With complex stories and stunning visuals eliciting intense emotional responses, coupled with opportunities for self-expression and problem solving, video games are a powerful medium to foster empathy, critical thinking, and creativity in players. As these games grow in popularity, ambition, and technological prowess, they become a legitimate art form, shedding old attitudes and misconceptions along the way. Examining the Evolution of Gaming and Its Impact on Social, Cultural, and Political Perspectives asks whether videogames have the power to transform a player and his or her beliefs from a sociopolitical perspective. Unlike traditional forms of storytelling, videogames allow users to immerse themselves in new worlds, situations, and politics. This publication surveys the landscape of videogames and analyzes the emergent gaming that shifts the definition and cultural effects of videogames. This book is a valuable resource to game designers and developers, sociologists, students of gaming, and researchers in relevant fields.
Keri Valentine is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education in the department of Curriculum and Instruction at West Virginia Universitys College of Education and Human Services. In addition to her role in the Mathematics Education program, she contributes to (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics) STEAM education transdisciplinary research endeavors as part of the WVU Center for Excellence in STEM Education. She earned her Ph.D. in Learning, Design, and Technology at The University of Georgia in 2014 where she conducted both design-based and postphenomenological research projects. One project includes designing a middle school mathematics learning environment integrating cases as alternative perspective with the goal of conveying complex relationships during the process of learning mathematics (see Space and Perspective http://spaceandperspective.com/). Her research is motivated by phenomenological questions that seek to understand how learning (especially shifts in perspective) manifests, especially related to complex spatial phenomenon. Recently, Keri collaborated with co-editor, Dr. Lucas Jensen, to both design, teach, and investigate summer game design camps for grades 5-12 learners, seeking to understand the design practices of young learners in these informal spaces. In addition to investigating learning and the design of formal and informal learning spaces, she also contributes to the field of qualitative inquiry, such as considering new ways we might conceptualize reflexive practice in living inquiry research.
Lucas John Jensen is an Assistant Professor in Leadership, Technology, and Human Development at Georgia Southern University. He has a B.A. in Political Science from Mississippi State University as well as two M.Eds from the University of Georgia in Social Science Education and Instructional Design and Development. For his Ph.D resarch in Learning, Design, and Technology at the University of Georgia he studied the use of Twitter hashtags in the classroom. His research interests include video game design in education, motivating online students, and instructional social media usage. Lucas has taught educational media development, innovative technology usage, instructional design, and visual literacy. He also cooked crawfish in a gas station in Mississippi for a while. For the past seven years, he has been an instructor and counselor for a series of design-based summer and after-school youth programs dedicated to video game design electronic and hip-hop music, creative entrepreneurship, tabletop and role-playing games, among other subjects. Before coming to academia and education, Lucas worked for over a decade as a music industry professional, primarily in publicity and public relations. He has been playing video games since 1979 and has no intention of stopping. His favorite game of all time is Super Metroid.
