This anthology brings together scholars from around the world to theorize and explore "epistemic genres" of digital games, which are defined by the social uses and meanings attributed to different constellations of games by the communities the play, make, and study them. Game studies has experienced a cultural turn in the last decade, centering the social dimensions of games and play. What resources for theorizing game genres emerge from this cultural turn? How might the critical theories of race and culture, intersectional feminism, queer and trans theory, eco-criticism, and post-colonial and decolonial interventions of the past decade suggest new ways of thinking about game genres? The chapters in this edited volume make a case for epistemic genres that are distinguished primarily by their social context and use. The notion of epistemic genre centers the player''s experience and the meanings that emerge from distinct communities as they engage with games. Epistemic game genres are those constellations of games that overflow and cut-across the genre boundaries of the commercial game industry and mainstream gaming culture. The first section examines epistemic genres as they are constituted by different scholarly lenses. Here, the contributors consider how certain scholarly theories allow us to see the connections between seemingly disparate games. The second section examines epistemic genres as products of specific material and discursive contexts. The third section examines epistemic genres defined by the specific interpretive frames of communities of players that share a cultural lexicon, symbol system, or grammar. Overall, the chapters in this book make the case for understanding game genres as formations shaped more by play that the qualities of the games themselves.>

Autorentext
Gerald Voorhees is an Associate Professor of Communication Arts at the University of Waterloo. He is President of the Canadian Game Studies Association (term ending July 2023) and a former member of the Digital Games Research Association executive board. Josh Call is Professor of English at Grand View University, USA. He is a former area chair of the Game Studies Area of the National Popular Culture Association and Managing Editor of the Approaches to Digital Game Studies series for Bloomsbury Press.Matthew Wysocki serves as coordinator of Media Studies and Film Studies as an Associate Professor at Flagler College, USA. He also is co-area Chair of Game Studies for the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association. He has written or co-written numerous chapters on control and player agency, a plethora of them on the BioShock series. He edited CTRL-ALT-PLAY: Essays on Control in Video Gaming (2013) and co-edited Rated M for Mature: Sex and Sexuality in Video Games from Bloomsbury (2015).Betsy Brey Instructor in Communication Arts at the University of Waterloo, Canada. She was Editor-in-Chief of online publication First Person Scholar for three years. She has published chapters in several books, as well as articles in The Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric and Rhetor. **

Klappentext
This edited volume theorizes and explicates "epistemic genres" of digital games, which are defined by the social uses and meanings attributed to different constellations of games by communities of players.

Inhalt

Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors

Introduction: Epistemic Genres as Cultures of Play: A Transversal Cut Across the Ordinary
Gerald Voorhees (University of Waterloo, Canada) and Josh Call (Grand View University, USA)

1. (A) What If the Ludology vs Narratology Debate Never Happened? A Counterfactual Social Epistemology
   William White (Penn State Altoona, USA)
2. (A) Horror As Medium: An Examination of Environmental Horror in Video Games
   Pamela Maria Schmidt (UniversityofWaterloo, Canada) and Sid Heeg (UniversityofWaterloo, USA)
3. (A) Trauma Games: Current Research and Future Directions
   Samuel Poirier-Poulin (*UniversitédeMontréal, Canada)*
4. (A) Solitary Role-Playing and Self-Reflection: RPG as Creative Playstyle
   Aleksander Franiczek (UniversityofWaterloo, Canada)
5. (A)Keeping with the Rhythm: Corporeal Entrainment and the Pursuit of Synchrony in Rhythm Games
   Katarzyna Marak (Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland) and Artur Szarecki (Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland)
6. (A) "Spatial Games" as Reproductions of Space: A Space-centered Analysis of Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed's Reproduction of Akihabara, Tokyo
   William Helmke (University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, USA)
7. (A) Blockbuster Games: Industrial Strategy Meets Genre
   Andrei Zanescu (ConcordiaUniversity, Canada)
8. (A) Death in the New World: Necropolitical Games
   Josh Call (Grand View University, USA) and Thomas Lecaque (Grand View University, USA)
9. (A)ARGs, LARPs, and Insurrection: Playing with Politics after the End of the Fake
   Mark Nunes (*Appalachian State University, USA)*
10. (A) Ecological Consequences in Ecosystem Management Games [1]
    Adam Lefloïc Lebel (*Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Canada) and Simon Dor (Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Canada)*
11. (A)Social Isolation, Loneliness, and The Echo Genre: Digital Connection in the COVID-19 Pandemic
    Matthew Staron (George Mason University, USA)
12. (A) Soulsborne Games and the Transcultural Gaming Experience
    Alexander Hurezeanu (George Brown College, Canada)
13. (A)"Historical Authenticity and Digital Seriality: Re-learning and Un-learning Asian Past and Present through Gaming"
    Jamie W.T. Tse (Chinese University of Hong Kong)
14. (A) Is There Such Thing as a Latinx Game?
    Regina Marie Mills (*TexasA&MUniversity, USA)*
15. (A) Swords of the Spirit, Praise Music, and Scripture: Investigating the unusual world of Christian video games
    Kevin Schut (Trinity Western University, Canada)
16. (A) Gaming Beyond Death: Black Grieving and Restoration in League of Legends
    Akil Fletcher (Princeton University, USA)
17. (A) The Trans Game Genre: Sometimes Queer, Always Trans
    Hibby Thach (UniversityofMichigan*, USA) and Oliver Haimson (UniversityofMichigan, USA)
    Index*