Utopic Dreams and Apocalyptic Fantasies

Few books have attempted to contextualize the importance of video game play with a critical social, cultural and political perspective that raises the question of the significance of work, pleasure, fantasy and play in the modern world. The study of why video game play is "fun" has often been relegated to psychology, or the disciplines of cultural anthropology, literary and media studies, communications and other assorted humanistic and social science disciplines. In Utopic Dreams and Apocalyptic Fantasies, Talmadge Wright, David Embrick and Andras Lukacs invites us to move further and consider questions on appropriate methods of researching games, understanding the carnival quality of modern life, the role of marketing in altering game narratives, and the role of fantasy and desire in modern video game play. Embracing an approach that combines a cultural and/or critical studies approach with a sociological understanding of this new media moves the debate beyond simple media effects, moral panics, and industry boosterism to one of asking critical questions, what does modern video game play "mean," what questions should we be asking, and what can sociological research contribute to answering these questions. This collection includes works which use textual analysis, audience based research, symbolic interactionism, as well as political economic and psychoanalytic perspectives to illuminate areas of inquiry that preserves the pleasure of modern play while asking tough questions about what such pleasure means in a world divided by political, economic, cultural and social inequalities.

J. Talmadge Wright is associate professor of sociology at Loyola University-Chicago.
David Embrick is assistant professor of sociology at Loyola University-Chicago.
Andras Lukacs is a PhD candidate in sociology at Loyola University-Chicago.

Part 1 I. Introduction
Chapter 2 1. Introduction to Utopic Dreams and Apocalyptic Fantasies
Part 3 II. Modern Play and Technology-Defining Digital Play
Chapter 4 2. The Transformation of Cultural Play
Chapter 5 3. "Is He 'Avin a Laugh?": The Importance of Fun to Virtual Play Studies
Chapter 6 4. Capitalism, Contradiction and the Carnivalesque: Alienated Labor vs. Ludic Play
Chapter 7 5. Sneaking Mission: Late Imperial America and Metal Gear Solid
8 6. I Blog, Therefore I Am: Virtual Embodiment and the Self
9 III. Marketing Culture and the Video Game Business
Chapter 10 7. Marketing Computer Games: Reinforcing or Changing Stereotypes?
Chapter 11 8. Censoring Violence in Virtual Dystopia: Issues in the Rating of Videogames in Japan and of Japanese Videogames outside Japan
Chapter 12 9. Coding Culture: Video game Localization and the Practice of Mediating Cultural Difference
Part 13 IV.Researching Video Game Play
Chapter 14 10. Beyond Sheeping the Moon - Methodological Considerations for Critical Studies of Digital Play
Chapter 15 11. The Chorus of the Dead: Roles, Identity Formation, and Ritual Processes inside a FPS multiplayer online game
Chapter 16 12. The Quantitative/Qualitative Antimony in Virtual World Studies
Part 17 V.Summary and Conclusions
Chapter 18 13. Virtual Today, Reality Tomorrow: Taking Our Sociological Understanding of Virtual Game play to the Next Level