On Video Games: The Visual Politics of Race, Gender and Space

(Paperback)

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Today over half of all American households own a dedicated game console and gaming industry profits trump those of the film industry worldwide. Soraya Murray's insightful study examines issues of gender, race, and space in relation to a range of popular contemporary games. She explores blockbusters including The Last of Us, Metal Gear Solid, Spec Ops: The Line, Tomb Raider and Assassin's Creed to show how they are deeply entangled with American ideological positions and contemporary political, cultural and economic conflicts. As quintessential forms of visual material in the twenty-first century, mainstream games both mirror and spur larger societal fears, hopes and dreams, and even address complex struggles for recognition. Murray examines the elaborately constructed characters and densely layered worlds of these popular games, tracing how their social and environmental landscapes reflect ideas about gender, race, globalization, and urban life. In this emerging field of study, Murray provides novel theoretical approaches to discussing games and playable media as culture.

Reviews

Weaving together insights drawn from visual culture studies, media studies, and cultural studies, On Video Games offers penetrating analyses into the textual poetics of blockbuster titles. Soraya Murray demonstrates the utility of careful interpretation to reveal how games function as popular vessels of ideology and political identity, andas importantlythe necessity to take these playthings seriously. -- Matthew Thomas Payne, author of Playing War: Military Video Games after 9/11
On Video Games makes a compelling argument for bringing frameworks from cultural studies and visual studies to video games. Murray's work is invaluable for anyone interested in exploring how issues like race and gender manifest in complex ways through interactive digital media -- Dr Bonnie Ruberg, Department of Film & Media Studies, University of California, Irvine, USA

Author Bio

Soraya Murray is an Associate Professor in the Film and Digital Media Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), USA, where she is also affiliated with the Digital Arts and New Media MFA Program, and the Art + Design: Games + Playable Media Program. She is an interdisciplinary scholar of visual culture, with a particular interest in cultural studies, contemporary art, film and video games. Murray holds a PhD in the History of Art and Visual Studies from Cornell University.