Ability Machines, livre ebook

Indiana University Press is pleased to make this book freely available as an Open Access monograph. Though they may seem at odds, Ability Machines illuminates just how vital video games are to understanding our bodies and abilities.

In Ability Machines, Sky LaRell Anderson shows us how video games can help us imagine what our abilities mean and how they engage us physically, behaviorally, and cognitively to envision our agency beyond limitations. On the surface, this can mean games provide power fantasies; more profoundly, games can fundamentally reshape cultural and personal understandings of mental health, illness, disability, and accessibility. Video games are indeed ability machines that produce a reimagined state of agency.

Featuring a comparative analysis of key video game titles, including Metal Gear Solid V, Wolfenstein II, Celeste, Devil May Cry 5, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Hades, Nier: Automata, and more, Ability Machines tackles larger questions of ability and how our bodies relate to interactive media.

Acknowledgments
Note to Reader: How I Have Tried to Make this Book Accessible
Prologue: Video Games and Your BodySection 1: Accessing Ability
Interview with Steven Spohn of AbleGamers
1. Gaming Journalism and Discourse about Disability
Interview with Marijn Rongen of CanIPlayThat.com
2. Designing for Accessibility Improves Video GamesSection 2: Producing Ability
Interview with Clinton Lexa of Ubisoft Montréal
3. Streaming Transforms Disability Identities
Interview with Kelli Dunlap of Take This
4. The Gaming Industry Strains Mental Health
Interview with Artist and Game Designer Kara Stone
5. Designing Games Offers Mental Healing, Hurt, and HealthSection 3: Depicting Ability
Interview with University of St. Thomas Game Design Students
6. Reimagining Disability in Video Game Depictions
Interview with University of Utah Game Design Students
7. Portraying Mental Illness through Interactivity
Epilogue: Reimagining Your Body through Video Games
Gameography
References
Index