Toward a Gameic World: New Rules of Engagement from Japanese Video Games Volume 100

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.

Author: Ben Whaley
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Published: 05/03/2023
Pages: 186
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.88lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.10w x 0.70d
ISBN13: 9780472076147
ISBN10: 0472076140
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Ethnic Studies | Asian Studies
- Social Science | Media Studies
- Games & Activities | Video & Mobile

About the Author
Ben Whaley is Associate Professor of Japanese in the School of Languages, Linguistics, Literatures and Cultures at the University of Calgary.