anw. here's my {edited} syllabus on topics relating to the boundary between a game and whatever non-game realities it's embedded in, with as much consideration of the players' bodies/physicality as i cld muster:
jaakko stenros, in defence of a magic circle: the social, mental, and cultural boundaries of play. <- overview of various theoretical perspectives on or pertaining to the magic circle.
the dark side of gameplay: controversial issues in playful environments. <- what it says on the tin. a collection of essays by various authors.
huff, johnson, & miller, virtual harms and virtual responsibility: a rape in cyberspace. <- legal-ethical consideration of harm in virtual (i.e. digital) environments in response to julian dibbell's a rape in cyberspace.
john danaher, the law and ethics of virtual sexual assault. <- consideration of how sexual assault that takes place in primarily vr games, including by any other name, should be legally classified.
chloe germaine buckley, encountering weird objects: lovecraft, larp, and speculative philosophy. <- article mostly abt how larping sustains its game-worlds via objects.
dennis waskul and mark lust, role-playing and playing roles: the person, player, and persona in fantasy role-playing. <- interested in the relationship between the various dimensions across which, they argue, role-play participants operate in.
jeroen jansz, playing out identities and emotions. <- abt what players get out of playing digital game-characters, affectively.
katherine angel cross, the new laboratory of dreams: role-playing games as resistance. <- abt what players get out of playing digital game-characters, in terms of identity/real-life roles. written by a trans woman.
prszybylski et al, the ideal self at play: the appeal of video games that let you be all that you can be. <- psychological study, which argues that games help players bridge between their 'ideal self' and their 'actual self'.
bonnie nardi, my life as a night-elf priest. <- first-hand approach to WoW gaming; i especially liked the chapter "play as aesthetic experience," which more theoretically tries to answer what the goal of gaming is.
stephanie boluck and patrick lemieux, breaking the metagame: feminist spoilsports and magic circle jerks. <- i only read this chapter. it's abt misogyny in gaming culture. critical of any delimited game-space because their rules are often set by men who respond with virulent misogyny to any perceived threat.
gordon calleja, ludic identities and the magic circle. <- i took the term "game-space" from him. though he talks in terms of identities, he's interested in the world of the game, which he thinks cannot be separated from the world "(supposedly) external."
frans mäyrä, from the demonic tradition to art-evil in digital games: monstrous pleasures in lord of the rings online. <- abt the merits and delights of being 'evil' in digital games. deals with ethics as a matter of dialectics.
bob rehak, playing at being: psychoanalysis and the avatar. <- abt how avatars mediate player-identity. this, too, is dialectics.
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