(Not) In the Game: History, Paratexts, and Games

Published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg 2023

(Not) In the Game

History, Paratexts, and Games

Edited by: Regina Seiwald and Edwin Vollans

Volume 13 in the series Video Games and the Humanities

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110732924

Overview
Contents

About this book

How do games represent history, and how do we make sense of the history of games? The industry regularly uses history to sell products, while processes of creation and of promotion leave behind markers of a game’s history. The access to this history is often granted by so-called paratexts, which are accompanying elements orbiting texts. Exploring this fully, case studies in this work move the focus of debate from the games themselves to wider, ancillary materials and ask how history is used in, and how we can use history to study games.

Author / Editor information

Regina Seiwald, Postdoctoral Researcher, Birmingham City University; Ed Vollans, Teaching Fellow, University of Leicester.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	V
Introduction: Video games as networked texts Regina Seiwald and Ed Vollans Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Section 1: Games and paratexts – a theoretical approach
De-centralising the text: The text–paratext relationship of video games Regina Seiwald Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
Paratexts, “authenticity,” and the margins of digital (game) history Esther Wright Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	33
Section 2: History as game paratext and games as historical paratexts
Account, accuracy, and authenticity: A framework for analysing historical narrative in games Iain Donald and Andrew James Reid Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	57
The past as (para)text – relating histories of game experience to games as texts Nick Webber Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	81
Section 3: Game reception and paratexts
Histories of Hearts of Iron IV: Understanding the past(s) through HOI4 Wiki Michael Pennington Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
Video game fanvids as paratexts and as texts E. Charlotte Stevens Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	119
Section 4: Game production and paratexts
Video games with footnotes: Understanding in-game developer commentary Alan Galey and Ellen Forget Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	139
Artefact, advert, or advertising? Getting to grips with game trailers Ed Vollans Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
Making sense of gameswork: University marketing materials as games paratexts Alison Harvey Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177
Section 5: Paratextual practices of play
“On a scale of 1–5, what floor are you on?” Practising methodologies of fun and play with transformative communities Esther MacCallum-Stewart Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	197
Conclusion Regina Seiwald and Ed Vollans Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217
Glossary Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
Author information Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
Audience: Scholars of history, popular uses of history, and historiography; Game scholars, Game designers, students
Pages
- Front matter: 6
- Main content: 224
Illustrations
- Coloured Illustrations: 9
Keywords: paratext; video games; digital culture; reception

eBook

Published: August 21, 2023
ISBN: 9783110732924

Hardcover

Published: August 21, 2023
ISBN: 9783110737691