Table of Contents

1. The computer game as fictional form
i) The postmodern temptation
ii) Reading game-fictions
2. Fantastically real: reading Tomb Raider
i) Lara Crost: Action hero
ii) Tomb Raider as quest narrative
iii) Beating the system
3. Gritty realism: reading Half-Life
i) Welcome to Black Mesa
ii) I am a camera
4. Replaying history: reading Close Combat
i) History in real-time
ii) Counterfactual gameplay
5. Managing the real: reading SimCity
i) The many worlds of SimCity
ii) SimCity limits
6. More than a game?
i) Realism is dead, long live realism
ii) The shape of things to come
iii) The computer game as fictional form revisited
Glossary of specific game terms
Bibliography

About the Author

Barry Atkins is Lecturer in English and Senior Learning and Teaching Fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University