In the past decade, digital games have become a widely accepted form of media entertainment, moving from the traditional 'core gamer' community into the mainstream media market.
With millions of people now enjoying gaming as interactive entertainment there has been a huge increase in interest in social multiplayer gaming activities. However, despite the explosive growth in the field over the past decade, many aspects of social gaming still remain unexplored, especially from a media and communication studies perspective.
Multiplayer: Social Aspects of Digital Gaming is the first edited volume of its kind that takes a closer look at the various forms of human interaction in and around digital games, providing an overview of debates, past and present.
The book is divided into five sections that explore the following areas:
Social Aspects of Digital Gaming
Social Interactions in Virtual Worlds
Online Gaming
Co-located and Console Gaming
Risks and Challenges of Social Gaming
This engaging interdisciplinary book will appeal to upper level students, postgrads and researchers in games research, specifically those focusing on new media and digital games, as well as researchers in media studies and mass communication.
Author(s): Quandt, Thorsten; Kröger, Sonja
Series: Routledge Studies in European Communication Research and Education
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Year: 2014
Language: English
Pages: 271
Tags: Internet games Social aspects Shared virtual environments
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
List of Contributors
Part I Social Aspects of Digital Gaming
1 Introduction: Multiplayer Gaming as Social Media Entertainment
2 Design Principles: Use and Misuse
3 (Multiplayer) Gaming Around the Globe? A Comparison of Gamer Surveys in Four Countries
Part II Social Interaction in Virtual Worlds
4 Methodology of Measuring Social Immersion in Online Role-Playing Games: Exemplary Experimental Research on Social Interactions in Virtual Worlds
5 Happy Together? A Gender-Comparative Study into Social Practices in Digital Gaming
6 Player-Centered Game Design: Expectations and Perceptions of Social Interaction in RPGs and FPSs as Predictors of Rich Game Experience
7 Analyzing AI in NPCs: An Analysis of Twelve Games
Part III Online Gaming
8 Party Animal or Dinner for One: Are Online Gamers Socially Inept?
9 “There Is No Place Like Home”: The Potential of Commercial Online Gaming Platforms to Become Third Places
10 It’s a Quest(ion) of Timing
11 Social Interaction Design in MMOs
Part IV Co-Located and Console Gaming
12 Get Together: Console Playing as a Group Experience
13 Family and Games: Digital Game Playing in the Social Context of the Family
14 Playing to Win? Measuring the Correlation Between Biometric Responses and Social Interaction in Co-Located Social Gaming
15 Anything But Speechless: Face-to-Face-Communication During Co-Located Gaming
Part V Risks and Challenges of Social Gaming
16 An Overview of Online Gaming Addiction
17 Living in a Virtual World? An Excessive Gamer Typology
18 Friendship Quality Matters for Multiplayer Gamers: The Role of Online and Real-Life Friendship Quality in the Relationship Between Game Addiction and Psychological Well-Being in a Sample of Adolescent Online Gamers
19 Isolated Violence, Isolated Players, Isolated Aggression:The Social Realism of Experimental Research on Digital Games and Aggression
20 Self-Discrepancy and MMORPGs: Testing the Moderating Effects of Avatar Identification and Pathological Gaming in World of Warcraft
Index
