Gaming and Gamers in Times of Pandemic

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Description

This edited collection brings in multiple scholarly perspectives to examine the impact of the pandemic and resulting government policies, especially lockdowns, on one particular cultural sphere: games.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted virtually every aspect of our lives, regardless of where we live. In the initial months, many industry reports noted the unexpected positive impact on online digital game sales. Games were not just lockdown-proof, but boosted by lockdowns. Stay-at-home orders triggered a rush toward games as an alternative form of entertainment, and the ubiquity of mobile phones allowed wider than ever participation.

Gaming and Gamers in Times of Pandemic studies how the COVID-19 pandemic affected game players, game developers, game journalists and game scholars alike in many other ways, starting with the most direct illness, and sometimes death. Some effects are temporary, others are here to stay.

Reviews

Every aspect of our lives was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The widely accepted view is that the digital game industry benefited from the lockdown, whether by measures of sales or attention. This book offers the first collection of studies to rigorously examine games in the age of pandemic and challenge such easy conclusions. It delivers nuanced and informative essays about the ways in which games changed how we lived, played, learned, and socialized during those difficult times. * Henry Lowood, Harold C. Hohbach Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections and Curator for Film & Media Collections, Stanford University, USA *
Gaming and Gamers in Times of Pandemic provides a much-needed view of and record of gamers, gaming, and the industry during the Covid-19 pandemic, and will be immediately useful and of interest to both academics and a wider audience. With the global move away from face-to-face during this time, gaming norms, practices, and assumptions were all challenged, as the scholars in this volume discuss. How gamers responded to these changes and challenges is well-worth understanding. * Dr. Nathaniel Poor, Senior Researcher, Underwood Institute, USA *

Author Bio

Piotr Siuda is Associate Professor at the Institute of Social Communication and Media at the Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland. He is a media studies scholar and member of the AoIR, DIGRA, and the Polish Society for Social Communication. His research interests include gamers communities, esports, media sports, and dark web communities.

Jakub Majewski is Assistant Professor at Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland. His research interests include role-playing games and cultural heritage, game storytelling techniques, game industry history, among others. He is also a game developer with two decades' worth of experience and a portfolio of about forty diverse games.

Krzysztof Chmielewski is Senior Lecturer of Game Design at Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland. He is a LARP researcher, game designer, and a R&D specialist in experiential learning and gaming solutions.