Series editors Drs. Neil Randall (Executive Director) and Steve Wilcox (Alum) have already published two new edited collections as part of their Palgrave Games in Context series this year. Previous publications in the series have spoken on aspects of feminism within games, theory and practice within tabletop roleplaying communities, and critical reflections on games like Minecraft. The two latest additions to the series continue the critical examination of games within the context of our culture, technology, politics, and more.
Published in January, Disability and Video Games: Practices of En-/Disabling Modes of Digital Gaming, edited by Markus Spöhrer and Beate Ochsner, functions as an introduction to the growing body of research focused on accessibility and disability in games. The twelve chapters, interviews, and roundtables demonstrate the ways ability and disability, both through gameplay and mechanics, are recreated in digital games. The collection also looks closely at hardware with a focus on adaptive controllers that allow for people to customize their games to their different abilities and disabilities.
Next, published in February, The Chinese Video Game Industry, edited by Feng Chen, Ken S. McAllister, and Judd Ethan Ruggill, offers a critical perspective of the development of the Chinese video game industry. China has emerged as a major influence as to how games are designed, developed, and consumed due to their market being the largest in the world by gross revenue. The collection features thirteen chapters by twenty different authors outlining the historical, cultural, and economic impacts of the Chinese games industry to establish how it has grown to have such an impact on how games are played across the globe.