Play Between Worlds
A study of Everquest that provides a snapshot of multiplayer gaming culture, questions the truism that computer games are isolating and alienating, and offers insights into broader issues of work and play, gender identity, technology, and commercial culture.In Play Between Worlds, T. L. Taylor exami...
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| Format: | Online |
| Language: | English |
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The MIT Press
2024
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| Online Access: | ONIX_20241025_9780262284714_7 |
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| _version_ | 1869519202972336128 |
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| author | Taylor, T. L. |
| author_browse | Taylor, T. L. |
| author_facet | Taylor, T. L. |
| author_sort | Taylor, T. L. |
| collection | Directory of Open Access Books |
| description | A study of Everquest that provides a snapshot of multiplayer gaming culture, questions the truism that computer games are isolating and alienating, and offers insights into broader issues of work and play, gender identity, technology, and commercial culture.In Play Between Worlds, T. L. Taylor examines multiplayer gaming life as it is lived on the borders, in the gaps—as players slip in and out of complex social networks that cross online and offline space. Taylor questions the common assumption that playing computer games is an isolating and alienating activity indulged in by solitary teenage boys. Massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs), in which thousands of players participate in a virtual game world in real time, are in fact actively designed for sociability. Games like the popular Everquest, she argues, are fundamentally social spaces.Taylor's detailed look at Everquest offers a snapshot of multiplayer culture. Drawing on her own experience as an Everquest player (as a female Gnome Necromancer)—including her attendance at an Everquest Fan Faire, with its blurring of online—and offline life—and extensive research, Taylor not only shows us something about games but raises broader cultural issues. She considers "power gamers," who play in ways that seem closer to work, and examines our underlying notions of what constitutes play—and why play sometimes feels like work and may even be painful, repetitive, and boring. She looks at the women who play Everquest and finds they don't fit the narrow stereotype of women gamers, which may cast into doubt our standardized and preconceived ideas of femininity. And she explores the questions of who owns game space—what happens when emergent player culture confronts the major corporation behind the game. |
| format | Online |
| id | doab-20.500.12854ir-146629 |
| institution | Directory of Open Access Books |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publishDateRange | 2024 |
| publishDateSort | 2024 |
| publisher | The MIT Press |
| publisherStr | The MIT Press |
| record_format | ojs |
| spelling | doab-20.500.12854ir-1466292024-10-25T13:13:34Z Play Between Worlds Taylor, T. L. Game Studies/Online Games Game Studies/Games & Culture Cultural Studies/Identity Politics Social Sciences/Gender Studies Social Sciences/Media Studies thema EDItEUR::U Computing and Information Technology::UM Computer programming / software engineering::UMK Games development and programming::UMKL Level design: games programming thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBC Cultural and media studies::JBCT Media studies::JBCT3 Media studies: advertising and society A study of Everquest that provides a snapshot of multiplayer gaming culture, questions the truism that computer games are isolating and alienating, and offers insights into broader issues of work and play, gender identity, technology, and commercial culture.In Play Between Worlds, T. L. Taylor examines multiplayer gaming life as it is lived on the borders, in the gaps—as players slip in and out of complex social networks that cross online and offline space. Taylor questions the common assumption that playing computer games is an isolating and alienating activity indulged in by solitary teenage boys. Massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs), in which thousands of players participate in a virtual game world in real time, are in fact actively designed for sociability. Games like the popular Everquest, she argues, are fundamentally social spaces.Taylor's detailed look at Everquest offers a snapshot of multiplayer culture. Drawing on her own experience as an Everquest player (as a female Gnome Necromancer)—including her attendance at an Everquest Fan Faire, with its blurring of online—and offline life—and extensive research, Taylor not only shows us something about games but raises broader cultural issues. She considers "power gamers," who play in ways that seem closer to work, and examines our underlying notions of what constitutes play—and why play sometimes feels like work and may even be painful, repetitive, and boring. She looks at the women who play Everquest and finds they don't fit the narrow stereotype of women gamers, which may cast into doubt our standardized and preconceived ideas of femininity. And she explores the questions of who owns game space—what happens when emergent player culture confronts the major corporation behind the game. 2024-10-25T13:13:31Z 2024-10-25T13:13:31Z 2009 book ONIX_20241025_9780262284714_7 9780262284714 9780262201636 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/146629 eng The MIT Press image/jpeg n/a https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/5418.001.0001 The MIT Press The MIT Press 10.7551/mitpress/5418.001.0001 10.7551/mitpress/5418.001.0001 ae0cf962-f685-4933-93d1-916defa5123d 9780262284714 9780262201636 The MIT Press 206 Cambridge open access |
| spellingShingle | Game Studies/Online Games Game Studies/Games & Culture Cultural Studies/Identity Politics Social Sciences/Gender Studies Social Sciences/Media Studies thema EDItEUR::U Computing and Information Technology::UM Computer programming / software engineering::UMK Games development and programming::UMKL Level design: games programming thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBC Cultural and media studies::JBCT Media studies::JBCT3 Media studies: advertising and society Taylor, T. L. Play Between Worlds |
| title | Play Between Worlds |
| title_full | Play Between Worlds |
| title_fullStr | Play Between Worlds |
| title_full_unstemmed | Play Between Worlds |
| title_short | Play Between Worlds |
| title_sort | play between worlds |
| topic | Game Studies/Online Games Game Studies/Games & Culture Cultural Studies/Identity Politics Social Sciences/Gender Studies Social Sciences/Media Studies thema EDItEUR::U Computing and Information Technology::UM Computer programming / software engineering::UMK Games development and programming::UMKL Level design: games programming thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBC Cultural and media studies::JBCT Media studies::JBCT3 Media studies: advertising and society |
| topic_facet | Game Studies/Online Games Game Studies/Games & Culture Cultural Studies/Identity Politics Social Sciences/Gender Studies Social Sciences/Media Studies thema EDItEUR::U Computing and Information Technology::UM Computer programming / software engineering::UMK Games development and programming::UMKL Level design: games programming thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBC Cultural and media studies::JBCT Media studies::JBCT3 Media studies: advertising and society |
| url | ONIX_20241025_9780262284714_7 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT taylortl playbetweenworlds |