1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9911049138103321

Autore

Whaley Ben

Titolo

Toward a gameic world : new rules of engagement from Japanese video games / / Ben Whaley

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Ann Arbor, Michigan : , : University of Michigan Press, , 2023

©2023

ISBN

9780472221103

0472221108

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xiv, 170 pages) : illustrations

Collana

Michigan monograph series in Japanese Studies, , 8473-3223  ; ; Number 100

Disciplina

794.80952

Soggetti

Video games - Social aspects

Video games - Japan

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (pages 145-157) and index.

Sommario/riassunto

Toward a Gameic World bridges the gap between Japanese popular culture studies and game studies by encouraging a dialogue centered around Japanese-designed video games and social issues. It examines four contemporary Japanese video games in terms of how they engage with some of Japan's biggest social and personal issues, including traumas: natural disasters (Disaster Report), a declining birthrate and aging population (Catherine), nuclear proliferation (Metal Gear Solid V); and youth social withdrawal (The World Ends with You). This book asks what some of the positive benefits are of working through a site of trauma from within a video game, and how games might teach us about Japanese culture and society through new kinds of interactive narratives, different from literature and film. The book proposes four new strategies of engagement with video games to explore the productive tensions that emerge at the boundaries of virtual reality, augmented reality, and gamification in contemporary Japan.