Game After Game After A Cultural Study of Video Game Afterlife Raiford Guins The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England © 2014 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. MIT Press books may be purchased at special quantity discounts for business or sales promotional use. For information, please email
[email protected]. This book was set in Stone Sans and Stone Serif by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited, Hong Kong. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Guins, Raiford. Game after : a cultural study of video game afterlife / by Raiford Guins. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-262-01998-9 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Video games — Social aspects. I. Title. GV1469.34.S63G85 2014 794.8 — dc23 2013017731 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Game After is for Deckard Bergren Guins, my son, who generously dedicated the first two years of his life to the writing of this book. Contents Foreword ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction: Persistent Games 1 Ex-Game 1 Afterlife and the Culture of Materiality 5 Where Is History in Game Studies? 18 Now Boarding 26 1 Museified 31 Object Lessened? 31 Artifact — Activity 35 Slips 52 Iconic Object 58 2006.0102.04 64 2 Thinking Inside the (Archival) Box 75 Chronicled 75 Era of Collection 81 Collection of No-Things: Mr.