Acknowledgments

Although we’ve edited anthologies before—both together and with other collaborators—we’ve never attempted anything quite this ambitious. Our appreciation that you are now reading this begins with our many contributors. Not only is their careful work on display throughout this collection, but they have each also demonstrated throughout the multiround editorial process, a steadfast commitment to improving their work for the book’s intended readership: students. How to Play Video Games may feature 40 chapters on a variety of games and keywords, but they are all written by committed teacher-scholars. As editors, we found this collective desire and willingness to write for students to be one of the book’s foremost strengths.

We also want to thank Eric Zinner, Alicia Nadkarni, Dolma Ombadykow, Martin Coleman, and the rest of the NYU Press team for their dedication to this project, as well as the constructive feedback provided by anonymous readers. Finally, we owe a debt of gratitude to Ethan Thompson and Jason Mittell, the co-editors of How to Watch Television (NYU Press, 2013), for their permission to iterate on their TV studies collection for game studies. Their collection provided the structural blueprint for our work. We thank them, too, for authoring this book’s Foreword.

We want to thank Morgan Blue for her keen indexing work. The index was made possible, in part, by support from the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, College of Arts and Letters, University of Notre Dame.

MATTHEW

I’m so incredibly grateful that Nina agreed to collaborate on yet another project with me. Her support—as a co-editor and as a friend—has been invaluable and incalculable. From the project’s earliest beginnings as a “what-if” idea during a postconference conversation to the final stages of proofing years later, I’m consistently impressed by Nina’s tireless work ethic and positive spirit. Thanks also to my colleagues in the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre at the University of Notre Dame for their encouragement on this project.

Finally, a special thanks to my partner, Joanna Jefferson, for her unending support on this as with all other academic things and to our kids, Sophie and Jackson. Although our kids don’t always help us with our work, they always teach us something about play.

NINA

Academia is often a single-player game, rewarding individual achievement over teamwork. And yet, for over a decade, Matthew has been a committed, encouraging, supportive, and enthusiastic co-player. Working alongside him has made me a stronger and sharper thinker, writer, and editor. I am deeply grateful for our long collaboration and friendship and am very proud of the projects we have created together, none more so than this one.

My participation in this collection was made possible by the love and support of my partner, Joshua Green. As always, he took such good and loving care of me and our family during the late nights, early mornings, and weekends that I devoted to this endeavor. Thank you.