Video Games and the Global South

Video Games and the Global South
Author: Phillip Penix-Tadsen
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 302
Release: 2019-05-17
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0359641393

Download Video Games and the Global South Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Video Games and the Global South redefines games and game culture from south to north, analyzing the cultural impact of video games, the growth of game development and the vitality of game cultures across Africa, the Middle East, Central and South America, the Indian subcontinent, Oceania and Asia.

Video Games Around the World

Video Games Around the World
Author: Mark J. P. Wolf
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 715
Release: 2015-05-01
Genre: Games & Activities
ISBN: 0262527162

Download Video Games Around the World Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Thirty-nine essays explore the vast diversity of video game history and culture across all the world's continents. Video games have become a global industry, and their history spans dozens of national industries where foreign imports compete with domestic productions, legitimate industry contends with piracy, and national identity faces the global marketplace. This volume describes video game history and culture across every continent, with essays covering areas as disparate and far-flung as Argentina and Thailand, Hungary and Indonesia, Iran and Ireland. Most of the essays are written by natives of the countries they discuss, many of them game designers and founders of game companies, offering distinctively firsthand perspectives. Some of these national histories appear for the first time in English, and some for the first time in any language. Readers will learn, for example, about the rapid growth of mobile games in Africa; how a meat-packing company held the rights to import the Atari VCS 2600 into Mexico; and how the Indonesian MMORPG Nusantara Online reflects that country's cultural history and folklore. Every country or region's unique conditions provide the context that shapes its national industry; for example, the long history of computer science in the United Kingdom and Scandinavia, the problems of piracy in China, the PC Bangs of South Korea, or the Dutch industry's emphasis on serious games. As these essays demonstrate, local innovation and diversification thrive alongside productions and corporations with global aspirations. Africa • Arab World • Argentina • Australia • Austria • Brazil • Canada • China • Colombia • Czech Republic • Finland • France • Germany • Hong Kong • Hungary • India • Indonesia • Iran • Ireland • Italy • Japan • Mexico • The Netherlands • New Zealand • Peru • Poland • Portugal • Russia • Scandinavia • Singapore • South Korea • Spain • Switzerland • Thailand • Turkey • United Kingdom • United States of America • Uruguay • Venezuela

Global Game Industries and Cultural Policy

Global Game Industries and Cultural Policy
Author: Anthony Fung
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2017-02-10
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3319407600

Download Global Game Industries and Cultural Policy Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

This is the first book that sheds light on global game industries and cultural policy. The scope covers the emerging and converging theory and models on cultural industries and its development, and their connection to national cultural policy and globalization. The primary focus of the book is on Asian cultural policy and industries while there are implicit comparisons throughout the book to compare Asia to other global markets. This book is aimed at advanced undergraduates, graduate students and faculty members in programs addressing cultural policy and digital games. It will also be of interest to those within the cultural policy community and to digital games professionals.

Everything to Play For

Everything to Play For
Author: Marijam Did
Publisher: Verso Books
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2024-09-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1804293261

Download Everything to Play For Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

An insider’s account of the videogame industry telling how gaming can become a force for good Everything To Play For asks if videogames can achieve egalitarian goals instead of fuelling hyper-materialist, reactionary agendas. Combining cultural theory and materialist critiques with accessible language and personal anecdotes, industry insider Marijam Did engages both novices and seasoned connoisseurs. From the innovations of Pong and Doom to the intricate multiplayer or narrative-driven games, the author highlights the multifaceted stories of the gaming communities and the political actors who organise among them. Crucially, the focus also includes the people who make the games, shedding light on the brutal processes necessary to bring titles to the public. The videogame industry, now larger than the film and music industries combined, has a proven ability to challenge the status quo. With a rich array of examples, Did argues for a nuanced understanding of gaming’s influence so that this extraordinary power can be harnessed for good.

Everything to Play For

Everything to Play For
Author: Marijam Did
Publisher: Verso Books
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2024-09-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1804293253

Download Everything to Play For Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Everything To Play For asks if videogames can achieve egalitarian goals instead of fuelling hyper-materialist, reactionary agendas. Combining cultural theory and materialist critiques with accessible language and personal anecdotes, industry insider Marijam Did engages both novices and seasoned connoisseurs. From the innovations of Pong and Doom to the intricate multiplayer or narrative-driven games, the author highlights the multifaceted stories of the gaming communities and the political actors who organise among them. Crucially, the focus also includes the people who make the games, shedding light on the brutal processes necessary to bring titles to the public. The videogame industry, now larger than the film and music industries combined, has a proven ability to challenge the status quo. With a rich array of examples, Did argues for a nuanced understanding of gaming's influence so that this extraordinary power can be harnessed for good.

Un-Mapping the Global South

Un-Mapping the Global South
Author: Gero Bauer
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2024-03-19
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1040001386

Download Un-Mapping the Global South Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

This book offers new approaches and insights into the ongoing and topical discussions on the concepts and definitions of the global south. Instead of adding to the debates about how to properly define the "global south" as such, it aims at emphasising concrete experiences and accounts of (post-)colonial dislocation and disidentification as both a starting point and linchpin for the subsequent exploration. It brings into conversation theories and interrogations of the "global south" with specific local studies, without presenting them as the romanticised "other" or as "non-western" narratives. As a bold initiation of future conversations on issues that both directly and indirectly affect ideas about the global south, the volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of critical theory, literary and cultural studies, and global south studies.

The Handbook of Media and Culture in the Middle East

The Handbook of Media and Culture in the Middle East
Author: Joe F. Khalil
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 580
Release: 2023-06-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1119637066

Download The Handbook of Media and Culture in the Middle East Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

The Handbook of Media and Culture in the Middle East The Handbook of Media and Culture in the Middle East is an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to understand the profound and complex changes shaping the 21st century. With trans-regional contributions from established and emerging scholars, this ground-breaking volume offers conceptual essays and in-depth chapters that present rich analyses grounded in historical and geopolitical contexts, as well as key theory and empirical research. Rather than viewing the Middle East as a monolithic culture, this Handbook examines the diverse and multi-local characteristics of the region’s knowledge production, dynamic media, and rich cultures. It addresses a wide range of topics, including the evolving mainstream and alternative media, competing histories in the region, and pressing socio-economic and media debates. Additionally, the Handbook explores the impact of regional and international politics on Middle Eastern cultures and media. Designed to serve as a foundation for the next era of research in the field, The Handbook of Media and Culture in the Middle East is essential reading for all academics, scholars, and media practitioners. Its comprehensive scope makes it an excellent primary or supplementary textbook for undergraduate or graduate courses in global studies, media and communication, journalism, anthropology, sociology, economics, political science, and history.

Teaching the Middle Ages through Modern Games

Teaching the Middle Ages through Modern Games
Author: Robert Houghton
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2022-10-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 3110712032

Download Teaching the Middle Ages through Modern Games Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Games can act as invaluable tools for the teaching of the Middle Ages. The learning potential of physical and digital games is increasingly undeniable at every level of historical study. These games can provide a foundation of information through their stories and worlds. They can foster understanding of complex systems through their mechanics and rules. Their very nature requires the player to learn to progress. The educational power of games is particularly potent within the study of the Middle Ages. These games act as the first or most substantial introduction to the period for many students and can strongly influence their understanding of the era. Within the classroom, they can be deployed to introduce new and alien themes to students typically unfamiliar with the subject matter swiftly and effectively. They can foster an interest in and understanding of the medieval world through various innovative means and hence act as a key educational tool. This volume presents a series of essays addressing the practical use of games of all varieties as teaching tools within Medieval Studies and related fields. In doing so it provides examples of the use of games at pre-university, undergraduate, and postgraduate levels of study, and considers the application of commercial games, development of bespoke historical games, use of game design as a learning process, and use of games outside the classroom. As such, the book is a flexible and diverse pedagogical resource and its methods may be readily adapted to the teaching of different medieval themes or other periods of history.

Videogames in the Indian Subcontinent

Videogames in the Indian Subcontinent
Author: Souvik Mukherjee
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 182
Release: 2022-11-25
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9354356915

Download Videogames in the Indian Subcontinent Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Videogames in the Indian Subcontinent: Development, Culture(s) and Representations explores the gaming culture of one of the most culturally diverse and populous regions of the world-the Indian subcontinent. Building on the author's earlier work on videogame culture in India, this book addresses issues of how discussions of equality and diversity sit within videogame studies, particularly in connection with the subcontinent, thereby presenting pioneering research on the videogame cultures of the region. Drawing on a series of player and developer interviews and surveys conducted over the last five years, including some recent ones, this book provides a sense of how games have become a part of the culture of the region despite its huge diversity and plurality and opens up avenues for further study through vignettes and snapshots of the diverse gaming culture. It addresses the rapid rise of videogames as an entertainment medium in South Asia and, as such, also tries to better understand the recent controversies connected to gaming in the region In the process, it aims to make a larger connection between the development of videogames and player culture, in the subcontinent and globally, thus opening up channels for collaboration between the industry and academic research, local and global.

Games of Empire

Games of Empire
Author: Nick Dyer-Witheford
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
Total Pages: 462
Release: 2013-11-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1452942706

Download Games of Empire Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, video games are an integral part of global media culture, rivaling Hollywood in revenue and influence. No longer confined to a subculture of adolescent males, video games today are played by adults around the world. At the same time, video games have become major sites of corporate exploitation and military recruitment. In Games of Empire, Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter offer a radical political critique of such video games and virtual environments as Second Life, World of Warcraft, and Grand Theft Auto, analyzing them as the exemplary media of Empire, the twenty-first-century hypercapitalist complex theorized by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri. The authors trace the ascent of virtual gaming, assess its impact on creators and players alike, and delineate the relationships between games and reality, body and avatar, screen and street. Games of Empire forcefully connects video games to real-world concerns about globalization, militarism, and exploitation, from the horrors of African mines and Indian e-waste sites that underlie the entire industry, the role of labor in commercial game development, and the synergy between military simulation software and the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan exemplified by Full Spectrum Warrior to the substantial virtual economies surrounding World of Warcraft, the urban neoliberalism made playable in Grand Theft Auto, and the emergence of an alternative game culture through activist games and open-source game development. Rejecting both moral panic and glib enthusiasm, Games of Empire demonstrates how virtual games crystallize the cultural, political, and economic forces of global capital, while also providing a means of resisting them.