Understanding Video Games: The Essential Introduction

The fifth edition of this pioneering textbook takes video game studies into the next decade, highlighting changes in mobile, social, and casual gaming. Drawing from examples, the text explores the aesthetics of games, evaluates the cultural position of video games, and considers the potential effects of both violent and ＂serious＂ games.

Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen is CEO of Serious Games Interactive and DiBL. He has a PhD from IT-University of Copenhagen in Games and learning. Previously he worked as an assistant professor at the Center for Computer Games Research at the IT University of Copenhagen.

Jonas Heide Smith has a PhD in games and is Head of Digital at SMK - National Gallery of Denmark where he works on digital cultural heritage.

Susana Pajares Tosca is Professor of Media Studies at the University of Southern Denmark. Over the last twenty years, her research has combined aesthetic and media studies approaches to investigating the reception of digital media, with focus on games, transmedial worlds and Japanese media mix. She is a founding editor of the journal Gamestudies.