Video Games as Culture

Routledge Advances in Sociology

by Daniel Muriel, Garry Crawford

Video games are becoming culturally dominant. But what does their popularity say about our contemporary society? This book explores video game culture, but in doing so, utilizes video games as a lens through which to understand contemporary social life.

Video games are becoming an increasingly central part of our cultural lives, impacting on various aspects of everyday life such as our consumption, communities, and identity formation. Drawing on new and original empirical data - including interviews with gamers, as well as key representatives from the video game industry, media, education, and cultural sector - Video Games as Culture not only considers contemporary video game culture, but also explores how video games provide important insights into the modern nature of digital and participatory culture, patterns of consumption and identity formation, late modernity, and contemporary political rationalities.

This book will appeal to undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as postdoctoral researchers, interested in fields such Video Games, Sociology, and Media and Cultural Studies. It will also be useful for those interested in the wider role of culture, technology, and consumption in the transformation of society, identities, and communities.

Genres: Video Games

208 pages, Paperback

Published March 14, 2018

About the author

PhD in Sociology, Lecturer at the University of the Basque Country. Daniel is an experienced researcher and author on identity, cultural heritage, science and technology studies, experts and video game culture. He has published numerous papers and chapters in internationally renowned journals and publishing houses such as Games and Culture, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Convergence, and Routledge, and has participated in several international conferences. Daniel is co-author of the book 'Video Games as Culture' (2018, Routledge), author of 'Identidad Gamer' (2018, AnaitGames), and 'Identidad y patrimonio' (2017, KDP Amazon).

Reviews

[Aengus Schulte · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book because it looked vaguely interesting, but what I found within it was far more fascinating than anything I could have imagined. This isn't just a cursory overview of the role games play in our cultures, it's an explanation of how games replicate and mirror culture. One of the chapters is devoted to showing how the idea of agency in games is reflective of neo-liberal attitudes of responsibility - a game says "You have to save the world by beating the bad guy", neo-liberalism says "You have to save the world by going vegan." It's incredibly interesting to see how such broad categories as games and culture overlap and penetrate each other. Definitely recommend!

[Jathin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty decent book. I read this for some academic work, wouldn't probably finish it otherwise. It has a lot of repetitions but at the same time it is a good starting point if you are looking to analyse video games in anyway.