Contact info

For Library research help, please contact Moninder Lalli, Librarian for Sociology / Anthropology by email moninder_lalli@sfu.ca or Ask a librarian.

For additional resources, also check the Library guide for Interactive Arts and Technology.

Other Library guides

You may also wish to consult the library guides for Anthropology and Interactive Arts and Technology.

Selected reference works

Encyclopedias, handbooks or textbooks provide overviews, definitions and identify key authors and ideas.

Search for "video games" within these reference books.  Be sure to put quotation marks (" ") around the phrase, "video games."

• Computer Games and New Media Cultures A Handbook of Digital Games Studies 
• Construct game development beginner's guide : a guide to escalate beginners to intermediate game creators through teaching practical game creation using Scirra Construct 
• Encyclopedia of video games : the culture, technology, and art of gaming
• Game developer's dictionary : a multidisciplinary lexicon for professionals and students [print]
• Handbook of Digital Games
• Handbook of Digital Games and Entertainment Technologies
• Handbook on interactive storytelling
• Oxford handbook of cyberpsychology
• Plunkett's games, apps & social media industry almanac 2023 : the only complete guide to the business of games, mobile applications and social media 
• Routledge companion to actor-network theory 
• Routledge companion to video game studies
• Routledge handbook of Esports
• Sage eReference
• Virtual lives a reference handbook

Databases for journal articles

How to find journal articles" tutorial. 

The databases below will provide articles on information technology and society.  If the full-text of the article is not available, use the "Get@SFU" link to find it.  For more examples of search strategies and the keyword combinations that you could try, see the examples under the section, "Finding books - Keyword searches for topics" in this guide.

Example:   "video games" AND (sociolog* OR anthropolog* OR ethnolog* OR social OR societ*)

• ProQuest Sociology Collection - for issues related to class, gender, racism, sexuality and sexism and theoretical and applied sociology, social science, and policy science.
• Social Sciences Full Text  Multi-disciplinary database
• Communication & Mass Media Complete
• Design and Applied Arts Index (DAAI)  Index to literature on design and craft since the mid-19th century. Research articles are covered, along with topical news items, conference and seminar reports, and book, video and exhibition reviews.
  • For articles on designing video games

Selected journals

• Computers in human behavior
• Game studies : the international journal of computer game research
• Games and culture
• Gaming research & review journal
• iThrive: Journal of Games, Self, & Society
• International journal of role-playing
• Journal of games criticism
• Media, culture, and society

Find books in the Library

Library Catalogue search guide

Search the SFU Library Catalogue.   You can also use  SFU Library Catalogue: Advanced Search

Books by title

Books can be searched by title using the "Browse by title" search, Catalogue Search or the Advanced Search.  The "Browse by title" will not show book chapters or book reviews.

Keyword searches for topics

You can limit search results by "subject" and "resource type" of "books"

Examples:

• Actor-Network Theory
• Actor-Network Theory AND "video games"
• Social Theory AND "video games"
• "video games" AND (creat* OR design* OR develop*)
  • Results limited to "Resource type" of "Books"
•  (games OR gaming OR "video games") AND (race OR class OR gender)
  • Results limited to "Resource type" of "Books" and selected "Subjects"
• ("video games" OR gaming) AND (women OR gender OR misogyn*)
  • Results limited to "Resource type" of "Books" and selected "Subjects"
• ("video games" OR gaming) AND (LGBT OR gay OR lesbian OR queer OR homosexual* OR sexualit*)
  • Results limited to "Resource type" of "Books" and selected "Subjects"
• (affect OR emotion*) AND (gaming OR video game*)
• (gaming OR video game*) AND ("social space*" OR cyberspace* OR "online social network*")
• (online OR digital OR computer) AND gam*

Combine different concepts using AND
Combine same concepts using OR
Use quotation marks to search for a phrase
Use brackets for synonyms
Use asterisk (*) for different endings of words

Note:  For Catalogue Search, when combining concepts, use CAPITAL letters ( "OR", "AND")

Selected books

Below are examples of books from the results lists of the keyword searches above.

• Embedding culture into video games and game design : the palm, the Dogai and the tombstone 
• Experimental games : critique, play, and design in the age of gamification 
• The Formation of Gaming Culture : UK Gaming Magazines, 1981-1995
• Game changers : from Minecraft to misogyny, the fight for the future of videogames [print]
• Game culture reader
• Gamer Nation : video games and American culture
• Gamergate and Anti-Feminism in the Digital Age
• Gamification of society 
• Gaming at the Edge: Sexuality and Gender at the Margins of Gamer Culture [online]
• Gaming disability : disability perspectives on contemporary video games
• Gaming Lives in the Twenty-First Century : Literate Connections
• Gaming representation : race, gender, and sexuality in video games [print]
• Gender and the Superhero Narrative
• How games move us: emotion by design [print]
• Intersectional tech : Black users in digital gaming
• Learn to Play : Designing Tutorials for Video Games
• Manifestations of queerness in video games
• Masculinities in Play
• Play like a feminist 
• Playing with Feelings : Video Games and Affect [print]
• Persuasive gaming in context 
• Queer games avant-garde : how LBGTQ game makers are reimagining the medium of video games
• Queer Game Studies
• Queerness in Play
• Science fiction video games [print]
• Technically wrong : sexist apps, biased algorithms, and other threats of toxic tech [print]
• Social exclusion, power and video game play new research in digital media and technology [print]
• Transnational Contexts of Culture, Gender, Class, and Colonialism in Play: Video Games in East Asia
• Understanding video games : the essential introduction [print]
• Video Games As Culture: Considering the Role and Importance of Video Games in Contemporary Society [online]
• Video games textbook : history, business, technology 
• Values at play in digital games [print]
• Women in classical video games
• Writing for video games 

Browse books by selected subject headings

Check subject headings of relevant titles in your list and click on the "subject" links.  You can also "browse by subject" to find books on a topic.  Examples  of relevant subject headings, below.

• Computer games -- Design
• Computer games -- Social aspects
• Electronic games
• Games
• Games -- Design and construction
• Games -- Social aspects
• Media sociology
• Sex in video games
• Video game designers -- Interviews
• Video gamers
• Video games
• Video games industry
• Video games -- Authorship
• Video games -- Moral and ethical aspects
• Video games -- Psychological aspects
• Video games -- Social aspects
• Violence in video games

Databases for electronic books

Search:  "video game*" and design*

• Springer LINK: Includes many titles on Computing Science and Engineering
   
• Safari Tech Books Online: Electronic books on computer science and technical topics.
  • Within Safari, enter your SFU email address.  Please take a look at the "privacy" policy notice fpr this database.

Games room at Fraser Library (SFU Surrey)

• The Games Room and collection at Fraser Library (SFU Surrey)

Writing help

• Student Learning Commons
  • Academic writing resources
    • Writing for university
    • Academic writing
  • Book a consultation

Selected resources on writing essays:

• A guide to writing sociology papers 
• The Sociology Student Writer's Manual and Reader's Guide
• The writer's handbook for sociology
• Writing ethnography 
• Writing for social scientists : How to start and finish your thesis, book, or article
  • Access to this book is limited to three-simultaneous users
• Writing up qualitative research