This introduction is a short survey of social science literature on video games. It is not meant as a comprehensive review. Instead its goal is to present some of the themes and questions that prompted us to bring the articles in this issue together. The essay begins by outlining some of the recent contributions from the social sciences to video game studies—with a particular emphasis on distinct forms of video game interactivity—and concludes with suggestions for possible future directions for this research.
Aarseth, E. ( 1997). Cybertext: Perspective on Ergodic literature. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
2.
Aarseth, E. ( 2004). Genre trouble: Narrativism and the art of simulation . In Wardrip-Fruin Noah & Harrigan Pat (Eds.), First person: New media as story, performance, and game (pp. 45-55). Cambridge: The MIT Press.
3.
Atkins, B. ( 2006). What are we really looking at? The future-orientation of video game play. Games and Culture, 1, 127-140.
4.
Banks, J.A.L. ( 2005). Opening the production pipeline: Unruly creators. Paper Presented at the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) Annual Conference, Vancouver, University of Vancouver, June 16-20. Retrieved from http://www.digra.org/dl
5.
Boellstorff, T. ( 2008). Coming of age in Second Life: An anthropologist explores the virtually human. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
6.
Bogost, I. ( 2006). Comparative video game criticism. Games and Culture, 1, 41-46.
7.
Brookey, R.A., & Booth, P. ( 2006). Restricted play: Synergy and the limits of interactivity in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Video Game. Games and Culture, 1, 214-230.
8.
Caillois, R. ( 1961). Man, play and games (Meyer Barash, Trans.). New York: Free Press of Glencoe. (Original work published 1958).
9.
Castells, M. ( 1996). The rise of the networked society: The information age: Economy, society and culture. (Vol. I). Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
10.
Castells, M. ( 2001). The Internet galaxy: Reflection on the Internet, business, and Society. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
11.
Castronova, E. ( 2005). Synthetic worlds: The business and culture of online games. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
12.
Castronova, E. ( 2006). On the research value of large games: Natural experiments in Norrath and Camelot. Games and Culture, 1, 163-186.
13.
de Peuter, G., & Dyer-Witheford, N. (2005). A playful multitude? Mobilising and counter-mobilising immaterial game labour. Fibreculture Journal, 5. Retrieved from http://journal.fibreculture.org/issue5/depeuter_dyerwitheford.html
14.
Dyer-Witheford, N. ( 1999). The work in digital play: Video gaming’s transnational and gendered division of labor. The Journal of International Communication, 6, 69-93.
15.
Dyer-Witheford, N. ( 2002). Cognitive capital contested: The class composition of video and computer game industry. Multitudes, 10. Retrieved from http://multitudes.samizdat.net/article268.html
16.
Escobar, A. ( 1994). Welcome to Cyberia: Notes on an anthropology of cyberculture . Current Anthropology, 35, 211-232.
17.
Eskelinen, M. ( 2004). Towards computer game studies. In Noah Wardrip-Fruin & Harrigan Pat (Eds.), First person: New media as story, performance, and game (pp. 36-44). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
18.
Galloway, A.R. ( 2006). Gaming: essays on algorithmic culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
19.
Gee, J.P. ( 2006). Why game studies now? Video games: A new art form. Games and Culture, 1, 58-61.
20.
Golub, A. ( 2010). Being in the world (of Warcraft): Raiding, realism, and knowledge production in a massively multiplayer online game. Anthropological Quarterly, 83, 17-46.
21.
Gray, C.H., & Driscoll, M. ( 1992). What’s real about virtual reality? Anthropology of, and in, cyberspace. Visual Anthropology Review, 8, 39-47.
22.
Hayles, N.K. ( 2004). Refiguring the posthuman. Comparative Literature Studies, 41, 311-316.
23.
Hayot, E., & Wesp, E. ( 2004). Style: Strategy and Mimesis in Ergodic literature. Comparative Literature Studies, 41, 404-423.
24.
Huizinga, J. ( 1980). In (R. F. C. Hull (Ed.), Homo Ludens: A study of the play-element in culture. London , England: Routledge. (Original work published 1938)Trans.).
25.
Jenkins, H. ( 2006). Fans, bloggers, and gamers: Exploring participatory culture . New York: NYU Press.
26.
Kline, S., Dyer-Witheford, N., & de Peuter, G. ( 2003). Digital play: The interaction of technology, culture, and marketing. Montreal, Canada: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
27.
Kücklich, J. ( 2005). Precarious playbour: Modders and the digital games industry . Fibreculture Journal, 5. Retrieved from http://journal.fibreculture.org/issue5/kucklich.html
28.
Malaby, T.M. ( 2006). Parlaying value: Capital in and beyond virtual worlds . Games and Culture, 1, 141-162.
29.
Malaby, T.M. ( 2007). Beyond play: A new approach to games. Games and Culture, 2, 95-113.
30.
Malaby, T.M. ( 2009). Making virtual worlds: Linden Lab and Second Life. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
31.
Manovich, L. ( 2001). The language of new media. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
32.
Miller, T. ( 2006). Gaming for beginners. Games and Culture , 1, 5-12.
33.
Myers, D. ( 2006). Signs, symbols, games, and play. Games and Culture, 1, 47-51.
34.
Nieborg, D.B., & van der Graaf, S. (2008). The mod industries? The industrial logic of non-market game production. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 11, 177-195.
35.
Pearce, C. ( 2006). Productive play: Game culture from the bottom up. Games and Culture, 1, 17-24.
36.
Poster, M. ( 2001). What’s the matter with the Internet. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
37.
Postigo, H. ( 2003). From Pong to Planet Quake: Post-industrial transitions from leisure to work. Information, Communication, and Society , 6, 593-607.
38.
Postigo, H. ( 2007). Of mods and modders: Chasing down the value of fan-based digital game modifications. Games and Culture, 2, 300-312.
39.
Postigo, H. ( 2008). Video game appropriation through modifications: Attitudes concerning intellectual property among fans and modders. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies , 14, 59-74.
40.
Rieser, M., & Zapp, A. (Eds.). (2002). Thenewscreenmedia:Cinema/art/narrative. London, England: BFI.
41.
Simon, B. ( 2006). Beyond cyberspatial Flaneurie: On the analytic potential of living with digital games. Games and Culture, 1, 62-67.
42.
Sotamaa, O. ( 2005). Creative user-centred design practices: Lessons from game cultures. In L. Haddon, E. Mante, B. Sapio , K. Kommonen, L. Fortunati & A. Kant (Eds.), Everyday innovators: Researching the role of users in shaping ICTs (pp. 104-116). London, England: Springer Verlag.
43.
Sotamaa, O. ( 2007a). On modder labour, commodification of play, and mod competitions . First Monday, 12. Retrieved from http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2006/1881
44.
Sotamaa, O. ( 2007b). Let me take you to the movies: Productive players, commodification, and transformative play. Convergence, 13, 383-401.
45.
Steinkuehler, Constance. ( 2006). The mangle of play. Games and Culture , 1, 199-213.
46.
Terranova, T. ( 2000). Free labor: Producing culture for the digital economy . Social Text, 18, 33-58.
47.
Wardrip-Fruin, N., & Harrigan, P. (Eds.). (2004). First person: New media as story, performance, and game. Cambridge, MA : The MIT Press.
48.
Wardrip-Fruin, N., & Montfort, N. (Eds.). (2003). The new media reader. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press .
49.
Wilson, S.M., & Peterson, L.C. (2002). The anthropology of online communities. Annual Review of Anthropology, 31, 449-467.
50.
Wolf, M.J.P. ( 2006). Game studies and beyond. Games and Culture , 1, 116-118.
51.
Yee, N. ( 2006). The labor of fun: How video games blur the boundaries of work and play. Games and Culture, 1, 68-71.
