Games in Society

Serious Games by Ralf Dörner (Editor); Stefan Göbel (Editor); Wolfgang Effelsberg (Editor); Josef Wiemeyer (Editor)
Publication Date: 2016
This textbook provides an introduction to the fundamentals of serious games, which differ considerably from computer games that are meant for pure entertainment.
Serious Games for Enhancing Law Enforcement Agencies by Babak Akhgar (Editor)
Publication Date: 2019
This book provides a comprehensive and practically minded introduction into serious games for law enforcement agencies. Serious games offer wide ranging benefits for law enforcement with applications from professional trainings to command-level decision making to the preparation for crises events.
Why Games Are Good for Business by Helen Routledge
Publication Date: 2016
By tapping into the same psychology that keeps gamers glued to Minecraft or World of Warcraft, innovative organizations are creating their own engaging and flexible learning experiences. They're called Serious Games. This is a practical toolkit for those who want to learn about more serious games and how to apply them in the workplace.
Design and Development of Training Games by Talib S. Hussain (Editor); Susan L. Coleman (Editor)
Publication Date: 2015
The multidisciplinary nature of learning-games development is key to successful projects. In this book, leaders in the field of serious games and professionals in entertainment games share practical guidelines and lessons learned from their own experiences researching and developing learning games.
Museum Experience Design by Arnold Vermeeren (Editor); Licia Calvi (Editor); Amalia Sabiescu (Editor)
Publication Date: 2018
This state-of-the-art book explores the implications of contemporary trends that are shaping the future of museum experiences. In four separate sections, it looks into how museums are developing dialogical relationships with their audiences, reaching out beyond their local communities to involve more diverse and broader audiences. It examines current practices in involving crowds, not as passive audiences but as active users, co-designers and co-creators.

History of Digital Games by Andrew Williams
Publication Date: 2017
The growth of videogame design programs in higher education and explosion of amateur game development has created a need for a deeper understanding of game history that addresses not only "when," but "how" and "why." History of Digital Games adopts a unique approach and scope that traces the interrelated concepts of game design, art and design of input devices from the beginnings of coin-operated amusement in the late 1800s to the independent games of unconventional creators in the present.
Debugging Game History by A. C. Deger, Henry Lowood, Raiford Guins
Call Number: KG 794.809 5
Publication Date: 2008
Even as the field of game studies has flourished, critical historical studies of games have lagged behind other areas of research. Histories have generally been fact-by-fact chronicles; fundamental terms of game design and development, technology, and play have rarely been examined in the context of their historical, etymological, and conceptual underpinnings. This volume attempts to "debug" the flawed historiography of video games.
They Create Worlds by Alexander Smith
Publication Date: 2019
They Create Worlds: The Story of the People and Companies That Shaped the Video Game Industry, Vol. 1 is the first in a three-volume set that provides an in-depth analysis of the creation and evolution of the video game industry. Beginning with the advent of computers in the mid-20th century, Alexander Smith's text comprehensively highlights and examines individuals, companies, and market forces that have shaped the development of the video game industry around the world.
The Golden Age of Video Games by Roberto Dillon
Publication Date: 2016
This book focuses on the history of video games, consoles, and home computers from the very beginning until the mid-nineties, which started a new era in digital entertainment.
The Video Games Textbook by Brian J. Wardyga
Publication Date: 2018
The Video Games Textbook takes the history of video games to another level, with visually-stimulating, comprehensive, and chronological chapters that are relevant and easy to read for a variety of students. Every chapter is a journey into a different era or area of gaming, where readers emerge with a strong sense of how video games evolved, why they succeeded or failed, and the impact they had on the industry and human culture.

Serious Games and Edutainment Applications by Minhua Ma (Editor); Andreas Oikonomou (Editor)
Publication Date: 2017
With the continued application of gaming for training and education, which has seen exponential growth over the past two decades, this book offers an insightful introduction to the current developments and applications of game technologies within educational settings, with cutting-edge academic research and industry insights, providing a greater understanding into current and future developments and advances within this field.
Play to Learn by Karl Kapp; Sharon Boller
Publication Date: 2017
This book bridges the gap between instructional design and game design; it's written to grow your game literacy and strengthen crucial game design skills. Experts Sharon Boller and Karl Kapp share real examples of in-person and online games, and offer an online game for you to try as you read. They walk you through evaluating entertainment and learning games, so you can apply the best to your own designs.
Exploding the Castle by Michael F. D. Young
Publication Date: 2017
Yet we can safely say that games will play some role in the future of K-12 and higher education, and members of the games community will have to choose between being passive observers or active, progressive contributors to the complex and often political process of weaving together pedagogy, technology, and culture. This will involve agreeing that games--or, more specifically, game mechanics and the engagement in joyful learning that they engender--are not only critical for shaping online and classroom instruction but also the evolution of schooling as a whole.
Handbook of Research on Immersive Digital Games in Educational Environments by Aliane Loureiro Krassmann (Editor); Érico Marcelo Hoff do Amaral (Editor); Felipe Becker Nunes (Editor); Gleizer Bierhalz Voss (Editor); Manuel Constantino Zunguze (Editor)
Publication Date: 2018
The Handbook of Research on Immersive Digital Games in Educational Environments provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of digital games and technological resources and applications within contemporary education.
Handbook of Research on Serious Games for Educational Applications by Robert Zheng (Editor); Michael K. Gardner (Editor)
Publication Date: 2016
The Handbook of Research on Serious Games for Educational Applications presents a comprehensive examination of the implementation of gaming in classroom settings and the cognitive benefits this integration presents. Highlighting theoretical, psychological, instructional design, and teaching perspectives, this book is a pivotal reference source for researchers, educators, professionals, and academics interested in the innovative opportunities of game-based learning.

Video Games for Health by Ivan Leslie Beale
Publication Date: 2011
Substantial resources are being committed to the development of so-called 'serious' video games as interventions for health issues. However, in the enthusiasm of developers to get into the business of producing serious games targeting health issues, relevant learning theory and technology has been largely ignored or forgotten. As a result, available health games are less efficacious, and their production less informed than is ideal or necessary. This book presents the procedures for evaluation of the efficacy of health games and their design components.
Serious Games for Healthcare by Sylvester Arnab (Editor); Ian Dunwell (Editor); Kurt Debattista (Editor)
Publication Date: 2014
With advances in technologies and revolutions in patient, trainee, and public expectations, the global healthcare sector is increasingly turning to serious games to solve problems. Serious games are applications with serious purposes, developed using computer game technologies more often associated with entertainment. Serious Games for Healthcare: Applications and Implications will introduce the development and application of game technologies for health-related serious games.
Educational Technologies in Medical and Health Sciences Education by Susan Bridges (Editor); Lap Ki Chan (Editor); Cindy E. Hmelo-Silver (Editor)
Publication Date: 2015
This evidence-packed guide explores the growing importance of new technologies and situated learning in the vanguard of medical and health sciences education, backed by real-world clinical applications.
Technology in Physical Activity and Health Promotion by Zan Gao (Editor)
Publication Date: 2017
As technology becomes an ever more prevalent part of everyday life and population-based physical activity programmes seek new ways to increase lifelong engagement with physical activity, so the two have become increasingly linked. This book offers a thorough, critical examination of emerging technologies in physical activity and health, considering technological interventions within the dominant theoretical frameworks, exploring the challenges of integrating technology into physical activity promotion and offering solutions for its implementation.
Handbook of Research on Holistic Perspectives in Gamification for Clinical Practice by Daniel Novák (Editor); Bengisu Tulu (Editor); Håvar Brendryen (Editor)
Publication Date: 2015
Over the past decade, the healthcare industry has adopted games as a powerful tool for promoting personal health and wellness. Utilizing principles of gamification to engage patients with positive reinforcement, these games promote stronger attention to clinical and self-care guidelines, and offer exciting possibilities for primary prevention.

Archaeogaming by Andrew Reinhard
Publication Date: 2018
This book serves as a general introduction to "archaeogaming"; it describes the intersection of archaeology and video games and applies archaeological method and theory into understanding game-spaces as both site and artifact.
Historia Ludens by Alexander von Lünen (Editor); Katherine J. Lewis (Editor); Benjamin Litherland (Editor); Pat Cullum (Editor)
Publication Date: 2019
This book aims to further a debate about aspects of "playing" and "gaming" in connection with history. Rather than only focusing on how professionals could learn from academics in history, the book also ponders the question of what academics can learn from gaming and playing for their own practice, such as gamification for teaching, or using "play" as a paradigm for novel approaches into historical scholarship.
The Interactive Past by Angus A. A. Mol (Editor); Csilla E. Ariese-Vandemeulebroucke (Editor); Krijn H. J. Boom (Editor); Aris Politopoulos (Editor)
Publication Date: 2017
The Interactive Past brings together a diverse group of thinkers -- including archaeologists, heritage scholars, game creators, conservators and more -- who explore the interface of video games and the past in a series of unique and engaging writings.
Digital Games As History by Adam Chapman
Publication Date: 2016
This book provides the first in-depth exploration of video games as history. Chapman puts forth five basic categories of analysis for understanding historical video games: simulation and epistemology, time, space, narrative, and affordance. Through these methods of analysis he explores what these games uniquely offer as a new form of history and how they produce representations of the past.
Mixed Reality and Gamification for Cultural Heritage by Marinos Ioannides (Editor); Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann (Editor); George Papagiannakis (Editor)
Publication Date: 2017
This volume on virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) and gamification for cultural heritage offers an insightful introduction to the theories, development, recent applications and trends of the enabling technologies for mixed reality and gamified interaction in cultural heritage and creative industries in general.

Global Games by Aphra Kerr
Publication Date: 2017
Based on original empirical work, including interviews with workers, virtual ethnographies in online games and analysis of industry related documents, Global Games provides a political, economic and sociological analysis of the growth and restructuring of the digital games industry over the past decade.
Playing Dystopia by Gerald Farca
Publication Date: 2018
Video games today permeate our everyday existence. They immerse players in fascinating game-worlds and exciting experiences, often inviting them in various ways to reflect on the enacted events. Gerald Farca explores the genre of dystopian video games and the player's aesthetic response to their nightmarish game-worlds. Players, he argues, will gradually come to see similarities between the virtual dystopia and their own 'offline' environment, thus learning to stay wary of social and political developments.
Global Game Industries and Cultural Policy by Anthony Fung (Editor)
Publication Date: 2016
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.
Video Games Around the World by Mark J. P. Wolf (Contribution by, Editor)
Publication Date: 2015
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.
Transnational Play by Anne-Marie Schleiner
Publication Date: 2020
This book offers a reorientation of perspective on global play, while still acknowledging geographically distributed socioeconomic, racial, gender, and other inequities. Over the course of the inquiry, the author develops a theoretical line of argument critically informed by gender studies and intersectionality, post-colonialism, geopolitics, and game studies. This book looks at who develops, localizes, and consumes games, problematizing play as a diverse and contested transnational domain.

Gaming and the Virtual Sublime by Matthew Spokes
Publication Date: 2020
Gaming and the Virtual Sublime considers the 'virtual sublime' as a conceptual toolbox for understanding our affective engagement with contemporary interactive entertainment. Through a detailed examination of the history of the sublime, this book road-tests these differing components in a far-reaching exploration of how video games - as virtual spaces of affect - might reshape our opportunities for sublime experience.
Gaming and the Divine by Frank G. Bosman
Publication Date: 2019
Video games have become one of the most important cultural artifacts of modern society, both as mediators of cultural, social, and religious values and in terms of commercial success. This has led to a significant increase in the critical analysis of this relatively new medium, but theology as an academic discipline is noticeably behind the other humanities on this subject.
The Sacred & the Digital by Frank G. Bosman (Guest Editor)
Publication Date: 2019
While religion can take different shapes in digital games, ranging from material and referential to reflexive and ritual, it is not necessarily true that game developers depict their in-game religions in a positive, confirming way, but ever so often games approach the topic critically and disavowingly. The critical depictions of religion in video games by their developers is the focus of this special issue.
Gaming the System by David J. Gunkel
Publication Date: 2018
In this book, author David J. Gunkel explores how philosophical traditions--put forth by noted thinkers such as Plato, Descartes, Kant, Heidegger, and iek--can help us explore and conceptualize recent developments in video games, game studies, and virtual worlds. Furthermore, Gunkel interprets computer games as doing philosophy, arguing that the game world is a medium that provides opportunities to model and explore fundamental questions about the nature of reality, personal identity, social organization, and moral conduct.
Methods for Studying Video Games and Religion by Vít Sisler (Editor); Kerstin Radde-Antweiler (Editor); Xenia Zeiler (Editor)
Publication Date: 2017
This collection of essays presents a broad range of influential methodological approaches that illuminate how and why video games shape the construction of religious beliefs and practices, and also situates such research within the wider discourse on how digital media intersect with the religious worlds of the 21st century.

Conference Proceedings

DIGRA Conference
DiGRA's conference is run annually. The published papers from these conferences are collected and made available online in the DiGRA digital library
Meaningful Play Conference
A biannual conference for scholars and industry professionals about theory, research, and game design innovations, principles and practices.
Games for Change
Games that can bring social change and justice to the world. There is also a design workshop 101 for making social issue games.

Issues in Gaming

Getting Gamers by Jamie Madigan
Publication Date: 2016
Taking the time to learn what's happening in our heads as we play and shop allows us to approach games and gaming communities on our own terms and get more out of them. Just about everybody is playing some kind of video game whether it's on a console, a computer, a web browser, or a phone. This book offers something unique to the millions of people who play or design games: how to use an understanding of psychology to be a better part of their gaming communities, to avoid being manipulated when they shop and play, and to get the most enjoyment out of playing games.
The Video Game Debate by Rachel Kowert (Editor); Thorsten Quandt (Editor)
Publication Date: 2015
Do video games cause violent, aggressive behavior? Can online games help us learn? When it comes to video games, these are often the types of questions raised by popular media, policy makers, scholars, and the general public. In this collection, international experts review the latest research findings in the field of digital game studies and weigh in on the actual physical, social, and psychological effects of video games.
Video Game Influences on Aggression, Cognition, and Attention by Christopher J. Ferguson (Editor)
Publication Date: 2018
This book addresses the ongoing scientific debates regarding video games and their effects on players. Chapters cover both positive and negative effects of video games on players' behavior and cognition, from contributing to violence and alienation to promoting therapeutic outcomes for types of cognitive dysfunction. The contrasting viewpoints model presents respectful scientific debate, encourages open dialogue, and allows readers to come to informed conclusions.
Gamer Psychology and Behavior by Barbaros Bostan (Editor)
Publication Date: 2016
This book provides an introduction and overview of the increasingly important topic of gamer psychology and behavior by presenting a range of theoretic perspectives and empirical evidence casting new light on understanding gamer behavior and designing interactive gaming experiences that maximize fun.
The Toxic Meritocracy of Video Games by Christopher A. Paul
Publication Date: 2018
In The Toxic Meritocracy of Video Games, new media critic and longtime gamer Christopher A. Paul explains how video games' focus on meritocracy empowers this negative culture.

Avatar, Assembled by Jaime Banks (Editor)
Publication Date: 2018
Avatar, Assembled is a curated volume that unpacks videogame and virtual world avatars--not as a monolithic phenomenon (as they are usually framed) but as sociotechnical assemblages, pieced together from social (human-like) features like voice and gesture to technical (machine-like) features like graphics and glitches.
Boundaries of Self and Reality Online by Jayne Gackenbach (Editor); Johnathan Bown (Editor)
Publication Date: 2017
Boundaries of Self and Reality Online examines the idea that technological advances associated with the Internet are moving us in multiple domains toward various "edges." These edges range from self, to society, to relationships, and even to the very nature of reality. Boundaries are dissolving and we are redefining the elements of identity.
Social Interactions in Virtual Worlds by Kiran Lakkaraju (Editor); Gita Sukthankar (Editor); Rolf T. Wigand (Editor)
Publication Date: 2018
Within the rapidly-growing arena of 'virtual worlds', such as Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOs), individuals behave in particular ways, influence one another, and develop complex relationships. This setting can be a useful tool for modeling complex social systems, cognitive factors, and interactions between groups and within organizations.
Game Worlds Get Real: How Who We Are Online Became Who We Are Offline by Zek Valkyrie
Publication Date: 2017
This book explores how after 20 years of existence, virtual world games have evolved: the social landscapes within digital worlds have become rigid and commodified, and "play" and "fun" have become rational and mechanical products; explanations of how social rigidity in digital communities often robs these spaces of experimentation and identity play; suggestions that new technologies such as virtual reality are unlikely to revolutionize the media or cause dramatic social change.
Star Worlds by William Sims Bainbridge
Publication Date: 2016
William Sims Bainbridge investigates the human and technological dynamics of four online virtual worlds: the massively multiplayer online games Star Wars Galaxies; Star Wars: The Old Republic; Star Trek Online; and the Star Trek community in the non-game, user-created virtual environment, Second Life.

Gaming Representation by Jennifer Malkowski (Editor); Trea Andrea M. Russworm (Editor)
Publication Date: 2017
Gaming Representation examines portrayals of race, gender, and sexuality in a range of games, from casuals like Diner Dash, to indies like Journey and The Binding of Isaac, to mainstream games from the Grand Theft Auto, BioShock, Spec Ops, The Last of Us, and Max Payne franchises. Arguing that representation and identity function as systems in games that share a stronger connection to code and platforms than it may first appear, the contributors to this volume push gaming scholarship to new levels of inquiry, theorizing, and imagination.
Woke Gaming by Kishonna L. Gray (Editor); David J. Leonard (Editor)
Publication Date: 2018
Drawing from groundbreaking research on counter and oppositional gaming and from popular games such as World of Warcraft and Tomb Raider, Woke Gaming examines resistance to problematic spaces of violence, discrimination, and microaggressions in gaming culture. The contributors of these essays seek to identify strategies to detox gaming culture and orient players and gamers toward progressive ends.
Proteus Paradox by Nick Yee
Publication Date: 2014
Proteus, the mythical sea god who could alter his appearance at will, embodies one of the promises of online games: the ability to reinvent oneself. Yet inhabitants of virtual worlds rarely achieve this liberty, game researcher Nick Yee contends. Though online games evoke freedom and escapism, Yee shows that virtual spaces perpetuate social norms and stereotypes from the offline world, transform play into labor, and inspire racial scapegoating and superstitious thinking. He uses gaming as a lens through which to examine the pressing question of what it means to be human in a digital world.
Ready Player Two by Shira Chess
Publication Date: 2017
In Ready Player Two, media critic Shira Chess uses the concept of "Player Two"--the industry idealization of the female gamer--to examine the assumptions implicit in video games designed for women and how they have impacted gaming culture and the larger society. Chess examines how games have been engineered to shape normative ideas about women and leisure. Ready Player Two presents important arguments about how gamers and game developers must change their thinking about both women and games to produce better games, better audiences, and better industry practices.
Gaming Masculinity by Megan Condis
Publication Date: 2018
Gaming Masculinity explains how the term "gamer" has been constructed in the popular imagination by a core group of male online users in an attempt to shore up an embattled form of geeky masculinity. This latest form of toxicity comes at a moment of upheaval in gaming culture, as women, people of color, and LGBTQ individuals demand broader access and representation online. Paying close attention to the online practices of trolling and making memes, author Megan Condis demonstrates that, despite the supposedly disembodied nature of life online, performances of masculinity are still afforded privileged status in gamer culture.

Feminism in Play by Kishonna L. Gray (Editor); Gerald Voorhees (Editor); Emma Vossen (Editor)
Publication Date: 2018
Feminism in Play focuses on women as they are depicted in video games, as participants in games culture, and as contributors to the games industry. This volume showcases women's resistance to the norms of games culture, as well as women's play and creative practices both in and around the games industry.
Play Like a Feminist by Shira Chess
Publication Date: 2020
In this provocative and enlightening book, Shira Chess urges us to play like feminists. Furthermore, she urges us to play video games like feminists. Playing like a feminist is empowering and disruptive; it exceeds the boundaries of gender yet still advocates for gender equality. Playing like a feminist offers a new way to think about how humans play --and also a new way to think about how feminists do their feministing. Chess argues that feminism need video games as much as video games need feminism.
Digital Love by Heidi McDonald
Publication Date: 2017
Scholars and professionals from all over the world, across experience levels and the gender and sexuality spectrum, share experiences and analysis of romance and sexuality in video games.
Queerness in Play by Todd Harper (Editor); Meghan Blythe Adams (Editor); Nicholas Taylor (Editor)
Publication Date: 2018
Queerness in Play examines the many ways queerness of all kinds--from queer as 'LGBT' to other, less well-covered aspects of the queer spectrum--intersects with games and the social contexts of play. By critically engaging the ways games--as a culture, an industry, and a medium--help reproduce limiting binary formations of gender and sexuality, Queerness in Play contributes to the growing body of scholarship promoting more inclusive understandings of identity, sexuality, and games.
The Queer Games Avant-Garde by Bonnie Ruberg
Publication Date: 2020
Bonnie Ruberg presents twenty interviews with twenty-two queer video developers whose radical, experimental, vibrant, and deeply queer work is driving a momentous shift in the medium of video games.

War Games by Philip Hammond (Editor); Holger Pötzsch (Editor)
Publication Date: 2019
This interdisciplinary volume brings together scholars from games studies, media and cultural studies, politics and international relations, and related fields to examine the complex relationships between military-themed videogames and real-world conflict, and to consider how videogames might deal with history, memory, and conflict in alternative ways.
Zones of Control by Pat Harrigan (Editor); Matthew G. Kirschenbaum (Editor)
Publication Date: 2016
Examinations of wargaming for entertainment, education, and military planning, in terms of design, critical analysis, and historical contexts. This volume provides a diverse set of perspectives on wargaming's past, present, and future. In Zones of Control, contributors consider wargames played for entertainment, education, and military planning, in terms of design, critical analysis, and historical contexts.
Feminist War Games by Jon Saklofske (Editor); Alyssa Arbuckle (Editor); Jon Bath (Editor)
Publication Date: 2019
Feminist War Games? explores the critical intersections and collisions between feminist values and perceptions of war, by asking whether feminist values can be asserted as interventional approaches to the design, play, and analysis of games that focus on armed conflict and economies of violence.
Does Playing Video Games Make Players More Violent? by Barrie Gunter
Publication Date: 2016
This book is an academic work which reviews and critiques the research literature concerning violent games and their alleged effects on players. It examines the debates about the potential effects of these games and the divisions between scholars working in the field.
Violent Games by Gareth Schott
Publication Date: 2016
Drawing on new insights achieved from research located at an intersection between humanities, social and computer sciences, Gareth Schott's addition to the Approaches in Digital Game Studies series interrogates the nature and meaning of the "violence" encountered and experienced by game players. In focusing on the various ways "violence" is mediated by both the rule system and the semiotic layer of games, the aim is to draw out the distinctiveness of games' exploitation of violence or violent themes.

Key Journals

Simulation and Gaming
ISSN 1046-8781 Sage Publications 6 issues p.a.

Focused upon simulation and gaming methodologies used in education and training.

Games and Culture
ISSN 1555-4120 Sage Publications 8 issues p.a.

This peer-reviewed journal serves as a premiere source for games studies scholarship.

Journal Cover for Entertainment Computing - Official Journal for Information Processing

Entertainment Computing
ISSN 1875-9521 Elsevier 6 issues p.a.

Centres upon user participation in immersive virtual reality and gaming environments (with emphasis on social interaction and games).

Computers in Entertainment
ISSN 1544-3574 ACM 4 issues p.a.

A key forum for critical discussions on the technical, business and managerial aspects of games production.

Transactions of the Digital Games Research Association
ISSN 2328-9422 ETC Press 4 issues p.a.

An interdisciplinary journal dedicated to research on and practice in all aspects of games development.

Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds
ISSN 1757 1928 Intellect Publications 3 issues p.a.

Features both theoretical and applied research across a broad cross-section of game platforms and genres.

Games in Society

Games in Society

Conference Proceedings

Issues in Gaming

Key Journals

Global links and information

Acknowledgement of Traditional Owners