This volume offers the latest research findings on online gaming, social forms of gaming, identification, gender issues and games for change, primarily applying a social-scientific approach.

1. Multiplayer and beyond: Witnessing the evolution of gaming

[Thorsten Quandt & Rachel Kowert]

Part I: Social Forms of Gaming

2. From social play to social games and back: The emergence and development of social network games

[Frans Mäyrä, Jaakko Sternos, Janne Paavilainen, & Annakaisa Kultima]

3. Identifying social forms of flow in multi-user games

[Joceran Borderie & Nicolas Michinov]

4. Envisioning the other: A grounded exploration of social roles in digital game play

[Jasmien Vervaeke, Frederik De Grove, & Jan Van Looy]

Part II: Online Gaming

5. Multiplayer games as the ultimate communication lab and incubator: A multi-media Study

[John L. Sherry, Andy Boyan, Kendra Knight, Cherylann Edwards, & Qi Hao]

6. The MMORPG designer's journey: Casualization and its consequences for social interactions

[Daniel Pietschmann, Benny Liebold, & Georg Valtin]

7. Multiplayer features and game success

[André Marchand]

Part III: Gender Issues in Gaming Communities

8. Sexism in video games and the gaming community

[Jesse Fox & Wai Yen Tang]

9. Women are from FarmVille, Men are from ViceCity: The cycle of exclusion and sexism in video game content and culture

[Rachel Kowert, Johannes Breuer, & Thorsten Quandt]

Part IV: Games for Change

10. The key features of persuasive games: A model and case analysis

[Ruud Jacobs, Jeroen Jansz, & Teresa de la Hera Conde-Pumpido]

11. "Resist the dictatorship of Malygos on Coldarra Island!" Evidence of MMOG culture in Taiwan's Sunflower Social Movement

[Holin Lin & Chuen Tsai Sun]

12. Between drudgery and "Promesse du bonheur": Games and gamification

[Mathias Fuchs]

Thorsten Quandt holds the chair of Online Communication at the University of Münster, Germany.

Rachel Kowert recently completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the University of Münster, Germany.