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Spectate! Watching, Recording and Streaming Videogames

Spectate! Watching, Recording and Streaming Videogames cover

Description

If there is one thing that distinguishes videogames from other media forms surely it is their interactivity. What it quite means to be a 'player', or what constitutes the distinctive 'play position', has never been more complicated, contested and confusing – so much so that it need not involve touching a controller at all, far less becoming an accomplished performer. We see players learning from one another as they observe technique, and shifting between playing and spectating as they take turns sharing gameplay one level or life at a time.

Spectate! Recording, Streaming and Watching Videogames explores the phenomenon of videogame spectatorship and presents a historically-grounded case for a reconsideration of our conceptualization and approaches to videogame play. Renowned games scholar James Newman covers player activities, how platforms enable spectating in interesting ways, and how spectating helps play a role in archiving and preserving game history.

Recognizing that the playability of a videogame is a temporary state, Newman argues that spectatorship is not merely a viable alternative to first hand play but that it might offer insights into the nuance and variety of possible playings impossible to attain in any other way. Newman's analysis for understanding how games have been integrated into the landscape of new media will become required reading.

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Not Actual Gameplay? Playing and not Playing Video Games
Chapter 2: A Brief History of Spectating Gameplay
Chapter 3: A Brief History of Capturing Gameplay
Chapter 4: Gameplay as Performance Art
Chapter 5: Watching to Learn
Chapter 6: Learning to Watch
Chapter 7: Earning by Being Watched
Chapter 8: Your Skills Immortalized!
Chapter 9: Spectating, Preservation and Exhibition
Bibliography
Index

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published 16 May 2024
Format Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
Edition 1st
Pages 256
ISBN 9781501332425
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Illustrations 20 bw illus
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

James Newman

James Newman is Professor of Digital Media and Sub…

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