Sports Videogames

From Pong to Madden NFL to Wii Fit, Sports Videogames argues for the multiple ways that sports videogames—alongside televised and physical sports—impact one another, and how players and viewers make sense of these multiple forms of play and information in their daily lives. Through case studies, ethnographic explorations, interviews and surveys, and by analyzing games, players, and the sports media industry, contributors from a wide variety of disciplines demonstrate the depth and complexity of games that were once considered simply sports simulations. Contributors also tackle key topics including the rise of online play and its implications for access to games, as well as how regulations surrounding player likenesses present challenges to the industry. Whether you’re a scholar or a gamer, Sports Videogames offers a grounded, theory-building approach to how millions make sense of videogames today.

Mia Consalvo is the Canada Research Chair in Game Studies and Design at Concordia University. She is the author of Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames and is co-editor of the Handbook of Internet Studies.

Konstantin Mitgutsch is a researcher in the field of education science, game studies, learning theories and applied humanities. He works as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the MIT Game Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is a Visiting Professor at the University of Vienna in Austria.

Abe Stein is a researcher at the MIT Game Lab in the Program in Comparative Media Studies at MIT. His articles and chapters have appeared in Eludamos, Well Played, Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, Loading... and James Bond in World and Popular Culture. He also writes a monthly sports games column for Kill Screen magazine.