The Persistence of Code in Game Engine Culture

"""Freedman skillfully reveals the importance of game engines for understanding contemporary video games. And then, he goes one step further, and reveals just how important they are for understanding cities, consumerism, and nearly every other aspect of modern life. This is a must read for every student of the media."" Eric Gordon, Professor of Civic Design, Emerson College ""Eric Freedman has taken a complex and concealed topic – how game engines function to constrain and create possibilities, which helps him consider the impact of code on everyday life – and rendered it visible. Freedman presents a well-written and well-informed critical analysis, using case studies that problematize and facilitate the interrogation of these technologies in their social contexts from multiple angles."" Rebecca Ann Lind, Associate Professor of Communication, University of Illinois at Chicago ""Freedman skillfully reveals the importance of game engines for understanding contemporary video games. And then, he goes one step further, and reveals just how important they are for understanding cities, consumerism, and nearly every other aspect of modern life. This is a must read for every student of the media."" Eric Gordon, Professor of Civic Design, Emerson College ""Eric Freedman has taken a complex and concealed topic – how game engines function to constrain and create possibilities, which helps him consider the impact of code on everyday life – and rendered it visible. Freedman presents a well-written and well-informed critical analysis, using case studies that problematize and facilitate the interrogation of these technologies in their social contexts from multiple angles."" Rebecca Ann Lind, Associate Professor of Communication, University of Illinois at Chicago"