Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Table of Contents v
3. Contributors ix
4. Acknowledgments xv
5. Note on Japanese names and sources xvii
6. Abbreviations xix
7. Introduction xxi
8. Part 1 Analog and Mechanical Games
9. Chapter 1 The Virtuality of Japanese Playing Cards: Immersion and Transgression in Early Modern Material Culture 1
10. Chapter 2 Eating Your Way through Sugoroku: Imaginary Travel in a Japanese Board Game 18
11. Chapter 3 Three Studies for a Material History of Japanese Board Games 33
12. Chapter 4 Participatory Storytelling as a Media Platform: TRPGs, Gamebooks, Readers’ Columns, and Play-by-Mail in Japanese Analog RPGs 48
13. Chapter 5 On the Play of Yakumono: The Evolution of Audiovisual Effects in Pachinko 62
14. Part 2 Gameplay Spaces
15. Chapter 6 Embodied Play in Japan: From Escape Rooms to Larp (Live-Action Role-Play) 81
16. Chapter 7 Cabinets in the City: Game Centers, Street Gamers and Urbanity through Virtua Fighter 96
17. Chapter 8 Why Has Japan’s Esports Development Been So Slow? 111
18. Chapter 9 Convergence and Cosmopolitanism in Online Games: Non-Japanese Players on Japanese Final Fantasy XIV Servers 123
19. Chapter 10 Playing with Animal Crossing: New Horizons in the Japanese, Korean and Chinese YouTube Space 138
20. Part 3 Game Analysis
21. Chapter 11 Salarymen, Samurai, and the State: Masculinity at Play in Feudal Era War Games 157
22. Chapter 12 Othering Masculinity: Disability and Chivalry in the Yakuza Series 172
23. Chapter 13 The Flavor of Late Shōwa: Coziness, Food, and Nostalgia in Gagex Games 186
24. Chapter 14 The Destruction of Raccoon City (again): Japanese Collective Memory Discourse, the Atomic Bombs, and Resident Evil 3 201
25. Part 4 Game Industry
26. Chapter 15 The Dawn of Videogames in Japan as Viewed from the Toy Industry 219
27. Chapter 16 Ladies, Leave, and Corporate Liability? Personnel Policies in the Japanese Game Industry 235
28. Chapter 17 Restructuring and Redeveloping Final Fantasy: Square Enix’s Strategic Survival in a Tumultuous Industrial Landscape, 2000–2020 249
29. Chapter 18 The Gundam Games Ecology in a Media Industry Perspective 264
30. Part 5 Game Mediations
31. Chapter 19 Music on the Edge (Connector): Demixing the Sound of the NES and Famicom 283
32. Chapter 20 Changing the Game to Keep it the Same: The Paradox of Localization 298
33. Chapter 21 Playing at Romance: Otome Games and Fan Cultures 315
34. Index 331