The Business and Culture of Digital Games

Aphra Kerr is Research Fellow at the Centre for Media Research at the University of Ulster and was previously Research Fellow at the Centre for Society, Technology and Media at Dublin City University

Introduction Digital Games as Text Digital Games as Cultural Industry Global Networks and Cultures of Production Digital Game Players, Game Pleasures and Play Contexts Non-Entertainment Uses of Digital Games Conclusion

"Fusing digital technologies and cultural creativity, exploiting global networks of production and distribution with little regulation and embodying the liberal ideas of individual choice and agency, digital games seem to epitomize global post-industrial neo-liberal cultural products. Kerr finds reality a bit more complex. For all their globality, she says digital games must still attend to local cultural practices, tastes, and social structures if they are to succeed across the major markets. She set out to establish just how global and new digital games are, and to assess the findings in terms of previous media and social theories." -- Reference & Research Book News "I was intrigued by the behind-the-scenes information, as the book is riddled with interesting facts only those in the digital game industry know. Kerr offers a large amount of information . . . this is a timely book that contributes much to the understanding of video games and the culture associated with them." -- Eric K. Cooper * Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books *