Playing American

Open-World Videogames and the Reproduction of American Culture
1. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-3-11-124484-6
Verlag: De Gruyter

Buch, Englisch, 229 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 230 mm, Gewicht: 478 g

Reihe: Video games and the humanities

Videogames have always depicted representations of American culture, but how exactly they feed back into this culture is less obvious. Advocating an action-based understanding of both videogames and culture, this book delineates how aspects of American culture are reproduced transnationally through popular open-world videogames. Playing American proposes an analytic focus on open-world videogames' "ambient operations" and traces practices of "playing American" through the stages of videogame development, gameplay, and reception. Three case studies – concentrating on the Grand Theft Auto, Watch Dogs, and Red Dead Redemption franchises, respectively – highlight different figurations of "playing American." Thematic foci range from public discourses on systemic racism and neoliberal capitalism to the justification of real-world surveillance practices and to the reconfiguration of the Western in the digital age. Playing American provides those interested in either videogames or American culture with a fresh angle and new concepts regarding its subject matters. It demonstrates that videogames are agents of cultural reproduction that do distinct cultural work for American culture in the twenty-first century.

Zielgruppe

Cultural scholars, historians and researchers in the field of vid / Kulturwissenschaftler/-innen, Historiker/-innen und Forschende im

Autoren/Hrsg.

Schoppmeier, Sören

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Pädagogik Geschichte der Pädagogik, Richtungen in der Pädagogik
• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Digital Lifestyle Computerspiele, Internetspiele
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Populärkultur
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Freizeitsoziologie, Konsumsoziologie, Alltagssoziologie, Populärkultur

Über Autor(innen)

Sören Schoppmeier, freier Wissenschaftler, Berlin, Deutschland.

Sören Schoppmeier, freier Wissenschaftler, Berlin, Deutschland.