{"product_id":"literary-gaming-isbn-9780262548830","title":"Literary Gaming","description":"\u003cb\u003eA new analytical framework for understanding literary videogames, the literary-ludic spectrum, illustrated by close readings of selected works.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this book, Astrid Ensslin examines literary videogames—hybrid digital artifacts that have elements of both games and literature, combining the ludic and the literary. These works can be considered verbal art in the broadest sense (in that language plays a significant part in their aesthetic appeal); they draw on game mechanics; and they are digital-born, dependent on a digital medium (unlike, for example, conventional books read on e-readers). They employ narrative, dramatic, and poetic techniques in order to explore the affordances and limitations of ludic structures and processes, and they are designed to make players reflect on conventional game characteristics. Ensslin approaches these hybrid works as a new form of experimental literary art that requires novel ways of playing and reading. She proposes a systematic method for analyzing literary-ludic (L-L) texts that takes into account the analytic concerns of both literary stylistics and ludology.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfter establishing the theoretical underpinnings of her proposal, Ensslin introduces the L-L spectrum as an analytical framework for literary games. Based on the phenomenological distinction between deep and hyper attention, the L-L spectrum charts a work's relative emphases on reading and gameplay. Ensslin applies this analytical toolkit to close readings of selected works, moving from the predominantly literary to the primarily ludic, from online hypermedia fiction to Flash fiction to interactive fiction to poetry games to a highly designed literary “auteur” game. Finally, she considers her innovative analytical methodology in the context of contemporary ludology, media studies, and literary discourse analysis.Acknowledgments ix\u003cbr\u003e1 Introduction 1\u003cbr\u003eI Theory and Methodology\u003cbr\u003e2 Playing with Rather Than by Rules 19\u003cbr\u003e3 Between Ludicity and Literariness 37\u003cbr\u003eII Analyses\u003cbr\u003e4 \"The Pen Is Your Weapon of Choice\": Ludic Hypertext Literature and the Play with the Reader 57\u003cbr\u003e5 \"Love Poem or Break Up Note?\" Ludic Hypermedia Fiction and \u003ci\u003eLoss of Grasp \u003c\/i\u003e73\u003cbr\u003e6 \"Your Innocence Drifts Away\": Antiludicity and Ludic Mechanics in \u003ci\u003eThe Princess Murderer \u003c\/i\u003e89\u003cbr\u003e7 Of Windsighs and Wayfaring: \u003ci\u003eBlue Lacuna\u003c\/i\u003e, an Epic Interactive Fiction 105\u003cbr\u003e8 The Paradox of Poetic Gaming: \u003ci\u003eevidence of everything exploding \u003c\/i\u003e123\u003cbr\u003e9 From Paidia to Ludus: \u003ci\u003eThe Path, \u003c\/i\u003ea Literary Auteur Game 141\u003cbr\u003e10 Conclusion 161\u003cbr\u003eNotes 165\u003cbr\u003eReferences 173\u003cbr\u003eGlossary 193\u003cbr\u003eIndex 201Astrid Ensslin is Professor in the School of Creative Studies and Media at Bangor University.","brand":"The MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46305249362149,"sku":"NP9780262548830","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780262548830.jpg?v=1767731511","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/literary-gaming-isbn-9780262548830","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}