Game studies is a rapidly developing field across the world, with a growing number of dedicated courses addressing video games and digital play as significant phenomena in contemporary everyday life and media cultures. Seth Giddings looks to fill a gap by focusing on the relationship between the actual and virtual worlds of play in everyday life. He addresses both the continuities and differences between digital play and longer-established modes of play (role-play, play with toys, etc.). The 'gameworlds' title indicates both the virtual world designed into the videogame and the wider environments in which play is manifested: social relationships between players; hardware and software; between the virtual worlds of the game and the media universes they extend (e.g. Harry Potter, Lego, Star Wars); and the gameworlds generated by children's imaginations and creativity (through talk and role-play, drawings and outdoor play). The gameworld raises questions about who, and what, is in play.Drawing on recent theoretical work in science and technology studies and new media studies, a key theme is the material and embodied character of these gameworlds and their components (players' bodies, computer hardware, toys, virtual physics, the physical environment, etc.). Gameworlds uses each chapter to discuss small-scale ethnographic studies and close analyses of particular videogames, with shorter sections addressing the theoretical and conceptual issues that arise. Building on detailed case studies, this is the first book to explore the nature of play in the virtual worlds of video games and how this play relates to, and crosses over into, everyday play in the actual world.

New Media: A Critical Introduction is a comprehensive introduction to the culture, history, technologies and theories of new media. Written especially for students, the book considers the ways in which 'new media' really are new, assesses the claims that a media and technological revolution has taken place and formulates new ways for media studies to respond to new technologies. The authors introduce a wide variety of topics including: how to define the characteristics of new media; social and political uses of new media and new communications; new media technologies, politics and globalization; everyday life and new media; theories of interactivity, simulation, the new media economy; cybernetics, cyberculture, the history of automata and artificial life. Substantially updated from the first edition to cover recent theoretical developments, approaches and significant technological developments, this is the best and by far the most comprehensive textbook available on this exciting and expanding subject. At www.newmediaintro.com you will find: additional international case studies with online references specially created You Tube videos on machines and digital photography a new 'Virtual Camera' case study, with links to short film examples useful links to related websites, resources and research sites further online reading links to specific arguments or discussion topics in the book links to key scholars in the field of new media.

The study of new media has developed within a wide range of academic disciplines and theoretical paradigms and has generated a great deal of excitement, hype, and confusion. The New Media & Technocultures Reader gathers texts which map the cultural implications of new media, encapsulating and challenging key debates, theoretical positions, and approaches to research.

The New Media & Technocultures Reader offers students further reading on and exploration of key issues and topics raised in the textbook New Media: A Critical Introduction. The Reader draws on various disciplinary stances (including visual culture; media and cultural history; media theory; media production; philosophy and the history of the sciences; political economy and sociology), offering readers a rich and interdisciplinary resource. Critical and accessible editorial commentary guides the reader between the extracts and through the debates.

New Media: A Critical Introduction is a comprehensive introduction to the culture, history, technologies and theories of new media. Written especially for students, the book considers the ways in which 'new media' really are new, assesses the claims that a media and technological revolution has taken place and formulates new ways for media studies to respond to new technologies.

The authors introduce a wide variety of topics including: how to define the characteristics of new media; social and political uses of new media and new communications; new media technologies, politics and globalization; everyday life and new media; theories of interactivity, simulation, the new media economy; cybernetics, cyberculture, the history of automata and artificial life.

Substantially updated from the first edition to cover recent theoretical developments, approaches and significant technological developments, this is the best and by far the most comprehensive textbook available on this exciting and expanding subject.

At www.newmediaintro.com you will find:

additional international case studies with online references

specially created You Tube videos on machines and digital photography

a new ‘Virtual Camera’ case study, with links to short film examples

useful links to related websites, resources and research sites

further online reading links to specific arguments or discussion topics in the book

links to key scholars in the field of new media.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations. List of Case Studies. Authors’ Biographies. Preface to the Second Edition Introduction The Book’s Purpose. Our Approach to the Subject. The Book’s Historical Dimension. The Book’s Emphasis on Wider Questions of Culture and Technology. The Book’s Organisation. How to Use the Book. The Book’s Parts Part 1: New Media and New Technologies 1.1 New Media: Do we Know What They Are? 1.2 The Characteristics of New Media: Some Defining Concepts 1.3 Change and Continuity 1.4 What Kind of History? 1.5 Who was Dissatisfied with Old Media? 1.6 New Media: Determining Or Determined? Bibliography Part 2: New Media and Visual Culture 2.1 What Happened to Virtual Reality? 2.2 The Virtual and Visual Culture 2.3 The Digital Virtual 2.4 Immersion: A History 2.5 Perspective, Camera, Software 2.6 Virtual Images/Images of the Virtual 2.7 Digital Cinema. Bibliography Part 3: Networks Users and Economics 3.1 Introduction 3.2 What Is the Internet? 3.3 Historicising Net Studies 3.4 Economics and Networked Media Culture 3.5 Political Economy 3.6 The Social Form of New Media 3.7 Limits on Commercial Influence 3.8 Globalisation, Neo-Liberalism and the Internet 3.9 The Digital Divide 3.10 Boom and Bust in the Digital Economy 3.11 Intellectual Property Rights, Determined and Determining 3.12 Music as New Media 3.13 The Long Tail 3.14 Going Viral 3.15 Fragmentation and Convergence 3.16 Wiki Worlds and Web 2.0 3.17 Identities and Communities Online 3.18 Being Anonymous 3.19 Belonging 3.20 Living in the Interface 3.21 The Internet and the Public Sphere 3.22 User-Generated Content: We are all Fans Now 3.23 YouTube and Post Television 3.24 Conclusion. Bibliography Part 4: New Media In Everyday Life 4.1 Everyday Life In Cyberspace 4.2 Everyday Life In a Media Home 4.3 The Technological Shaping of Everyday Life 4.4 The Everyday Posthuman: New Media and Identity 4.5 Gameplay 4.6 Conclusion: Everyday Cyberculture. Bibliography Part 5: Cyberculture: Technology, Nature and Culture 5.1 Cyberculture and Cybernetics 5.2 Revisiting Determinism: Physicalism, Humanism and Technology 5.3 Biological Technologies: The History of Automata 5.4 Theories of Cyberculture. Bibliography Glossary Index

The study of new media has developed within a wide range of academic disciplines and theoretical paradigms and has generated a great deal of excitement, hype, and confusion. The New Media & Technocultures Reader gathers texts which map the cultural implications of new media, encapsulating and challenging key debates, theoretical positions, and approaches to research.

The New Media & Technocultures Reader offers students further reading on and exploration of key issues and topics raised in the textbook New Media: A Critical Introduction. The Reader draws on various disciplinary stances (including visual culture; media and cultural history; media theory; media production; philosophy and the history of the sciences; political economy and sociology), offering readers a rich and interdisciplinary resource. Critical and accessible editorial commentary guides the reader between the extracts and through the debates.

This book is open access and available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by Knowledge Unlatched. Game studies is a rapidly developing field across the world, with a growing number of dedicated courses addressing video games and digital play as significant phenomena in contemporary everyday life and media cultures. Seth Giddings looks to fill a gap by focusing on the relationship between the actual and virtual worlds of play in everyday life. He addresses both the continuities and differences between digital play and longer-established modes of play. The 'gameworlds' title indicates both the virtual world designed into the videogame and the wider environments in which play is manifested: social relationships between players; hardware and software; between the virtual worlds of the game and the media universes they extend (e.g. Pokemon, Harry Potter, Lego, Star Wars); and the gameworlds generated by children's imaginations and creativity (through talk and role-play, drawings and outdoor play). The gameworld raises questions about who, and what, is in play. Drawing on recent theoretical work in science and technology studies, games studies and new media studies, a key theme is the material and embodied character of these gameworlds and their components (players' bodies, computer hardware, toys, virtual physics, and the physical environment). Building on detailed small-scale ethnographic case studies, Gameworlds is the first book to explore the nature of play in the virtual worlds of video games and how this play relates to, and crosses over into, everyday play in the actual world.