Fundamentals of Video Game Literacy - Theory, Practice, and Aesthetics

This book posits a novel framework for sense-making and meaning-making in the play of video games. Extending an audience-inclusive philosophy of artistic meaning generation, the book grapples with how to critically examine video games as artistic artifacts that do not have set, predetermined, standardized forms until live play is enacted.

List of contents

1. Introduction, 2. Key Terms, 3. Reading Game Design, 4. Interfacing with Games, 5. Other Models of Meaning-Making for Video Games, 6. Layered Literacy, Part 1: Diegesis, Mimesis, Methexis, 7. Layered Literacy, Part 2: Sense-Making, 8. Layered Literacy, Part 3: Meaning-Making, 9. Narrative, 10. Perspective-Taking, 11. Instantiation and Characterization, 12. Expressivity, 13. Glitches, Cheating, and Metagame, 14. Ideology and Ethics

About the author

Ryan Zhao is an independent researcher and lecturer specializing in video game literacy. After achieving his MS in the psychological sciences, he has worked for almost a decade in the video game industry, performing research and marketing roles for Nintendo and Xbox, and he has more than a decade of critical work through podcasts and publications Cane and Rinse, Sound of Play, and Play;Write.

Product details

• Authors: Ryan Zhao
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 16.04.2025
• EAN: 9781032869278
• ISBN: 978-1-0-3286927-8
• No. of pages: 408
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > IT, data processing > Application software; COMPUTERS / Programming / Games, The arts, Games development & programming, Games development and programming, Digital Animation, COMPUTERS / Design, Graphics & Media / Video & Animation, game studies;game literacy;game narrative