Written Projects
Below is a highlighted list of written projects from the IMMERSe network. To view the full list, click on the Research button or visit the "Multi-Disciplinary" section of the website.
Palgrave Games in Context
Games are pervasive in contemporary life, intersecting with leisure, work, health, culture, history, technology, politics, industry, and beyond. These contexts span topics, cross disciplines, and bridge professions. Palgrave Games in Context situates games and play within such interdisciplinary and interprofessional contexts, resulting in accessible, applicable, and practical scholarship for students, researchers, game designers, and industry professionals. What does it mean to study, critique, and create games in context? This series eschews conventional classifications—such as academic discipline or game genre—and instead looks to practical, real-world situations to shape analysis and ground discussion. A single text might bring together professionals working in the field, critics, scholars, researchers, and designers. The result is a broad range of voices from a variety of disciplinary and professional backgrounds contributing to an accessible, practical series on the various and varied roles of games and play.
Game Studies 101
Game Studies 101 is an online archive of games, criticism, and scholarship. The content is crowdsourced and curated by volunteers who research games from various perspectives and disciplines. Entries are annotated and categorized by genre, then cross-listed between academic fields to facilitate exploration and collaboration. GS101 was designed to embrace the multidisciplinary, multi-organizational, and multi-national nature of game studies, therefore it is continually growing and the content reflects discourses that span disciplines, campuses, organizations, and nations.
Recent Advances in Technology of Inclusive Well-being
"This book presents current innovative, alternative and creative approaches that challenge traditional mechanisms in and across disciplines and industries targeting societal impact. A common thread throughout the book is human-centered, uni and multi-modal strategies across the range of human technologies, including sensing and stimuli; virtual and augmented worlds; games for serious applications; accessibility; digital-ethics and more. Focusing on engaging, meaningful, and motivating activities that at the same time offer systemic information on human condition, performance and progress, the book is of interest to anyone seeking to gain insights into the field, be they students, teachers, practicing professionals, consultants, or family representatives. By offering a wider perspective, it addresses the need for a core text that evokes and provokes, engages and demands and stimulates and satisfies."
-Springer
First Person Scholar
First Person Scholar (FPS) is an online middle-state games studies journal, based at the Games Institute of the University of Waterloo. What does that mean exactly? Middle-state writing occupies the space between traditional academic writing done by professors and students and blog style writing that is more informal and conversational in tone. First Person Scholar publishes essays, commentaries, interviews, and book reviews related to games and games culture. We don’t just publish students and professors either; we publish writing from members of the games industry, activists, and enthusiasts. In addition, FPS also runs a monthly podcast where members of the team and special guests discuss the latest game releases and trends.
Games User Research
"Until now, the knowledge in Games User Research and Game UX has been fragmented and there were no comprehensive, authoritative resources available. This book bridges the current gap of knowledge in Games User Research, building the go-to resource for everyone working with players and games or other interactive entertainment products. It is accessible to those new to Games User Research, while being deeply comprehensive and insightful for even hardened veterans of the game industry. In this book, dozens of veterans share their wisdom and best practices on how to plan user research, obtain the actionable insights from users, conduct user-centred testing, which methods to use when, how platforms influence user research practices, and much, much more."
- Amazon
Dungeons, Dragons and Digital Denizons
"Dungeons, Dragons, and Digital Denizens is a collection of scholarly essays that seeks to represent the far-reaching scope and implications of digital role-playing games as both cultural and academic artifacts. Divided into three distinct sections, this premiere volume captures the distinctiveness of different game types, the forms of play they engender and their social and cultural implications. Contributors examine a range of games, from classics like Final Fantasy to blockbusters like World of Warcraft to obscure genre bending titles like Lux Pain. Working from a broad range of disciplines such as ecocritism, rhetoric, performance, gender, and communication, these essays yield insights that enrich the field of game studies and further illuminate the cultural, psychological and philosophical implications of a society that increasingly produces, plays and discourses about role playing games."
- Bloomsbury Publishing
Playing with Sound
"In Playing with Sound, Karen Collins examines video game sound from the player's perspective. She explores the many ways that players interact with a game's sonic aspects―which include not only music but also sound effects, ambient sound, dialogue, and interface sounds―both within and outside of the game. She investigates the ways that meaning is found, embodied, created, evoked, hacked, remixed, negotiated, and renegotiated by players in the space of interactive sound in games."
- Amazon
Guns, Grenades and Grunts
"Known for their visibility and tendency to generate controversy, first-person shooter (FPS) games are cultural icons and powder-kegs in American society. Contributors will examine a range of FPS games such as the Doom, Half-Life, System Shock, Deus Ex, Halo, Medal of Honor and Call of Duty franchises. By applying and enriching a broad range of perspectives, this volume will address the cultural relevance and place of the genre in game studies, game theory and the cultures of game players."
- Bloomsbury Publishing