in Playable Representation
Introduction: Speculative Futures, Genre and the
Global Metropolis
Max Payne 3 : Noir Figure, Exotic Ground
Remember Me and Urban Amnesia
Play in the Fourth World City
Bullet Time, Memory Remixing and Harvey's
Space- Time Compression
Two Playable Cities: The Favela and the Cyberpunk
Metropolis
Conclusion: Playing Possible Futures
'Culture' of Cultural Studies?
Video Games and the Matter of Culture
Games in the Academy
Which Games?
On the Importance of Cultural Studies for Game Studies
Cultural Studies Meets Game Studies
Form and/as Identity Politics in Games
Being Critical
GamerGate, Games Criticism and Gender Problems
Looking Ahead
Poetics of Form and Politics of Identity; Or, Games
as Cultural Palimpsests
2. A Digital Politics of Identity
Introduction
The Poetics of Form in Liberation
Aveline as Queered, Creole, Intersectional
Playability and Phantasms
'History is Our Playground'
Conclusion: Embracing the Mess
3. Aesthetics of Ambivalence and Whiteness in Crisis
Introduction
Cultural Context: Whiteness in Crisis, Racial
Violence and Games
The Last of Us
Critical Whiteness Studies and Whiteness After 9/11
The Last of Us and Imperiled Whiteness
Spec Ops: Th e Line and the White Hero Interrupted
Tomb Raider, Whiteness and the Female Heroine
in Peril
Conclusion: A Trauma Narrative of Whiteness
4: The Landscapes of Games as Ideology
Introduction
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Game Spaces and World- Building: Formalism
Studying Game Space in a Cultural Context
Theorizing Game Space as Ideological Landscape
There is No Such Place: Afghanistan in The Phantom
Pain
Conclusion: A Particular View of a Particular World
5: The World is a Ghetto: Imaging the Global
Metropolis in Playable Representation
Introduction: Speculative Futures, Genre and the
Global Metropolis
Max Payne 3 : Noir Figure, Exotic Ground
Remember Me and Urban Amnesia
Play in the Fourth World City
Bullet Time, Memory Remixing and Harvey's
Space- Time Compression
Two Playable Cities: The Favela and the Cyberpunk
Metropolis
Conclusion: Playing Possible Futures