The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies

A definitive guide to contemporary video game studies, this second edition has been fully revised and updated to address the ongoing theoretical and methodological development of game studies.

Expertly compiled by well-known video game scholars Mark J. P. Wolf and Bernard Perron, the Companion includes comprehensive and interdisciplinary models and approaches for analyzing video games, new perspectives on video games both as an art form and cultural phenomenon, explorations of the technical and creative dimensions of video games, and accounts of the political, social, and cultural dynamics of video games. Brand new to this second edition are chapters examining topics such as preservation; augmented, mixed, and virtual reality; eSports; disability; diversity; and identity, as well as a new section that specifically examines the industrial aspects of video games including digital distribution, game labor, triple-A games, indie games, and globalization. Each essay provides a lively and succinct summary of its target area, quickly bringing the reader up-to-date on the pertinent issues surrounding each aspect of the field, including references for further reading.

A comprehensive overview of the present state of video game studies that will undoubtedly prove invaluable to students, scholars, and game designers alike.

Mark J. P. Wolf is Professor in the Communication Department at Concordia University Wisconsin, whose books include The Video Game Theory Reader 1 and 2 (2003; 2008), The Video Game Explosion (2007), Myst and Riven: The World of the D’ni (2011), Before the Crash (2012), Building Imaginary Worlds (2012), The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies (2014), LEGO Studies (2014), Video Games Around the World (2015), Video Games and Gaming Culture (2016), Revisiting Imaginary Worlds (2017), Video Games FAQ (2017), The World of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (2017), The Routledge Companion to Imaginary Worlds (2017), The Routledge Companion to Media Technology and Obsolescence (2018), 101 Enigmatic Puzzles: Fractal Mazes, Quantum Chess, Anagram Sudoku, and More (2020), and Encyclopedia of Video Games (1st edition, 2012; 2nd Edition, 2021).

Bernard Perron is Professor of Film and Game Studies at Université de Montréal. He has among others coedited The Video Game Theory Reader 1 & 2 (2003; 2008), The Routledge Companion to Video Games Studies (2014) and Video Games and the Mind: Essays on Cognition, Affect and Emotion (2016). He has edited Horror Video Games: Essays on the Fusion of Fear and Play (2009). He has also written Silent Hill: The Terror Engine (2012) and The World of Scary Video Games: A Study in Videoludic Horror (2018). His research concentrates on video games, interactive cinema, the horror genre, and on narration, cognition, and the ludic dimension of narrative cinema.