In the past decade, a bubble cash review shows that 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.
Table of Contents
Part I: Social Aspects of Digital Gaming
1 Introduction: Multiplayer Gaming as Social Media Entertainment – Thorsten Quandt and Sonja Kröger
2 Design Principles: Use and Misuse – Richard A. Bartle
3 (Multiplayer) Gaming Around the Globe? A Comparison of Gamer Surveys in Four Countries –
Thorsten Quandt , Vivian Chen , Frans Mäyrä, and Jan Van Looy
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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 – Georg Valtin , Daniel Pietschmann , Benny Liebold , and Peter Ohler
5 Happy Together? A Gender-Comparative Study into Social Practices in Digital Gaming – Lotte Vermeulen and Jan Van Looy
6 Player-Centered Game Design: Expectations and Perceptions of Social Interaction in RPGs and FPSs as Predictors of Rich Game Experience – Christina Schumann
7 Analyzing AI in NPCs: An Analysis of Twelve Games – Magnus Johansson , Bjön Straat, Henrik Warpefelt , and Harko Verhagen
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Part III: Online Gaming
8 Party Animal or Dinner for One: Are Online Gamers Socially Inept? – Rachel Kowert and Julian A. Oldmeadow
9 “There Is No Place Like Home”: The Potential of Commercial Online Gaming Platforms to Become Third Places – Jeffrey Wimmer
10 It’s a Quest(ion) of Timing – Torill Elvira Mortensen
11 Social Interaction Design in MMOs – Nelson Zagalo and Anibal Goncalves
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Part IV: Co-Located and Console Gaming
12 Get Together: Console Playing as a Group Experience – Sonja Kröger and Thorsten Quandt
13 Family and Games: Digital Game Playing in the Social Context of the Family – Lina Eklund
14 Playing to Win?: Measuring the Correlation Between Biometric Responses and Social Interaction in Co-Located Social Gaming – Steve Bromley , Pejman Mirza -Babaei , Graham McAllister, and Jonathan Napier
15 Anything but Speechless: Face-to-Face-Communication During Co-Located Gaming – Judith Ackermann
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Part V: Risks and Challenges of Social Gaming
16 An Overview of Online Gaming Addiction – Mark D. Griffiths
17 Living in a Virtual World? An Excessive Gamer Typology – Emese Domahidi and Thorsten Quandt
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 – Antonius J. van Rooij , Tim M. Schoenmakers , Regina J.J.M. van den Eijnden , Ad A. Vermulst , and Dike van de Mheen
19 Isolated Violence, Isolated Players, Isolated Aggression: The Social Realism of Experimental Research on Digital Games and Aggression – Malte Elson and Johannes Breuer
20 Self-Discrepancy and MMORPGs: Testing the Moderating Effects of Avatar Identification and Pathological Gaming in World of Warcraft – Jan Van Looy , Cedric Courtois , and Melanie De Vocht
For more details on this book please visit http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415828864/