Frontmatter
Preface (page vii)
Acknowledgments (page xiii)
PART 1 | INTRODUCTION TO PART 1
1. Studying the Computer Game Complex (page 5)
Computer Games as Mass Culture (page 9)
Computer Games as Mass Media (page 13)
Computer Games as Psychophysiological Force (page 14)
Computer Games as Economic Force (page 18)
Computer Games as Instructional Force (page 24)
So, Why Study Computer Games? (page 25)
2. A Grammar of Gamework (page 27)
Rhetoric and Dialectic (page 29)
Propositions of the Gamework (page 31)
The Problematic of Play (page 34)
The Grammar of Gameworks: Analyzing the Computer Game Complex (page 41)
PART 2 | INTRODUCTION TO PART 2
3. Capturing Imaginations: Rhetoric in the Art of Computer Game Development (page 71)
Rhetorical Functions Revisited (page 78)
Rhetoric in the Discourse of Game Developers (page 80)
Working Through the Grammar of Gameworks: Agents, Influences, Manifestations, and Transformative Locales (page 114)
4. Making Meanings Out of Contradictions: The Work of Computer Game Reviewing (page 118)
Computer Game Reviewing Online (page 120)
Computer Game Reviewing in Print (page 126)
Playing Up Influence to Influence Play (page 129)
Reviewing the Meanings of the Computer Game Complex (page 139)
5. The Economies of Black & White (page 140)
Defining Economies (page 144)
The "Purchase" of Natural Resources (page 149)
The "Purchase" of Spiritual Resources (page 154)
The "Purchase" of Temporal Resources (page 156)
The Work of Black and White (page 157)
Transformative Locales: Economic Force as Game Work (page 166)
Epilogue (page 169)
Appendices (page 171)
Notes (page 205)
Works Cited (page 219)
Index (page 227)