Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-vpsfw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T23:01:57.286Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Introduction: Transnational Play

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 November 2020

Get access

Summary

Abstract

Transnational Play makes a case for approaching gameplay as a global industry and set of practices that also includes diverse participation from players and developers located within the global South, in nations outside of the First World. Such participation includes gameplay in cafés, games for regional and global causes like environmentalism, piracy and cheats, localization, urban playful art in Latin America, and the development of culturally unique mobile games. This book offers a reorientation of perspective on global play, while still acknowledging geographically distributed socioeconomic, racial, gender, and other inequities. Over the course of the inquiry, which includes a chapter dedicated to the cartography of the mobile augmented reality game Pokémon Go, I develop a theoretical line of argument critically informed by gender studies and intersectionality, post-colonialism, geopolitics, and game studies. This book looks at who develops, localizes, and consumes games, problematizing play as a diverse and contested transnational domain.

Keywords: globalized games, participatory gaming, post-colonialism, mobile games, global South, urban studies

Digital games are attracting new players. Yves Guillemot, French CEO of game publisher Ubisoft, told GamesBeat in an interview: ‘It's a very interesting time for the industry, because the mobile is bringing in more and more casual people; Facebook brought new people too by using a new system to monetize’ (Takahashi). Danish game researcher Jasper Juul, somewhat dramatically, dubbed this shift in player demographic: ‘the casual revolution’ (1). No longer the exclusive realm of a Personal Computer hardcore demographic of teenage boys versed in militant teamwork and digital combat, grandmothers, younger women, users of mobile phones and Facebook of any gender, are playing these shorter, more interruptible, and cartoonish games. Players navigate the uncertain outdoor terrain of augmented reality games with their smartphones, collecting cartoon pocket monsters in parks and public plazas and deploying their creatures in digital turf wars. Although seldom included in North American, European, or Japanese studies, these trainers of Pokémon, overseers of digital farms on Facebook, virtual city builders, and argonauts of addictive puzzle challenges, are also located in the ‘global South’, in Latin America, in Africa, and in Southeast Asia.

Type
Chapter
Information
Transnational Play
Piracy, Urban Art, and Mobile Games
, pp. 7 - 28
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×