Video Game Policy

Production, Distribution, and Consumption

Steven Conway, Jennifer deWinter, Steven Conway, Jennifer deWinter

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN:
  9781138812420
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317607229
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Copyright Law
• Index: Law

This book analyzes the effect of policy on the digital game complex: government, industry, corporations, distributors, players, and the like. Contributors argue that digital games are not created nor consumed outside of the complex power relationships that dictate the full production and distribution cycles, and that we need to consider those relationships in order to effectively "read" and analyze digital games. Through examining a selection of policies, e.g. the Australian government's refusal (until recently) to allow an R18 rating for digital games, Blizzard's policy in regards to intellectual property, Electronic Arts' corporate policy for downloadable content (DLC), they show how policy, that is to say the rules governing the production, distribution and consumption of digital games, has a tangible effect upon our understanding of the digital game medium.

Index

• 38 Studios (creative industries) 6, 31, 217–29
  • bankruptcy 217, 219, 198

• access/accessible 3–4, 6, 42–43, 45, 48–51, 75, 80, 148, 154, 171, 179, 195, 197, 199, 245, 247, 251, 254
  • access rights 5, 101, 117, 140, 147–48, 166, 200–03, 206, 209, 214, 230–31, 240–41, 246, 248–49, 260, 267
  • privacy policies, to 56, 58–64
• Act see (legislation)
• Activision 178, 223
• addiction see also (wangba) 36, 117, 239, 259, 266
• advocacy/advocate 32, 86, 93–95, 137, 146, 170, 201
• age appropriateness see (classification/rating)
• Amazon Market Place 33, 42, 51, 71, 244, 247–50
• analog media 20
• Android 71
• anime 1, 247, 249, 252–54
• Apple 14
  • App Store 21, 42
  • Apple Store 3
  • iOS 50, 71
  • iTunes 3, 51
• arcade 3, 6, 113–14, 212–13, 215, 235, 238, 245, 260, 266
  • arcade games 210, 212, 260, 266
  • arcade-regulated amusements 260
  • coin-op video games 206–13, 215
  • coin-op regulation 6, 206–15
• art 2, 18, 20, 30, 46, 75, 80, 85, 88–89, 138, 140, 1...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table Of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• SECTION I Intellectual Property, Privacy, and Copyright
• SECTION II Rating Systems and Cultural Politics
• SECTION III Violence in Video Games
• SECTION IV Politics and Regulations
• Afterword
• List of Contributors
• Index