Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Newman's lucid and engaging introduction guides the reader through the world of videogaming. It traces the history of the videogame, from its origins in the computer lab, to its contemporary status as a global entertainment industry, where characters such as Lara Croft and Sonic the Hedgehog are familiar even to those who've never been near a games console.

Topics covered include:

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• List of tables (p. viii)
• Series editor's preface (p. ix)
• 1 Why study videogames? (p. 1)
• Taking games seriously (p. 1)
• Why study videogames? (p. 3)
• Why have academics ignored computer games? (p. 5)
• 2 What is a videogame? Rules, puzzles and simulations: defining the object of study (p. 9)
• Super Mario, Tamagotchi, Furby and AIBO (p. 9)
• Classifying videogames (p. 11)
• Ludic context: coin-op vs home systems (p. 13)
• What a videogame isn't (p. 15)
• Why do players play? (p. 16)
• Rules, winning and losing: videogames as games (p. 18)
• Paidea and ludus in videogames (p. 20)
• Types of game (p. 22)
• Videogames and interactivity (p. 26)
• So, what exactly is a videogame? (p. 27)
• 3 Manufacturing fun: platforms, development, publishing and creativity (p. 29)
• Videogames in transition (p. 29)
• Videogames and technology (p. 30)
• Scrolling, exploration and memory: producing and storing videogame spaces (p. 31)
• Complexity and diversity (p. 33)
• The modern development studio (p. 36)
• Divisions and roles (p. 37)
• Management and design (p. 38)
• Quality assurance (p. 41)
• Videogame platforms (p. 43)
• Finance, publishing and risk (p. 46)
• 4 Videogame players: who plays, for how long and what it's doing to them (p. 49)
• The continuing myth of the videogame audience (p. 49)
• Generation PSX, mainstream and hardcore: targeting the audience (p. 50)
• Boys only? Audience demographics (p. 53)
• Just five more minutes ... measuring audience behaviour (p. 58)
• Game panics: 'effects' research and the inscribed audience (p. 61)
• Assessing the research (p. 66)
• 5 Videogame structure: levels, breaks and intermissions (p. 71)
• Non-interactivity in the interactive videogame (p. 71)
• Level differentiation (p. 77)
• Between levels (p. 82)
• Save-die-restart: maintaining challenge in multi-session games (p. 84)
• The durability of inter-level breaks (p. 87)
• 6 Narrative and play, audiences and players: approaches to the study of videogames (p. 91)
• Ludology and narratology (p. 91)
• PlayStation, CD-ROM and the cut-scene (p. 92)
• The trouble with cut-scenes: 'active' and 'passive', 'stories' and 'instructions' (p. 94)
• The (inter)active audience (p. 94)
• The function of cut-scenes (p. 98)
• Narrative and new media (p. 100)
• Game time (p. 103)
• 7 Videogames, space and cyberspace: exploration, navigation and mastery (p. 107)
• Adventures in space (p. 107)
• Videogames and cyberspace (p. 109)
• Spaces to play in and with (p. 111)
• Videogames as spatial stories (p. 113)
• Spatial typologies (p. 115)
• Navigating cyberspaces (p. 118)
• Space and gameplay (p. 121)
• 8 Videogame players and characters: narrative functions and feeling cyborgs (p. 127)
• The videogame character as cultural icon (p. 127)
• The lives of Mario (p. 129)
• Developing characters (p. 132)
• Player preferences (p. 134)
• Experiencing at first hand: being and watching the Hero (p. 139)
• Behind the visual (p. 141)
• 9 Social gaming and the culture of videogames: competition and collaboration on and off screen (p. 145)
• The myth of the solitary gamer (p. 145)
• The videogame as social space (p. 149)
• Videogame culture (p. 152)
• Sharing strategy (p. 157)
• Fans as media producers (p. 159)
• 10 Future gaming: online/mobile/retro (p. 163)
• From Pong to PlayStation (p. 163)
• Have we played the future? Retrogaming and emulation (p. 165)
• Continuity (p. 168)
• Where next? (p. 168)
• Bibliography (p. 171)
• Index (p. 193)