Gaming as Imagination Technology (Revised Preliminary Edition)

Where do you go when you want to be someone else? In today's world your destination of choice may well be an on-line gaming site. Gaming as Imagination Technology is a collection of articles that prompts reflection and provokes debate on the role of gaming in the higher education curriculum. This reader is intended for courses in communication, anthropology, and sociology, but is appropriate for any course that might/would discuss gaming as a significant shift in how people organize themselves and learn.

Some of the topics and readings in Gaming as Imagination include:

• Real Behavior in Virtual Environments
• The Effects of Prosocial Video Games on Prosocial Behavior
• Strangers and Friends: Collaborative Play in World of Warcraft
• Labor of Fun: How Video Games Blur the Boundaries of Work and Play
• Women, Video Gaming and Learning

Gaming as Imagination is both topical and timely. It provides a thought-provoking look at the impact on learning and behavior of this imaginative, increasingly popular, seductive social phenomenon, a phenomenon that many take lightly, but none should ignore.

Lonny J Avi Brooks received his Ph.D. in Communication at the University of California, San Diego. He also holds on M.A. In Library and Information Science, which he earned at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Brooks is an assistant professor in the Communication Department at California State University, East Bay. In addition to teaching, he is working on Playing@: Work: Performing Future Scenarios of 21st Century Life at the Institute for the Future, currently under review at MIT Press. His research of IFTF is part of a large study undertaken by think tanks worldwide to investigate metaphors employed in future scenarios of computing and how these interact with historical, sociocultural memories and present-day realities. Dr. Brooks also researches emergent trends in social computing. His areas of emphasis are an investigation of how on-line gaming is being implemented in higher education, and how it can provide students with immersive experiences in learning about media theory and practice. Currently Dr. Brooks is Chair of the Communication and The Future division of the National Communication Association.