Last month, the book Multiplayer: Social Aspects of Digital Gaming was released. The book looks at the social aspects of multiplayer gaming, both online and when played together in the same room (co-located). It features chapters by Richard Bartle (the father of MUD gaming) and Mark Griffiths (the games addiction expert) among others, and was edited by Sonja Kröger and Thorsten Quandt.
My chapter “Playing to Win?”, was produced in collaboration with Pejman Mirza-Babaei, Graham McAllister and Jon Napier. It looks at how combining biometric responses with other research methods can provide insight into gamer’s motivations for playing, and how we can design games to appeal to specific types of gamers.
The publisher introduces the book as follows:
“In the past decade, digital games have become a widely accepted form of media entertainment, moving from the traditional ‘core gamer’ community into the mainstream media market.
With millions of people now enjoying gaming as interactive entertainment, there has been a huge increase in interest in social multiplayer gaming activities. However, despite the explosive growth in the field over the past decade, many aspects of social gaming still remain unexplored, especially from a media and communication studies perspective.
“Multiplayer: Social Aspects of Digital Gaming” is the first edited volume of its kind that takes a closer look at the various forms of human interaction in and around digital games, providing an overview of debates, past and present.
This engaging interdisciplinary book will appeal to upper level students, postgrads and researchers in games research, specifically those focusing on new media and digital games, as well as researchers in media studies and mass communication.“
I hope to have some time to read the rest of the book over the next few weeks, and should be following up with an (entirely unbiased!) review soon.
In the meantime, if you’d like to read it yourself, it’s available on amazon here:
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