Graeme Kirkpatrick 
Computer Games and the Social Imaginary [PDF ebook] 

In this compelling book, Graeme Kirkpatrick argues that computer
games have fundamentally altered the relation of self and society
in the digital age.
Tracing the origins of gaming to the revival of play in the
1960s counter culture, Computer Games and the Social
Imaginary describes how the energies of that movement
transformed computer technology from something ugly and
machine-like into a world of colour and ‘fun’. In the
process, play with computers became computer gaming — a new
cultural practice with its own values.
From the late 1980s gaming became a resource for people to draw
upon as they faced the challenges of life in a new, globalizing
digital economy. Gamer identity furnishes a revivified capitalism
with compliant and ‘streamlined’ workers, but at times
gaming culture also challenges the corporations that control game
production.
Analysing topics such as the links between technology and power,
the formation of gaming culture and the subjective impact of play
with computer games, this insightful text will be of great interest
to students and scholars of digital media, games studies and the
information society.

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