Material Game Studies

Chloé Germaine is a Senior Lecturer in English Literature and Film at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK and a co-director of the Manchester Game Studies Network.Paul Wake is Reader in English Literature at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK and a co-director of the Manchester Game Studies Network.

This edited collection broadens the horizon of what game studies can do. Through an in-depth investigation of a number of case studies around tabletop and board games, the volume provides an essential contribution to contemporary debates around materialism, agency, and the non-human. It is essential reading for students and scholars interested in exploring the complexities of game culture.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsAbout the ContributorsIntroduction: Material Game Studies, Chloé Germaine Buckley (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK) and Paul Wake (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK) Section 1: Provocations1. Thinking the Things We Play With, Miguel Sicart (IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark)2. Analog Games as Infrastructure, Aaron Trammel (University of South California, USA)Section 2: Materials3. Component parts: Board games as architecture and performance, Paul Wake (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)4. A Queer Touch of Fantasy Role-Play, Jack Warren (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)5. Lead Fantasies: The making, meaning and materiality of miniatures, Mikko Meriläinen, Katriina Heljakka, Jaakko Stenros (Tampere University, Finland)Section 3: Ideologies6. ‘Men Should Try Playing the Woman’s Part to See What it Feels Like. Remember ~ It’s Only a Game…’: The Representation of Gendered Experience in Chance-based Board Games, Holly Nielsen (Royal Holloway University, UK)7. Deterritorializing Game Boards: Mapping Imperialism in RISK and Modern Board Games, Jonathan Ray Lee (University of Washington, USA)8. Nature’ Games in a time of Climate Crisis, Chloé Germaine Buckley (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)Section 4: Cultures9. Contested Spaces, Velvet Ropes, Exclusion Zones: The Pleasures and Dangers of Face-to-Face Play in Analogue Gaming Spaces, Tanya Pobuda (Ryerson and York University, Canada)10. ‘Hands, Face, Space’ - The Material Turn and COVID -19, Esther McCallum Stewart (University of Staffordshire, UK)Section 5: Hybridity11. The Cult of New (Stuff): Kickstarter’s Digital/Material Tensions, Paul Booth (DePaul University, Chicago, USA)12. The Logic of Analogue Adaptation, Nathan Altice (University of California Santa Cruz, USA)Index