Contextual Studies

McGonigal, Jane (2011), Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Change the World, Vintage Books.

This book was recommended to me by through feedback and upon reading the relevent chapters, I have discovered a wealth of facts and supporting opinions to add to my essay. Jane McGonagil writes in depth about how video games can be utilized to change the world, theorizing on the future use of games. The chapters that stand out to me are the ones concerning the social interactions between online players. This ties perfectly into my essay title of :

The Social Aspects of Games and their Potential

to Exist Beyond the Play Medium. 

The book mentions in detail about the psychological effect of MMORPGs on various gamer types. This links in nicely with the papers and documents that I discovered while searching the web. particularly the paper published by Dr. Richard Bartle. 

Dr. Bartle, Richard A., April 2004, the Pitfalls of Virtual Property, The Themis Group, available from http://www.themis-group.com/uploads/Pitfalls%20of%20Virtual%20Property.pdf, last accessed 03/05/12

 The above video features a panel, including Dr. Bartle, being questioned about the effects of multi-player on their lives and its origin as a military for of training.

PLATO, An Early Robust Community of Multiplayer Games , (June 3^rd 2010), Computer History Museum Available from: http://www.platohistory.org/blog/games/, last accessed 03/05/12.