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Games such as FarmVille and other casuals played on social networks and mobile devices have recently become increasingly popular. Research on Social Networking Games (SNGs) often focuses on the "social" aspects—how this newer style of games engenders social relationships from disparate locations. This essay examines the genre of gaming in terms of their industry category, "Invest/Express Games." Using the Invest/Express label as a means of rethinking the role of interstitial time, this essay proposes that the gaming style taps in to what can be understood as "feminine leisure style." In many ways, the significance of Invest/Express embodies a shift toward a feminization of popular video games.

Feminism is all work and no play. And after all, why should "play" matter to a series of serious social movements? While First Wave Feminism focused on suffrage, and Second Wave Feminism focused on getting women ahead in the workplace, many of the more recent fractured feminist movements have continued to ignore the importance of play and leisure in everyday lives. This all-work-and-no-play focus has ricocheted to future feminisms: none have successfully reclaimed leisure and play. But play has countless implications that exceed the boundaries of frivolity: in order for a women's movement to ultimately be successful, playful dispositions need to be integrated into politics, technology, workplaces, sports, and families. Ultimately in this essay (through a combination of academic research and personal manifesto), I will show that not only is the personal political, but the playful can be political, too.

Alternate Reality Games can be used to reinforce classroom knowledge by encouraging collective learning practices and focusing on new media literacy skills. An Alternate Reality Game creates a game space from real-world locations by relying on information, both online and offline, to physically involve players in a game "space." While the majority of large Alternate Reality Games, to date, have been used as part of marketing campaigns, an increasing number of faculty teaching topics in digital media, technologies, and game studies have begun to employ the alternate reality game in the classroom. We argue that the affordances of Alternate Reality Games are best integrated within a "play-revise-design" format. By appropriating this emerging format in classroom spaces, we hope to teach students concepts such as new media literacies, the values of "safe failure," and social learning, while giving students the tools for interactive storytelling.

Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Reframing Motherhood: Factoring in Consumption and Privilege - Anne Teresa Demo -- 1. The Golden Egg: The Business of Making Mothers through Egg Donation - Charlotte Kroløkke -- 2. Race(ing) to the Baby Market: The Political Economy of Overcoming Infertility - K. Animashaun Ducre -- 3. A Baby "Made in India": Motherhood, Consumerism, and Privilege in Transnational Surrogacy - Karen Hvidtfeldt Madsen -- 4. "We Were Introduced to Foods I Never Even Heard of": Parents as Consumers on Reality Television - Cynthia Gordon -- 5. Cultivating Community within the Commercial Marketplace: Blurred Boundaries in the "Mommy" Blogosphere - Jennifer L. Borda -- 6. Mompreneurs: Homemade Organic Baby Food and the Commodification of Intensive Mothering - Kara N. Dillard -- 7. Maternal Crime in a Cathedral of Consumption - Sara Hayden -- 8. "Don't Worry, Mama Will Fix It!": Playing with the Mama Myth in Video Games - Shira Chess -- 9. Motherhood and the Necessity of Invention: The Possibilities of Play in a Culture of Consumption - Christine Harold -- 10. Choosing to Consume: Race, Education, and the School Voucher Debate - Lisa A. Flores -- Suggested Readings -- Contributors -- Index.