[ecrea] New Book: "Social, Casual and Mobile Games: The Changing Gaming Landscape"

Michele Willson and I are delighted to announce that our collection
/Social, Casual and Mobile Games: The Changing Gaming Landscape/ has
been released by Bloomsbury Academic.

Here’s a quick blurb, the contents and contributors:

Social, casual and mobile games, played on devices such as smartphones,
tablets, or PCs and accessed through online social networks, have become
extremely popular, and are changing the ways in which games are
designed, understood, and played. These games have sparked a revolution
as more people from a broader demographic than ever play games, shifting
the stereotype of gaming away from that of hardcore, dedicated play to
that of activities that fit into everyday life. /Social, Casual and
Mobile Games/ explores the rapidly changing gaming landscape and
discusses the ludic, methodological, theoretical, economic, social and
cultural challenges that these changes invoke. With chapters discussing
locative games, the new freemium economic model, and gamer demographics,
as well as close studies of specific games (including /Candy Crush Saga,
Angry Birds/, and /Ingress/), this collection offers an insight into the
changing nature of games and the impact that mobile media is having upon
individuals and societies around the world.

Contents

1. Social networks, casual games and mobile devices: the shifting
contexts of gamers and gaming / Tama Leaver and Michele Willson

_Part I: The (New?) Gaming Landscape_

2. Who are the casual gamers? Gender tropes and tokenism in game culture
/ Lina Eklund
3. Between aliens, hackers and birds: non-casual mobile games and casual
game design / Brendan Keogh
4. Casual gaming: the changing role of the designer / Laureline Chiapello
5. Discussions with developers: F2Play and the changing landscape of
games business development / Tom Phillips

_Part II: Reasons to Play_

6. The sociality of asynchronous gameplay: social network games,
dead-time and family bonding / Kelly Boudreau and Mia Consalvo
7. Digital affection games: cultural lens and critical reflection /
Lindsay Grace
8. Mobile games and ambient play / Larissa Hjorth and Ingrid Richardson
9. Affect and social value in freemium games / Fanny Ramirez

_Part III: Locative Play_

10. Riding in cars with strangers: a cross-cultural comparison of
privacy and safety in Ingress / Stacy Blasiola, Miao Feng and Adrienne
Massanari
11. Playful places: uncovering hidden heritage withIngress / Erin Stark
12. Rewriting neighbourhoods:Zombies, Run!and the runner as rhetor /
Jamie Henthorn
13. The de-gamification of Foursquare? / Rowan Wilken

_Part IV: New Markets_

14. Social games and game-based revenue models / Mark Balnaves and Gary
Madden
15.Angry Birdsas a social network market / Tama Leaver
16. From premium to freemium: the political economy of the app / David
Nieborg

_Part V. Cheating, Gambling and Addiction_

17. Social casino apps and digital media practices: New paradigms of
consumption / Cesar Albarran-Torres
18. Cheating inCandy Crush Saga / Marcus Carter and Staffan Bjork

_Afterword_

19. Reflections on the casual games market in a post-Gamergate world
/ Adrienne Shaw and Shira Chess

Michele and I would like to publicly thank all of our wonderful
contributors, the folks at Bloomsbury, and Troy Innocent for the rather
nifty cover image. For the book’s launch Bloomsbury are offering 40% off
the normal price, which makes the eBook version actually affordable for
humans, not just libraries! Details here:
http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/social-casual-and-mobile-games-9781501310584/


Any feedback or thoughts on the book would, of course, be most welcome.


All the best,

Tama & Michele


--
Dr Tama Leaver
Senior Lecturer in Internet Studies
Faculty of Humanities, MCCA, Curtin University
GPO Box U1987 Perth WA Australia 6845
Email: (t.leaver /at/ curtin.edu.au) <mailto:(t.leaver /at/ curtin.edu.au)>
Web: www.tamaleaver.net <http://www.tamaleaver.net>



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