{"product_id":"gameplay-mode-patrick-crogan-9780816653355","title":"Gameplay Mode: War, Simulation, and Technoculture","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom flight simulators and first-person shooters to MMPOG and innovative strategy games like 2008's \u003ci\u003eSpore\u003c\/i\u003e, computer games owe their development to computer simulation and imaging produced by and for the military during the Cold War. To understand their place in contemporary culture, Patrick Crogan argues, we must first understand the military logics that created and continue to inform them. \u003ci\u003eGameplay Mode\u003c\/i\u003e situates computer games and gaming within the contemporary technocultural moment, connecting them to developments in the conceptualization of pure war since the Second World War and the evolution of simulation as both a technological achievement and a sociopolitical tool.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCrogan begins by locating the origins of computer games in the development of cybernetic weapons systems in the 1940s, the U.S. Air Force's attempt to use computer simulation to protect the country against nuclear attack, and the U.S. military's development of the SIMNET simulated battlefield network in the late 1980s. He then examines specific game modes and genres in detail, from the creation of virtual space in fight simulation games and the co-option of narrative forms in gameplay to the continuities between online gaming sociality and real-world communities and the potential of experimental or artgame projects like \u003ci\u003eSeptember 12th: A Toy World \u003c\/i\u003eand\u003ci\u003e Painstation, \u003c\/i\u003eto critique conventional computer games. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawing on critical theoretical perspectives on computer-based technoculture, Crogan reveals the profound extent to which today's computer games--and the wider culture they increasingly influence--are informed by the technoscientific program they inherited from the military-industrial complex. But, Crogan concludes, games can play with, as well as play out, their underlying logic, offering the potential for computer gaming to anticipate a different, more peaceful and hopeful future.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Patrick Crogan\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0816653356\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780816653355\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Minnesota Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/09\/2011\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 248\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.52lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.30h x 5.50w x 0.70d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 05\/01\/2012\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eReference and Research Bk News\u003c\/i\u003e 04\/01\/2012 pg. 49","brand":"Patrick Crogan","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44059858895103,"sku":"9780816653355","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_5440a3e4-cc30-426c-b241-225b1ec07403.jpg?v=1685060734","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/gameplay-mode-patrick-crogan-9780816653355","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}