Social, Casual and Mobile Games

This book is an exciting rogue's gallery of authors, games and topics at the forefront of modern gaming. The inclusion of issues discussing not only recent developments in design, playfulness and the definition of who plays games, but also attending to the darker aspects of contemporary gaming cultures such as the transition to Freemiun, cheating and GamerGate is an important step in examining new pathways into games and gaming culture. Social, Casual and Mobile Games: The Changing Gaming Landscape demonstrates through an impressive series of chapters how this genre of games needs to be taken seriously as a cultural marker of today's players and the games they engage with. * Esther MacCallum-Stewart, Research Fellow, Digital Cultures Research Centre, University of the West of England, UK *
Social, Casual and Mobile Games captures a wide array of scholarship from all corners of Game Studies. The authors explore, from a variety of empirical and theoretical perspectives, a rich tableau of games and players that often disappear from dominant narratives about what makes a game or a game player. * Casey O'Donnell, Associate Professor of Media and Information, Michigan State University, USA, and author of Developer’s Dilemma *
This terrific and timely book is an invaluable guide to the profound ways in which gaming – in all its casual, mobile, and social glory – will never be the same again. Critical research for the rest of the (gaming) world has finally arrived. * Gerard Goggin, Professor of Media and Communications, The University of Sydney, Australia *