Wandering Games

An analysis of wandering within different game worlds, viewed through the lenses of work, colonialism, gender, and death. Wandering in games can be a theme, a formal mode, an aesthetic metaphor, or a player action. It can mean walking, escaping, traversing, meandering, or returning. In this book, ga...

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Egile nagusia: Kagen, Melissa
Formatua: Online
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Argitaratua: The MIT Press 2022
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Sarrera elektronikoa:ONIX_20221118_9780262370981_10
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author Kagen, Melissa
author_browse Kagen, Melissa
author_facet Kagen, Melissa
author_sort Kagen, Melissa
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description An analysis of wandering within different game worlds, viewed through the lenses of work, colonialism, gender, and death. Wandering in games can be a theme, a formal mode, an aesthetic metaphor, or a player action. It can mean walking, escaping, traversing, meandering, or returning. In this book, game studies scholar Melissa Kagen introduces the concept of “wandering games,” exploring the uses of wandering in a variety of game worlds. She shows how the much-derided Walking Simulator—a term that began as an insult, a denigration of games that are less violent, less task-oriented, or less difficult to complete—semi-accidentally tapped into something brilliant: the vast heritage and intellectual history of the concept of walking in fiction, philosophy, pilgrimage, performance, and protest. Kagen examines wandering in a series of games that vary widely in terms of genre, mechanics, themes, player base, studio size, and funding, giving close readings to Return of the Obra Dinn, Eastshade, Ritual of the Moon, 80 Days, Heaven's Vault, Death Stranding, and The Last of Us Part II. Exploring the connotations of wandering within these different game worlds, she considers how ideologies of work, gender, colonialism, and death inflect the ways we wander through digital spaces. Overlapping and intersecting, each provides a multifaceted lens through which to understand what wandering does, lacks, implies, and offers. Kagen's account will attune game designers, players, and scholars to the myriad possibilities of the wandering ludic body.
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language eng
publishDate 2022
publishDateRange 2022
publishDateSort 2022
publisher The MIT Press
publisherStr The MIT Press
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-938892024-04-14T10:29:14Z Wandering Games Kagen, Melissa walking simulator performance indie pilgrimage colonialism death gender work late capitalism interdisciplinary Return of the Obra Dinn Eastshade Ritual of the Moon 80 Days Heaven's Vault Death Stranding The Last of Us Part The Last of Us Part II thema EDItEUR::U Computing and Information Technology::UD Digital Lifestyle and online world: consumer and user guides::UDX Computer games / online games: strategy guides thema EDItEUR::U Computing and Information Technology::UY Computer science::UYV Virtual reality thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBG Popular beliefs and controversial knowledge An analysis of wandering within different game worlds, viewed through the lenses of work, colonialism, gender, and death. Wandering in games can be a theme, a formal mode, an aesthetic metaphor, or a player action. It can mean walking, escaping, traversing, meandering, or returning. In this book, game studies scholar Melissa Kagen introduces the concept of “wandering games,” exploring the uses of wandering in a variety of game worlds. She shows how the much-derided Walking Simulator—a term that began as an insult, a denigration of games that are less violent, less task-oriented, or less difficult to complete—semi-accidentally tapped into something brilliant: the vast heritage and intellectual history of the concept of walking in fiction, philosophy, pilgrimage, performance, and protest. Kagen examines wandering in a series of games that vary widely in terms of genre, mechanics, themes, player base, studio size, and funding, giving close readings to Return of the Obra Dinn, Eastshade, Ritual of the Moon, 80 Days, Heaven's Vault, Death Stranding, and The Last of Us Part II. Exploring the connotations of wandering within these different game worlds, she considers how ideologies of work, gender, colonialism, and death inflect the ways we wander through digital spaces. Overlapping and intersecting, each provides a multifaceted lens through which to understand what wandering does, lacks, implies, and offers. Kagen's account will attune game designers, players, and scholars to the myriad possibilities of the wandering ludic body. 2022-11-18T11:05:19Z 2022-11-18T11:05:19Z 2022 book ONIX_20221118_9780262370981_10 9780262370981 9780262544245 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/93889 eng The MIT Press image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/13856.001.0001 The MIT Press The MIT Press 10.7551/mitpress/13856.001.0001 10.7551/mitpress/13856.001.0001 ae0cf962-f685-4933-93d1-916defa5123d 9780262370981 9780262544245 The MIT Press 216 Cambridge open access
spellingShingle walking simulator
performance
indie
pilgrimage
colonialism
death
gender
work
late capitalism
interdisciplinary
Return of the Obra Dinn
Eastshade
Ritual of the Moon
80 Days
Heaven's Vault
Death Stranding
The Last of Us Part
The Last of Us Part II
thema EDItEUR::U Computing and Information Technology::UD Digital Lifestyle and online world: consumer and user guides::UDX Computer games / online games: strategy guides
thema EDItEUR::U Computing and Information Technology::UY Computer science::UYV Virtual reality
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBG Popular beliefs and controversial knowledge
Kagen, Melissa
Wandering Games
title Wandering Games
title_full Wandering Games
title_fullStr Wandering Games
title_full_unstemmed Wandering Games
title_short Wandering Games
title_sort wandering games
topic walking simulator
performance
indie
pilgrimage
colonialism
death
gender
work
late capitalism
interdisciplinary
Return of the Obra Dinn
Eastshade
Ritual of the Moon
80 Days
Heaven's Vault
Death Stranding
The Last of Us Part
The Last of Us Part II
thema EDItEUR::U Computing and Information Technology::UD Digital Lifestyle and online world: consumer and user guides::UDX Computer games / online games: strategy guides
thema EDItEUR::U Computing and Information Technology::UY Computer science::UYV Virtual reality
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBG Popular beliefs and controversial knowledge
topic_facet walking simulator
performance
indie
pilgrimage
colonialism
death
gender
work
late capitalism
interdisciplinary
Return of the Obra Dinn
Eastshade
Ritual of the Moon
80 Days
Heaven's Vault
Death Stranding
The Last of Us Part
The Last of Us Part II
thema EDItEUR::U Computing and Information Technology::UD Digital Lifestyle and online world: consumer and user guides::UDX Computer games / online games: strategy guides
thema EDItEUR::U Computing and Information Technology::UY Computer science::UYV Virtual reality
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBG Popular beliefs and controversial knowledge
url ONIX_20221118_9780262370981_10
work_keys_str_mv AT kagenmelissa wanderinggames