Contents

Acknowledgments

Series Introduction – Genre and Disciplinarity in the Study of Games

Gerald Voorhees, Josh Call, and Katie Whitlock

Introduction – From Dungeons to Digital Denizens

Josh Call, Katie Whitlock, and Gerald Voorhees

SECTION ONE Game Master

1 Eco-Performance in the Digital RPG Gamescape
Adele H. Bealer

2 The Pathways of Time: Temporality and Procedures in MMORPGs
Joshua Abboud

3 Game and Narrative in Dragon Age: Origins: Playing the Archive in Digital RPGs
Alice Henton

4 When Language Goes Bad: Localization’s Effect on the Gameplay of Japanese RPGs
Douglas Schules

5 The Lord of the Rings Online: Issues in the Adaptation of MMORPGs
Neil Randall, Kathleen Murphy

SECTION TWO In-Character

6 Traumatic Origins: Memory, Crisis, and Identity in Digital RPGs
Katie Whitlock

7 Risky Business: Neo-liberal Rationality and the Computer RPG
Andrew Baerg

8 Postcards from the Other Side: Interactive Revelation in Post-Apocalyptic RPGs
Zachary McDowell

9 Constructing a Powerful Identity in World of Warcraft: A Sociolinguistic Approach to MMORPGs
Benjamin E. Friedline, Lauren B. Collister

10 In the Blood of Dragon Age: Origins: Metaphor and Identity in Digital RPGs
Karen Zook

11 Epic Style: Re-compositional Performance in the BioWare Digital RPG
Roger Travis

SECTION THREE Out-of-Character

12 Neo-liberal Multiculturalism in Mass Effect: The Government of Difference in Digital RPGs
Gerald Voorhees

13 ‘Simply Fighting to Preserve Their Way of Life’: Multiculturalism in World of Warcraft
Christopher Douglas

14 From Meaning to Experience: Teaching Fiction Writing With Digital RPGs
Trent Hergenrader

15 Gaming the Meta: Metagame Culture and Player Motivation in RPGs
Josh Call

16 The Generalization of Configurable Being: From RPGs to Facebook
Chuk Moran

About the Contributors

Author Index

Game Index

Subject Index