Gaming Globally Production, Play, and Place

A collection of previously unpublished essays by both established and emerging scholars on video games in the global context.It represents the transnational nature of video games in terms of industrial, textual, and player practices, and advances cross-disciplinary approaches to game studies. It includes essays from scholars from seven countries analyzing game cultures on macro- and micro-levels and investigates the growing transnational nature of digital play. They touch upon nations not usually examined by game studies including the former Czechoslovakia, Turkey, India and Brazil and also adds new perspectives to the global gaming hubs of China, Singapore, Australia, Japan, and the United States. By examining both the major markets as well as regions and localities that have traditionally been under-served by dominant industrial players and under-examined by both journalists and scholars, this collection offers a more nuanced, fluid, and hybrid picture of gaming. These essays also provide new directions for game studies as the field matures beyond the binaries of hardware/software, ludology/narratology, and major/indie development. In addition to full-length essays, brief snapshots of case studies are included. The diversity of regions and perspectives explored in the snapshots and full-length essayshelp cultivate new ground for research and point to opportunities for scholars interested in the cross-pollination of gaming and globalization studies.

Nina B. Huntemann is associate professor of Communication in the Department of Communication & Journalism at Suffolk University. Ben Aslinger is assistant professor of Media and Culture in the Department of English and Media Studies at Bentley University.