As a rule Computer games remain to be the focus of media attention when specific acts of violence which deeply horrify the audience (war and ampage – Iraq and Erfurt) draw the public’s perception to them. The first ever occuring impetus then is aimed at a more or less serious examination of their dangerous and problematic aspects (blunting people’s senses, playing down and provoking violence, player’s loss of touch with reality, escapism, unscrupulousness, etc.). Beyond the dominating reflex of such an often monocausal, naive formulation of the topic, a thoroughly controversial – yet most of the time superficial – discussion about the critical sociocultural implications of computer games has been established.

Even in the academic analysis the surely relevant, though by no means sufficient concentration on the link between computer games and violence is dominant. Up to now only few studies have offered a contextualizing view of the political, aesthetic, narratologic, economic, historic aspects with regard to their mutual connection.

Accordingly this volume is meant to become an extensive account of the phenomenon “computer games” with all its different genres. The various perspectives of analyses (aesthetics, economy, narratology, etc.) will thus provide the reader with a sound insight into the subject.