In the early days of Pong and Pac Man, video games appeared to be little more than an idle pastime. Today, video games make up a multi-billion dollar industry that rivals television and film.
"The Video Game Theory Reader" brings together exciting new work on the many ways video games are reshaping the face of entertainment and our relationship with technology. Drawing upon examples from widely popular games ranging from "Space Invaders" to "Final Fantasy IX" and "Combat Flight Simulator 2," the contributors discuss the relationship between video games and other media; the shift from third- to first-person games; gamers and the gaming community; and the important sociological, cultural, industrial, and economic issues that surround gaming.
"The Video Game Theory Reader" is the essential introduction to a fascinating and rapidly expanding new field of media studies.

Introduction, Mark J. P. Wolf, Bernard Perron; Chapter 1 Theory by Design, Walter Holland, Henry Jenkins, Kurt Squire; Chapter 2 Abstraction in the Video Game, Mark J. P. Wolf; Chapter 3 Immersion, Engagement, and Presence, Alison McMahan; Chapter 4 Hyperidentities, Miroslaw Filiciak; Chapter 5 Playing at Being, Bob Rehak; Chapter 6 Stories for Eye, Ear, and Muscles, Torben Grodal; Chapter 7 As We Become Machines, Martti Lahti; Chapter 8 Hot Dates and Fairy-Tale Romances, Mia Consalvo; Chapter 9 Video Games and Configurative Performances, Markku Eskelinen, Ragnhild Tronstad; Chapter 10 Simulation versus Narrative, Gonzalo Frasca; Chapter 11 From Gamers to Players and Gameplayers, Bernard Perron; Chapter 12 Interactive Storytelling, Chris Crawford; Chapter 13 Gametime, Patrick Crogan;

Mark J. P. Wolf is Assistant Professor of Communications at Concordia University, Wisconsin. A pioneering scholar of video game studies, he is editor of The Medium of theVideo Game. Bernard Perron is Assistant Professor of Cinema at the University of Montréal.