Benjamin Beil
Publisher
transcript Verlag
Pub. Date
[2025]
Description
Neal Stephenson's 1992 novel Snow Crash conceived of the Metaverse as an escapist medium within a dystopian future. By the early 2000s, his vision had evolved into a blueprint for pioneering virtual worlds, notably Second Life. In the 2010s, technology companies-from Meta to Epic Games-recast the Metaverse as the next frontier of digital experience and revenue generation. Now, in the 2020s, the still speculative concept encompasses a convergence...
Publisher
transcript Verlag
Pub. Date
[2022]
Description
Game culture and material culture have always been closely linked. Analog forms of rule-based play (ludus) would hardly be conceivable without dice, cards, and game boards. In the act of free play (paidia), children as well as adults transform simple objects into multifaceted toys in an almost magical way. Even digital play is suffused with material culture: Games are not only mediated by technical interfaces, which we access via hardware and tangible...
Publisher
transcript Verlag
Pub. Date
[2021]
Description
Gaming no longer only takes place as a »closed interactive experience« in front of TV screens, but also as broadcast on streaming platforms or as cultural events in exhibition centers and e-sport arenas. The popularization of new technologies, forms of expression, and online services has had a considerable influence on the academic and journalistic discourse about games. This anthology examines which paratexts gaming cultures have produced - i.e.,...