Abstract
“The predominant majority of all visitors to the fair, however, are dressed in the computer gamers’ standard look: dark sloppy rags sometimes smelling a bit foul” – this is how visitors to the computer convention “Gamescom,” which took place in Cologne in August 2011, were characterized in a television report of the private German RTL channel. Fans of computer games were also described as really curious figures that had few social contacts and would not be successful in finding girlfriends. The reaction of the gamers’ community came promptly: innumerable complaints and often angry protests were articulated via e-mail, social networks, and other channels like www.programmbeschwerde.de. RTL and the editorial journalist had to take in back and publish an apology.
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- 1.
The original German quotation from the report broadcast on August 19, 2011 runs as follows: “Die überwiegende Mehrzahl aller Messebesucher trägt aber den Computerspieler-Einheitslook: Dunkle Schlabberklamotten, die manchmal etwas streng riechen.”
- 2.
See http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/web/0,1518,782546,00.html (Accessed 27 Aug 2011).
- 3.
The names of computer games are put in italics throughout the book. Further references like year of publication, developer, and publisher are available in a list of games (gameography) provided at the end of each chapter that contains game references.
- 4.
As long as we are not explicitly referring to particular hardware or software, denominations like video game, computer game, and digital game are used synonymously in this introduction. The referred subject is based on (digital) computer technology and usually displays a game world (or playing field) on a video screen (“video” is Latin and means “I see”).
- 5.
Early approaches still cover a number of perspectives and disciplines like game design (e.g., Crawford 1982), cultural studies (e.g., Fiske and Watts 1985; Skirrow 1986), education (e.g., Gagnon 1984; Knoll et al. 1986), social sciences and youth research (Myers 1984; Rogge 1985), psychology (e.g., Greenfield 1984; Loftus and Loftus 1983), and (early) computer science (Turing et al. 1953; Williams 1970).
- 6.
Regarding publications in English or German, we can refer to influential monographs (like Aarseth 1997; Gee 2003; Juul 2005; Klimmt 2006), readers (e.g., Cassell and Jenkins 1999; Wolf and Perron 2003; Fritz and Fehr 2003; Neitzel et al. 2004), handbooks (e.g., Raessens and Goldstein 2005; Vorderer and Bryant 2006), and introductions (e.g., Rutter and Bryce 2006; Mäyrä 2008) – to name just a few.
- 7.
We are aware of the fact that other (e.g., discourse-analytical or perception-oriented) approaches are skeptical about the possibility and/or usefulness of searching for specific features in order to describe, analyze, and understand a medium. The corresponding debate is to some extent mirrored in the subsequent chapters of this volume.
- 8.
The issue of computer games and (informal) learning is taken up in some of the chapters of Part V in this volume.
- 9.
The consideration of more essential characteristics is left to further discussion. The aim here is just to highlight exemplifying samples.
- 10.
The games mentioned in our summaries of the contributions are not incorporated into the gameography of this introductory chapter. The game references (here for Cheetahmen 2) can be found in the corresponding chapter’s gameography (here Ruffino, Chap. 7).
- 11.
Unlike Mukherjee, she does not use the term identity. Her focus lies on development rather than a concept of the self. However, there is common ground in so far as both authors discuss the possible impact of playing digital games on the player.
- 12.
Until 2008, this annual convention took place in Leipzig. In 2009, however, it has been replaced by the Gamescom in Cologne.
- 13.
The authors, for instance, report on a “virtual” party of a Swiss guild in WoW after the Swiss national football team had won a match during the football World Cup.
- 14.
One lesson to be learnt is that the use of new technologies cannot compensate pedagogical or didactic weaknesses such as building upon outdated learning theories (as can be observed in many e-learning scenarios).
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Fromme, J., Unger, A. (2012). Computer Games and Digital Game Cultures: An Introduction. In: Fromme, J., Unger, A. (eds) Computer Games and New Media Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2777-9_1
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