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Interviews with scholars of games and gaming about their new books. For more information about the Game Studies special series, please contact Rudolf Thomas Inderst at rudolf.inderst@googlemail.com.
Bounce: Balls, Walls, and Bodies in Games and Play (MIT Press, 2026) follows an array of bouncing balls through the histories of nonelectronic and ele…
Despite its time travel mechanics, high stakes, and pulpy murder plot, Don’t Nod Entertainment’s 2015 adventure game Life is Strange stood out from mo…
A deep dive into the reflective modes of playfulness in video games. Slowness and reflectiveness have always been part of the video game medium, thoug…
The play element at the heart of our interactions with computers—and how it drives the best and the worst manifestations of the information age. Whet…
PONG is one of the longest- and most consistently circulating video games. Released in 1972, it remains at our fingertips as Android or iOS app, hoste…
Rushed through development in just a year to capitalize on the runaway success of its predecessor, Dragon Age II's writing team had only a few months …
Videogame culture is obsessed with development. But gaming is still widely associated with wasted time, squandered potential and backwards attitudes. …
How do video games and mental health intersect from the perspectives of psychology and game design? In recent years, the topic of mental health has ga…
Building SimCity explores the history of computer simulation by chronicling one of the most influential simulation games ever made: SimCity. As author…
The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: The Last of Us (Playstory Press, 2025) explores the psychological themes at the heart of The Last of Us franchise. Auth…
On September 26, 1998, a video game made its debut in Japanese arcades. It was over seven feet tall and weighed just over 900 pounds. It had no charac…
An immersive journey into the author's lifelong attachment to video games, revealing how they shape us, shatter us, and give us the courage to start a…
Historiographies of Game Studies: What It Has Been, What It Could Be (Punctum Books, 2025) offers a first-of-its-kind reflection on how game studies a…
Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Julien Mailland, Associate Professor of Media Management, Law, and Policy at The Media School of Indiana…
The Assassins and the Templars are two of history’s most legendary groups. One was a Shi’ite religious sect, the other a Christian military order crea…
African American males are confronted with formidable barriers in their pursuit of quality education, resulting in stark disparities in academic perfo…
Grant Us Eyes is a book-length close reading of Bloodborne by literary critic Nathan Wainstein (LA Review of Books, Cartridge Lit, American Book Revie…
Dom Ford joins Jana Byars to talk about Mytholudics: Game and Myth (DeGruyter Brill, 2025). Games create worlds made of many different elements, but a…
The World is Born From Zero is an investigation into the relationship between video games and science fiction through the philosophy of speculation. C…
It's a beautiful day in the village, and you are a horrible goose, ready to wreak charming havoc on the weary locals. You'll ruin their gardens, invad…