Playing to Win: Sports, Video Games, and the Culture of Play

Abstract

of why we should take sports video games seriously and oers critical insights into how we can think about them meaningfully. €e major drawback of the book is one of timing, because much of the work seems to be written well before the book was published. Divided into two sections, “Gender Play” and “€e Uses of Simulation,” Brookey and Oates set up the volume with an introduction that lays out the importance of sports video games by invoking games from Pong (1972) to Madden NFL (1988, 1990–present) to demonstrate that sports games are a key part of both a video game history and the contemporary video game market. Chapters range in focus, but most address representations of sports in video games like Madden, FIFA, and Pro Evolution Soccer. However, some contributions reach beyond the text of video games and consider elements like fantasy sports, e-sports, and the advertising surrounding games. €e strength of the collection is its breadth. In taking on a number of dierent kinds of topics, Brookey and Oates have assembled a collection that encourages the reader to think beyond any singular way of examining sports games. For example, I !nd the inclusion of an analysis of fantasy sports players in chapter 4 particularly commendable. Beyond the speci!c topics discussed, the group of authors also demonstrates a commitment to multiple methodologies because it includes scholars from a number of fields—most notably some who primarily analyze video games and some who primarily analyze sport. €e mix of the two groups may sometimes leave one or the other wanting more, but overall the place within it, and online fantasy-based creative-writing spaces. Even a mention of sociological and cultural relevance of D&D in its most recent incarnation (D&D Fi"h Edition) would have been welcomed. I hope that other scholars pick up Laycock’s threads and explore today’s player transformation, world building, and cultural contexts. In the final analysis, this book deserves a place in the library of any scholar of games as cultural texts—and especially those interested in religion and games. I will refer to the text o"en as both an eective analysis of the impact RPGs have on culture and as a masterful example of historical research into play and its place in society.