Description:
From Pong to virtual reality, Understanding Video Games, 4th Edition, takes video game studies into the next decade of the twenty-first century, highlighting changes in the area, including mobile, social, and casual gaming.
Review Quotes:
"Understanding Video Games: The Essential Introduction is a must-read primer for any student considering game studies. A handbook that is clear, precise, up-to-date and extremely useful for tackling video games, a cultural and technical phenomenon of great complexity and full of nuances." -- Belen Mainer Blance, Professor and Director of the Videogames Department at University Francisco de Vitoria
Praise for the previous edition:
"A user-friendly, eminently readable account that has something to offer to both the neophyte and the specialist, Understanding Video Games is the text that is needed to secure a durable place for game studies in the academic curriculum." -- Marie-Laure Ryan, author of Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media
"As the core text for my introductory games course, Understanding Video Games has remained an essential guide since its first edition. Ever attentive to the practicalities of classroom needs, this superb update presents its most complete and accessible overview of game studies yet." -- Soraya Murray, University of California, Santa Cruz
"Understanding Video Games is an admirably comprehensive treatment of the video game industry, history, culture, and theory. This new edition remains the best general textbook I've found for teaching video games in the college classroom." -- Alf Seegert, University of Utah