Fans And Videogames: Histories, Fandom, Archives

Fans and Videogames In order to better understand and theorize video games and game play­ ing, it is necessary to study the activities of gamers themselves. Gamers are not only active creators in generating meaning; they are creators of media texts they share with other fans (including games, mods, walk­ throughs, machinima, etc); and they have played a central role in curating and preserving games through their collective work on emulation, the creation of online archives and the forensic archaeology of code. This volume brings together essays that explore game fandom from diverse perspectives to reveal the complex processes at work in game fandom and its practices. Contributors aim to historicize game fandom, recog­ nize fan contributions to game history, and critically assess the role of fans in ensuring that game culture endures through the development of archives. Melanie Swalwell is an Associate Professor and ARC Future Fellow in Screen and Media at Flinders University, Australia. She is coeditor of the anthology, The Pleasures of Computer Games (2008). Melanie is cur­ rently completing a monograph Homebrew Gaming and the Beginnings of Vernacular Digitality for the MIT Game Histories series. Helen Stuckey is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Flinders University, Australia. Her research explores the curation and collection of video­ games. A game curator and historian, she was the inaugural Game ­Curator at the ­Australian Centre for the Moving Image. Angela Ndalianis is Professor in Screen Studies at the University of ­Melbourne, Australia, where she also directs the Transformative Techno­ logies Research Unit. Her publications include Neo-Baroque Aesthetics and Contemporary Entertainment (2004), Science Fiction Experiences (2010), The Horror Sensorium (2012) and The Contemporary Comic Book Superhero (2008). Routledge Advances in Game Studies 1 Video Games and Social Competence Rachel Kowert 2 Sexuality in Role-Playing Games Ashley ML Brown 3 Gender, Age, and Digital Games in the Domestic Context Alison Harvey 4 The Dark Side of Game Play Controversial Issues in Playful Environments Edited by Torill Elvira Mortensen, Jonas Linderoth, and Ashley ML Brown 5 Understanding Counterplay in Video Games Alan F. Meades 6 Video Game Policy Production, Distribution, and Consumption Edited by Steven Conway and Jennifer deWinter 7 Digital Games as History How Videogames Represent the Past and Offer Access to Historical Practice Adam Chapman 8 New Perspectives on the Social Aspects of Digital Gaming Multiplayer 2 Edited by Rachel Kowert and Thorsten Quandt 9 Fans and Videogames Histories, Fandom, Archives Edited by Melanie Swalwell, Helen Stuckey and Angela Ndalianis Fans and Videogames Histories, Fandom, Archives Edited by Melanie Swalwell, Helen Stuckey and Angela Ndalianis First published 2017 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an im