Identity and Play in Interactive Digital Media

<p>Recent shifts in new literacy studies have expanded definitions of text reading/viewing and literacy itself. The inclusion of non-traditional media forms is essential as texts beyond written words images or movement across a screen are becoming ever more prominent in media studies. Included in such non-print texts are interactive media forms like computer or video games that can be understood in similar though distinct terms as texts that are <i>read</i> by their users. This book examines how people are socially culturally and personally changing as a result of their reading of or interaction with these texts. This work explores the concept of ergodic ontogeny: the mental development resulting from interactive digital media play experiences causing change in personal identity.</p>