Playing Video Games: Motives, Responses, and Consequences - Lea's Communication Series for Gamers, Educators, and Researchers

How far video games have come since Pong and Space Invaders. The contributors to this book undertook serious analyses of current popular video games, some 25 or so years since those early games. The book is not about the technological aspects of how games are written. Though some chapters have brief explanations. Instead the focus here is on higher level issues.These include asking what makes a game addictive; something which is certainly not of abstract academic interest. By now, the display resolutions are so fine, and the updating of the scenes so smooth that a player might be able to immerse himself into a virtual environment. A willing suspension of disbelief indeed! The emotions of a player are studied, as a clue to addiction.Another aspect is the rise of Massive Multiplayer Online Games. These involve collaborative and competitive efforts between many human players, in an environment run on central servers that their machines login remotely to. The social mores of some MMOG universes are explored. On this topic, much more can probably be written than what the book only relatively briefly covers.