Metagaming (book) explained

Metagaming: Playing, Competing, Spectating, Cheating, Trading, Making, and Breaking Videogames^[1] is a work that has substantially influenced game theory.

Description and organization

Written by Stephanie Boluk and Patrick LeMieux in 2017 and published by University of Minnesota Press, the work is presented in both digital and paper formats. It looks at videogames and how they function. Game software is included inside the printed book. The digital version allows viewers to annotate and explore the work as well as play the games. As viewers can start conversations and take notes that can be shared with thousands of other readers, this can be considered an open-access work. The work is in fact both a book and a series of games that can be downloaded and played to demonstrate the theories presented.^[2]

The work examines how people interact with videogames as an experience between "playing videogames and their nonhuman operators".^[3] Kath Bassett describes this scope as stretching before, during, between, and after playing.^[4] The book's six chapters cover various aspects of metagaming.^[5] Each chapter contains its own original software that enhances the experience and a specialized topic, resulting in media being built into the work itself.

Critical assessment

In his Rhizomes 2018 review, Trevor Rubin comments that Metagaming examines what games do and how they work within larger possible contexts.^[6] Christopher Goetz in a Critical Inquiry Review notes that the work is a "drastic explanation of what it means to engage with video games", providing extensive research, examples, and footnotes.^[7] The work explains that games have a range of play and that metagaming is the truest form of play, Melvin Hill reports in his Project Muse review.^[8]

The Critical Inquiry Review explains that Boluk and LeMieux show what it is to engage in a video game and refer to the metagame, the game about the game.^[9] In his review, Riccardo Fassone focuses on how this work explains the concept of authority within gaming contexts.

Associated games

Boluk and LeMieux have developed several games together as demonstrations for Metagaming:^[10]

• Triforce (2018)^[11] is a short game to locate pieces of the Triforce ship.^[12] CJ Andriessen's review in Destructoid^[13] explains that this game applies areas from the Legend of Zelda to different 3D surfaces. Heather Alexandra, in Kotaku reviews notes further that this game "completely changes how space and depth work in The Legend of Zelda"^[14]
• Footnotes (2018), ^[15] which Heather Alexandra considers to be a game based on wandering around to collect footnotes and excerpts from Metagaming.^[16] Boluk lectured on this game at Stanford Humanities Center January 14, 2019.^[17]
• What Should We Do With Our Games? is a metagaming manifesto^[18] created for Manifesto Jam (February 8 -13, 2018)

External links

• Stephanie Boluk - UC Davis Arts^[19]
• Patrick LeMieux - UC Davis Media^[20]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Metagaming . 2024-02-26 . University of Minnesota Press . en.
2. Fassone . Riccardo . Winter 2018 . Metagaming: Playing, Competing, Spectating, Cheating, Trading, Making, and Breaking Videogames . American Journal of Play . 10 . 2 . Gale.
3. Web site: Hill . Melvin . Configurations . 5 May 2021 . Project Muse.
4. Bassett . Kath . Metagaming review . New Media and Society . 20 . 6 . 2226-2227 . Sage.
5. Runzheimer . Bernhard . Stephanie Boluk, Patrick LeMieux: Metagaming. Playing, Competing, Spectating, Cheating, Trading, Making, and Breaking Videogames . MEDIENwissenschaft:Rezensionen/Reviews . 2018 . 35 . 4 . 446-447 . de . MediaRep.
6. Ruben . Trevor . 2017-06-01 . Stephanie Boluk and Patrick Lemieux, Metagaming . Rhizomes: Cultural Studies in Emerging Knowledge . en . 32 . 10.20415/rhiz/032.r02 . 1555-9998. free .
7. Goetz . Christopher . The CI Review: Stephanie Boluk and Patrick LeMieux. Metagaming: Playing, Competing, Spectating, Cheating, Trading, Making, and Breaking Videogames. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2017. 392 pp. . Critical Inquiry: University of Chicago Press Journals . 45 . 2 . 559.
8. Hill . Melvin . Summer 2019 . Metagaming: Playing, Competing, Spectating, Cheating, Trading, Making, and Breaking Videogames by Stephanie Boluk and Patrick Lemieux (review) . Configurations . 27 . 3 . 418-420 . MUSE.
9. Web site: Services . University of Chicago IT . Critical Inquiry . 2024-04-08 . criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu . en.
10. Web site: Patrick LeMieux and Stephanie Boluk . 2024-04-07 . itch.io . en.
11. Web site: Triforce by Patrick LeMieux and Stephanie Boluk . 2024-02-26 . itch.io . en.
12. Web site: 2018-11-11 . Triforce: The Topologies of Zelda is a trippy take on the NES masterpiece . 2024-04-07 . Destructoid . en-US.
13. Web site: 2018-11-11 . Triforce: The Topologies of Zelda is a trippy take on the NES masterpiece . 2024-02-26 . Destructoid . en-US.
14. Web site: 2018-12-12 . Free Game Takes The Original Zelda And Twists It Around . 2024-04-07 . Kotaku . en.
15. Web site: Footnotes by Patrick LeMieux and Stephanie Boluk . 2024-02-26 . itch.io . en.
16. Web site: 2018-11-07 . A Game Packed With Games Studies Knowledge . 2024-02-26 . Kotaku . en.
17. Web site: 2019-01-14 . Stephanie Boluk & Patrick LeMieux: Skin in the Game Stanford Humanities Center . 2024-02-26 . shc.stanford.edu . en.
18. Web site: What Should We Do With Our Games? by Patrick LeMieux and Stephanie Boluk . 2024-02-26 . itch.io . en.
19. Web site: 2013-06-28 . Stephanie Boluk . 2024-04-08 . Cinema and Digital Media . en.
20. Web site: 2013-06-28 . Patrick LeMieux . 2024-04-08 . Cinema and Digital Media . en.