Wandering Games by Melissa Kagen

Wandering Games by Melissa Kagen

A thought-provoking analysis of wandering within different game worlds, viewed through the lenses of work, colonialism, gender, and death--with examples from>The Last of Us Part I>and others.

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 I. 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.

A thought-provoking analysis of wandering within different game worlds, viewed through the lenses of work, colonialism, gender, and death--with examples from>The Last of Us Part I>and others.

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 I. 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.

SKU	Non disponible
ISBN 13	9780262544245
ISBN 10	0262544245
Title	Wandering Games
Author	Melissa Kagen
Condition	Non disponible
Binding type	Paperback
Publisher	MIT Press Ltd
Year published	2022-10-11
Number of pages	208
Cover note	La photo du livre est présentée à titre d'illustration uniquement. La reliure, la couverture ou l'édition réelle peuvent varier.
Note	Non disponible