Varieties of the Gaming Experience - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1412854717 ISBN 13: 9781412854719

Publisher: Routledge, 2014

Synopsis

The games that human societies devised over the centuries can be considered one of the most comprehensive and fertile symbolic systems ever created by human ingenuity. In all societies, members feel compelled to interact and communicate with each other as much as possible. As linguistic creatures, humans use language to establish social and interpersonal contacts. Games are a device to enable such connections.

Robert Perinbanayagam examines how players value games. He assesses games as systems that embody metaphysics and pragmatic action. He then examines various religious ideas and how participants reference respective approaches to game playing.

Perinbanayagam argues that games are forms of activity in which the human agent as an actor engages with others in various interactional situations. Such engagement creates dramas in which agents assume identities, give play to emotions and enrich their selves. He also examines the issue of game writing, particularly how selected writers have used game structures as narrative devices in their work.

About this title

About the Author:

Robert Perinbanayagam is professor of sociology (emeritus) at Hunter College, City University of New York. He is recipient of the G. H. Mead Award and the C. H. Cooley Award from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction, and the award from the theory section of the American Sociological Association. 

Review:

“Perinbanayagam’s new book on games is a thorough but still handy treatment of the gaming world, engaging and thoughtful. . . . The book is a joy to read.”

—Alessandro Tietz and Michael Dellwing, Symbolic Interaction

“In his new study Robert Perinbanayagam continues his probing inquiry into the vital role that gaming experience plays in the constitution, reproduction, and transformation of human culture and society. The philosophy of playfulness and creativity, the mythological and religious significance of sports, the role of chance and skill in everyday life, the art of living and the practiced ability to think and act strategically – this erudite survey addresses a host of issues that should interest a wide audience of general readers and scholars fascinated with the ludic dimension of human existence.”

—Dmitri N. Shalin, professor and director, UNLV Center for Democratic Culture

“Perinbanayagam shows, with a Weberian sweep, how games are at the heart of all civilizations.  He also has both blades, micro and macro, which allows him to construct a comprehensive, new theory of games.”

—Norbert Wiley, professor emeritus, University of Illinois, Urbana

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1412854717
• ISBN 13: 9781412854719
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176
• Editor: Perinbanayagam Robert