Coin-Operated Americans: Rebooting Boyhood at the Video Game Arcade

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Video gaming: it's a boy's world, right That's what the industry wants us to think. Why and how we came to comply are what Carly A. Kocurek investigates in this provocative consideration of how an industry's craving for respectability hooked up with cultural narratives about technology, masculinity, and youth at the video arcade.From the dawn of t

Reviews

"Carly A. Kocurek provides a fascinating cultural history of arcade gaming and, in doing so, offers keen insight into our ongoing conversations around gender and gaming. This is a must read for those interested not only in game studies but in the evolution of American boyhood."T.L. Taylor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

"An excellent study of the early history of the video game industry and how it came to define the gamer as male."Library Journal

"The great contribution of Kocureks Coin-Operated Americans is its attempt to historicize a relationship that often appears natural to cultural gatekeepers and other onlookers, not to mention reactionary gamers themselves."Public Books

"This detailed study provides a lucid, compelling narrative that will interest a very diverse audience."CHOICE

"Coin-Operated Americans is an invaluable contribution for those interested in the intersection among media, technology, and critical questions surrounding children and youth."Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth

"Kocurek invites readers to imagine the sensory environment of the early arcade, its sights and sounds, which serves as a vivid backdrop for the compelling cultural history the book chronicles."Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth

"Productive contributions to studies of masculinity, and to studies of gender and digital play more broadly."Journal of Men, Masculinities and Spirituality

"Coin-Operated Americans will make an excellent addition to undergraduate courses on gender studies, American culture, and the recent past."Oral History Review

Author Bio

Carly A. Kocurek is assistant professor of digital humanities and media studies and director of digital humanities at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Her work has appeared in journals including Game Studies, Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds, and Visual Studies and in the anthologies Before the Crashand Gaming Globally.