Gaming Cultures and Place in Asia-Pacific

<p>This collection explores the relationship between digital gaming and its cultural context by focusing on the burgeoning Asia-Pacific region. Encompassing key locations for global gaming production and consumption such as Japan, China, and South Korea, as well as increasingly significant sites including Australia and Singapore, the region provides a wealth of divergent examples of the role of gaming as a socio-cultural phenomenon. Drawing from micro ethnographic studies of specific games and gaming locales to macro political economy analyses of techno-nationalisms and trans-cultural flows, this collection provides an interdisciplinary model for thinking through the politics of gaming production, representation, and consumption in the region.</p> <p>List of Figures. List of Tables. Acknowledgments 1. Locating the Game: Gaming Cultures in/and the Asia-Pacific Region <em>Larissa Hjorth and Dean Chan </em><strong>Section 1: Industries </strong>2. The Politics of Online Gaming <em>Florence Chee and Dal Yong Jin </em>3. Gaming Nation: The Australian Game Development Industry <em>Sam Hinton </em>4. The Dynamics of New Media Globalization in Asia: A Comparative Study of the Online Gaming Industries in South Korea and Singapore <em>Peichi Chung </em><strong>Section 2: Localities </strong>5. Consuming and Localizing Japanese Combat Games in Hong Kong <em>Benjamin Wai-Ming Ng </em>6. The "Bang" where Korean Online Gaming Began: The Culture and Business of the PC bang in Korea <em>Jun-Sok Huhh </em>7. Lan Gaming Groups: Snapshots from an Australasian Case Study, 1999-2008 <em>Melanie Swalwell </em><strong>Section 3: Genres and New Rubrics </strong>8. Beyond the "Great Firewall": The Case of In-game Protests in China <em>Dean Chan </em>9. Pokemon 151: Complicating kawaii <em>David Surman </em>10. Watching StarCraft, Strategy and South Korea <em>Christian McCrea </em>11. The Re-presentation of Country as Virtual Artefact in Australian Aboriginal Cultural Heritage using a Game Engine <em>Theodor G. Wyeld, Brett Leavy and Patrick Crogan </em>12. Sticky Games and Hybrid Worlds: A Post-phenomenology of Mobile Phones, Mobile Gaming and the iPhone <em>Ingrid Richardson </em><strong>Section 4: Players, Playing, and Virtual Communities </strong>13. Managing Risks in Online Game Worlds: Networking Strategies Among Taiwanese Adolescent Players <em>Holin Lin & Chuen-Tsai Sun </em>14. Games of Gender: A Case Study on Females who Play Games in Seoul, South Korea <em>Larissa Hjorth, Bora Na and Jun-Sok Huhh </em>15. Playing the Gender Game: The Performance of Japan, Gender and Gaming via Melbourne Female Cosplayers <em>Larissa Hjorth. </em>Contributors. Index</p>