Review: Jon Dovey and Helen W. Kennedy, Game Cultures. Maidenhead and New York: Open University Press, 2006. £19.99. 171 pp. Barry Atkins and Tanya Krzywinska (eds), Videogame, Player, Text. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2007. £15.99. 256pp

Abstract

and disjunctions) between the figuring of looking and 'to-be-looked-at-ness', voyeurism and exhibitionism, and the mediatization of identity. Here again, those hyperlinks keep popping up, from paparazzi to counterterrorism and beyond. It's a book that's absolutely jam packed, yet still leaves room for the reader to add in more.This shouldn't be taken as a criticism, of course. It's more a case of the way this book keeps the reader interested, the way its style encourages the making of connections. Trying to figure out how to summarize this effect, I can only describe it as Benjaminian, and indeed Walt is a constant presence (along with other urbanists' favourites such as Simmel and Kracauer, and reflexive modernists like Lash). Writing with effusiveness uncharacteristic of back-cover blurbs on academic tomes, James Donald says 'I love this book'. But I will end by echoing his praise, and make a promise to readers: you will love The Media City, too.