Metagaming: Playing, Competing, Spectating, Cheating, Trading, Making, and Breaking Videogames (University of Minnesota Press, September 2017) by Stephanie Boluk, assistant professor of English and cinema and digital media, and Patrick LeMieux, assistant professor in cinema and digital media, delves into alternative histories of play and demonstrates how games extend beyond the screen, and how modders, mappers, streamers, spectators, analysts, and artists are changing the way we play. Stephanie Boluk and Patrick LeMieux argue that “the greatest trick the videogame industry ever pulled was convincing the world that videogames were games rather than a medium for making metagames.” Elegantly defined as “games about games,” metagames implicate a diverse range of practices that stray outside the boundaries and bend the rules: from technical glitches and forbidden strategies to Renaissance painting, algorithmic trading, professional sports, and the War on Terror.

Stephanie Boluk is an associate professor in Cinema and Digital Media and English. Research areas include game studies, game design, media studies, computer history, and electronic literature. 

View the book at University of Minnesota Press