Game Work: Language, Power, and Computer Game Culture

Contents

Contents Preface vii Acknowledgments xiii PART 1 INTRODUCTION TO PART 1 1. Studying the Computer Game Complex 5 Computer Games as Mass Culture 9 Computer Games as Mass Media 13 Computer Games as Psychophysiological Force 14 Computer Games as Economic Force 18 Computer Games as Instructional Force 24 So, Why Study Computer Games? 25 2. A Grammar of Gamework 27 Rhetoric and Dialectic 29 Propositions of the Gamework 31 The Problematic of Play 34 The Grammar of Gameworks: Analyzing the Computer Game Complex 41 PART 2 INTRODUCTION TO PART 2 3. Capturing Imaginations: Rhetoric in the Art of Computer Game Development 71 Rhetorical Functions Revisited 78 Rhetoric in the Discourse of Game Developers 80 Working Through the Grammar of Gameworks: Agents, In®uences, Manifestations, and Transformative Locales 114 4. Making Meanings Out of Contradictions: The Work of Computer Game Reviewing 118 Computer Game Reviewing Online 120 Computer Game Reviewing in Print 126 Playing Up In®uence to In®uence Play 129 Reviewing the Meanings of the Computer Game Complex 139 5. The Economies of Black & White 140 De¤ning Economies 144 The “Purchase” of Natural Resources 149 The “Purchase” of Spiritual Resources 154 The “Purchase” of Temporal Resources 156 The Work of Black & White 157 Transformative Locales: Economic Force as Game Work 166 Epilogue 169 Appendices 171 Notes 205 Works Cited 219 Index 227 vi contents ...