The (American) Way of Experiencing Video Game Violence

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter 1
2. Contents 5
3. Preface 7
4. Introduction 11
5. Reframing the Violence and Video Games Debate
6. Real Violence Versus Imaginary Guns. Why Reframing the Debate on Video Game Violence is Necessary 17
7. Avatars Don’t Kill People, Players Do! Actor-Network-Theory, Mediation, and Violence in Avatar-Based Videogames 29
8. The (American) Way of Experiencing Video Game Violence 39
9. Video Game Violence from the Perspective of Cognitive Psychology. Role Identification and Role Distancing in A WAY OUT 53
10. The Playing Voyeur. Voyeurism and Affect in the Age of Video Games 63
11. The Spectacle of Murder. Over-Aestheticized Depiction of Death in Horror Video Games 77
12. Designing Rituals Instead of Ceremonies. The Meaningful Performance of Violence in Video Games 93
13. Damage over Time. Structural Violence and Climate Change in Video Games 105
14. Perceiving Video Games
15. A Cyborg, If You Like. Technological Intentionality in Avatar-Based Single Player Video Games 115
16. Player Perception of Gameworlds and Game Systems: Load Theory as Game Analytic Tool 127
17. On Character Analysis and Blending Theory. Why You Cried at the End of THE LAST OF US 137
18. Depression and Digital Games. An Investigation of Existing Uses of Therapy Games 151
19. Perceived Behaviors of Personality-Driven 171
20. From Pixelated Blood and Fixed Camera Perspectives to VR Experience. Tracing the Diversification of Survival Horror Video Games and Their Altered Mode of Perception 185
21. Survival Horror and Masochism. A Digression from the Modern Scopic Regime 199
22. Epiphany Through Kinaesthetics. Unfolding Storyworlds in Immersive Analog Spaces 213
23. Authors 225