Playful Materialities: The Stuff That Games Are Made Of

Game culture and material culture have always been closely linked. Analog forms of rule-based play (ludus) would hardly be conceivable without dice, cards, and game boards. In the act of free play (paidia), children as well as adults transform simple objects into multifaceted toys in an almost magical way. Even digital play is suffused with material culture: Games are not only mediated by technical interfaces, which we access via hardware and tangible peripherals. They are also subject to material hybridization, paratextual framing, and processes of de-, and re-materialization.

Intro -- Table of Contents -- Preface and Acknowledgments -- Acknowledgments -- Places -- Vegas, Disney, and the Metaverse -- I Understanding Anticipation: Non-Synchronism & -- Future Places -- II Framing Las Vegas: Disney & -- Digital -- III Anticipating Augmented Realities: 1950s -- IV Anticipating the Ultimate Display: 1960s -- V Anticipating Virtual Worlds: 1990s -- VI Anticipating Virtual Design: 1990s -- VII Anticipating Virtual Agency: 1990s -- VIII Anticipating Virtual Play: 1990s -- IX Re-Framing Las Vegas: Anticipating the Metaverse -- Literature -- Filmography -- Gameography -- Augmenting Materialities -- Introduction -- Ludifying Materialities -- Merging Materialities -- Designing Materialities -- Conclusion -- Literature -- Gameography -- Exhibits -- Let's Play the Exhibition! -- Introduction: What Is a Museum Experience? -- The Kid A Mnesia Exhibition -- Project Biography -- Let's Play the Exhibition! -- Spatiality -- Context: Games and Virtual Exhibitions -- Conclusion: Digital Materiality -- Literature -- Gameography -- To Craft a Game Arts Curators Kit -- The Assembly of Contributing Video Game Curators -- A Snapshot of Video Game Curation in the 2010s -- Intentions Behind the GACK -- Structure of the GACK Writing Process -- The GACK in Summary -- Analysis and Themes of the GACK -- Conclusion -- Literature -- On Chainsaws and Display Cases -- Prologue: The Chainsaw Controller -- Digital Media at the Museum -- Medium Exhibition -- Video Game Exhibitions I: Beginnings -- Video Game Exhibitions II: -- Differentiations (in Germany) -- Video Game Exhibitions III: -- Challenges and Opportunities -- Computer Game Exhibitions IV: -- Praise of the Display Case -- Epilogue: Display Cases, Again -- Literature -- Gameography -- Modifications -- Unpacking the Blackbox of 'Normal Gaming' -- Introduction.

Game culture and material culture have always been closely linked. Analog forms of rule-based play (ludus) would hardly be conceivable without dice, cards, and game boards. In the act of free play (paidia), children as well as adults transform simple objects into multifaceted toys in an almost magical way. Even digital play is suffused with material culture: Games are not only mediated by technical interfaces, which we access via hardware and tangible peripherals. They are also subject to material hybridization, paratextual framing, and processes of de-, and re-materialization.