Abstract
Game studies researchers have struggled with definitions of genre, defaulting to definitions that highlight game content and interaction differences. These categorizations focus on the feature-based nature of games and are not particularly useful for educational researchers interested in how games facilitate co-production and sharing among peers. A rhetorical conception of genre broadens our understanding of games, such that they become aspects of an environment and community where player participation and learning occur. The authors offer a description of one game that works as an exemplar in its dynamic engagement of players in building narrative objects (i.e. paratexts) that extend and co-produce an engaging learning world: This War of Mine. Ultimately the authors suggest that expansive play-learning can occur around games and within their genre ecologies.
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Mehlenbacher, B., Kampe, C. (2017). Expansive Genres of Play: Getting Serious About Game Genres for the Design of Future Learning Environments. In: Miller, C., Kelly, A. (eds) Emerging Genres in New Media Environments. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40295-6_6
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