Handbook of Computer Game Studies paperback out now.

The Handbook of Computer Game Studies, edited by our own Joost Raessens and Jeffrey Goldstein for The MIT Press and first released in hardcover in 2005, is finally on sale in paperback edition.

For those who do not own a copy yet, here’s the book description from the MIT Press website. The table of content can be found here.

New media students, teachers, and professionals have long needed a comprehensive scholarly treatment of digital games that deals with the history, design, reception, and aesthetics of games along with their social and cultural context. The Handbook of Computer Game Studies fills this need with a definitive look at the subject from a broad range of perspectives. Contributors come from cognitive science and artificial intelligence, developmental, social, and clinical psychology, history, film, theater, and literary studies, cultural studies, and philosophy as well as game design and development. The text includes both scholarly articles and journalism from such well-known voices as Douglas Rushkoff, Sherry Turkle, Henry Jenkins, Katie Salen, Eric Zimmerman, and others.

Contributors consider the “prehistory” of computer games and the development of computer games themselves; game development from the designer’s point of view; empirical research on the psychological effects of computer games, including the use of computer games in clinical and educational settings; the aesthetics of games in comparison to film and literature; the effect of computer games on cultural identity, including gender and ethnicity; the relation  of computer games to social behavior, including, among other matters, the inadequacy of laboratory experiments linking games and aggression and the different modes of participation in computer game culture.