Game

With his characteristic combination of wit and erudition, Tom Tyler explores the powers of virtualization that stretch from the OED and the literary canon to video games both old and new. As he demonstrates, the power of reading closely, watching keenly, and listening carefully is an invitation to play otherwise, to push back against the force of the generic, whose foremost example might well be what we call, dumbly, 'the animal.' -Cary Wolfe, author of What is Posthumanism? and founding director, 3CT: Center for Critical and Cultural Theory, Rice University Ducks, dogs, sheep, and squid-not to mention dung beetles. These and many more creatures roam through Tom Tyler's lively ruminations on the nature of animals in video games. With its delightful zigzags through etymology, folklore, literature, and history, Tyler shows how thinking about video games by considering the animals within defamiliarizes videogames, recenters the nonhuman, and revitalizes our sense of our own humanness. -Mark Sample, Davidson College A brisk, insightful, and accessible study of the myriad relationships between animals and games... Tyler's Game is a thoughtful reflection on what it means to be human in a hypermediated world on the verge of breakdown, with an eye toward a more ethical multispecies future to come. -Ancillary Review of Books A delightful and quirky stroll through everything from game design to primatology and Shakespearean tragedy to the sitcom Frasier. -Animal Studies Journal In an era of egregious mistreatment and collective willed ignorance about animals and their lives, Game knowingly offers innocent fun with its roster of virtual beasts, alongside an unapologetic investment in the welfare of real animals. -Gamers with Glasses The book is explicitly designed as a Trojan horse that might appear to be a playful series of essays about the role of animals in video games, but actually poses deep-rooted philosophical questions about what it means to be human. -New Formations