Toward a Gameic World bridges the gap between Japanese popular culture studies and game studies by encouraging a dialogue centered around Japanese-designed video games and social issues. It examines four contemporary Japanese video games in terms of how they engage with some of Japan's biggest social and personal issues, including traumas: natural disasters (Disaster Report), a declining birthrate and aging population (Catherine), nuclear proliferation (Metal Gear Solid V); and youth social withdrawal (The World Ends with You). This book asks what some of the positive benefits are of working through a site of trauma from within a video game, and how games might teach us about Japanese culture and society through new kinds of interactive narratives, different from literature and film. The book proposes four new strategies of engagement with video games to explore the productive tensions that emerge at the boundaries of virtual reality, augmented reality, and gamification in contemporary Japan.
| ISBN: | 9780472056149 |
| Publication date: | 3rd May 2023 |
| Author: | Ben Whaley |
| Publisher: | The University of Michigan Press an imprint of University of Michigan Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 186 pages |
| Series: | Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies |
| Genres: |
Ethnic studies Media studies |
Toward a Gameic World bridges the gap between Japanese popular culture studies and game studies by encouraging a dialogue centered around Japanese-designed video games and social issues. It examines four contemporary Japanese video games in terms of how they engage with some of Japan's biggest social and personal issues, including traumas: natural disasters (Disaster Report), a declining birthrate and aging population (Catherine), nuclear proliferation (Metal Gear Solid V); and youth social withdrawal (The World Ends with You). This book asks what some of the positive benefits are of working through a site of trauma from within a video game, and how games might teach us about Japanese culture and society through new kinds of interactive narratives, different from literature and film. The book proposes four new strategies of engagement with video games to explore the productive tensions that emerge at the boundaries of virtual reality, augmented reality, and gamification in contemporary Japan.
Toward a Gameic World features in the following genres: Ethnic studies, Media studies
Toward a Gameic World is available in Hardback, Paperback
Toward a Gameic World was written by Ben Whaley and published by The University of Michigan Press an imprint of University of Michigan Press
Toward a Gameic World has 186 pages
Yes it is part of Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies series