The Performance of Video Games: Enacting Identity, History and Culture Through Play

A video game player acts as an actor and spectator, influencing a game's story in real-time. This book explores video gaming as a virtual medium for performance, examining how player interactions shape personal, historical, social, and cultural understanding. It argues that the posthuman player position challenges lived experiences and impacts players' relationships with historical events and contemporary concerns, shaping their sense of self. The book focuses on the intersection between player and narrative, revealing insights into identity and society through engagement.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 277 pages
Publication date: 04 November 2022
Publisher: McFarland & Co Inc

When viewed through the context of an interactive play, a video game player fulfills the roles of both actor and spectator, watching and influencing a game's story in real time. This book presents video gaming as a virtual medium for performance, scrutinizing the ways in which a player's interaction with the narrative informs personal, historical, social, and cultural understanding. Centering the author's own experiences as both a video game player and performance scholar, the book thoroughly applies concepts from theatre and performance studies.

Chapters argue that the posthuman player position now challenges what can be contextualized as a lived experience, and how video games can change players' relationships with historical events and contemporary concerns, ultimately impacting how they develop a sense of self. Using the author's own gaming experiences as a framework, the book focuses on the intersection between player and narrative, exploring what engagement with a storyline reveals about identity and society.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781476685496