Nick Webber

Associate Professor in Media

Email:: nick.webber@bcu.ac.uk
Phone:: +44 (0)121 331 7280

Nick Webber is Director of the Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research (BCMCR). He joined the University in 2008, having previously worked in research development. Nick has a background in medieval history, and his research now focuses on (historical) game studies.

Areas of Expertise

Qualifications

Research

Postgraduate Supervision

Publications

Donald, I., Webber, N. and Wright, E. (2023, in press) Video Games, Historical Representation and Soft Power. Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds.
Webber, N. (2023, in press) On, off and in the map: materialising game experiences through player cartography. In I. Taylor and O. Carter, eds. Media Materialities: Form, Format, and Ephemeral Meaning. Bristol: Intellect.
Webber, N. (2023) The past as (para)text – relating histories of game experience to games as texts. In R. Seiwald and E. Vollans, eds. (NOT) in the Game: History, Paratexts, and Games. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 81-98. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110732924-005
Stevens, C. and Webber, N. (2022) The Fan Historian. Transformative Works and Cultures, 37. https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2022.2125
Webber, N. (2022) Game History. In P. Grabarczyk, ed., Encyclopedia of Ludic Terms (Spring 2022 Edition). https://eolt.org/articles/game-history
Milik, O. and Webber, N. (2020) Feudal Alliances in a Hyper-Capitalist World: Power and Organization in EVE Online. Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds, 12(2), pp. 165-81. https://doi.org/10.1386/jgvw_00012_1
Wall, T. and Webber, N. (2020) Rock ‘n’ Roll: Cars, Convergence and Culture. In M. Duffett and B. Peter, eds. Popular Music and Automobiles. New York/London: Bloomsbury, pp. 15-32.
Webber, N. (2020) The Britishness of ‘British Video Games’. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 26(2), pp. 135-49. https://doi.org/10.1080/10286632.2018.1448804
Webber, N. and Stevens, C. (2020) History, Fandom and Online Game Communities. In A. von Lünen, K.J. Lewis, B. Litherland and P. Cullum, eds. Historia Ludens: The Playing Historian. New York/London: Routledge, pp. 189-203.
Webber, N. (2019) Table Talk: Archives of Role-Playing’s Personal Pasts. Analog Game Studies, 2019 Role-Playing Game Summit Special Issue. https://analoggamestudies.org/2019/12/archives-of-role-playings-personal-pasts/
Long, P. and Webber, N. (2019). ‘… and then there was one’. Cultural Representations of the Last British Veteran of the Great War. Journal of War and Culture Studies, 12(2), pp. 139-55. https://doi.org/10.1080/17526272.2018.1536840
Saber, D. and Webber, N. (2017) ‘This is our Call of Duty’: hegemony, history and resistant videogames in the Middle East. Media, Culture and Society, 39(1), pp. 77-93. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443716672297
Milik, O. and Webber, N. (2017) Barbarians at the Imperium Gates: Organizational Culture and Change in EVE Online. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 10(3). https://doi.org/10.4101/jvwr.v10i3.7257
Webber, N. (2017) EVE Online’s War Correspondents: Player Journalism as History. In M. Swalwell, A. Ndalianis, and H. Stuckey, eds. Fans and Videogames: History, Fandom, Archives. New York/London: Routledge, pp. 93-110.
Carter, M., Bergstrom, K., Webber, N. and Milik, O. (2016) EVE is Real: How conceptions of the 'real' affect and reflect an online game community. Well Played, 5(2), pp. 5-33.
Milik, O. and Webber, N. (2016) Selling the Imperium: Changing Organisational Culture and History in EVE Online. In J. Zagal, ed. DiGRA/FDG '16 – Proceedings of the First International Joint Conference of DiGRA and FDG, 13(1).
Wade, A. and Webber, N. (2016) A Future for Game Histories? Cogent Arts and Humanities, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2016.1212635
Webber, N. (2016) Public History, Game Communities and Historical Knowledge. In J. Zagal, ed. DiGRA/FDG ’16 – Proceedings of the 2016 Playing With History Workshop, 13(3).
Webber, N. (2016) EVE Online as History. In M. Carter, K. Bergstrom and D. Woodford, eds. Internet Spaceships are Serious Business: An EVE Online Reader. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 189-209.
Webber, N. (2016) ‘Pirates’ and ‘Freetards’: The Discourses and Rhetoric of Online Music Consumption. In S. Mazzucotelli Salice, ed. The Urban Gaze: Exploring Urbanity through Art, Architecture, Music, Fashion, Film and Media. Leiden: Brill, pp. 95-108. https://doi.org/10.1163/9781848884533_010
Webber, N. and Long, P. (2015) Gaming Global: A report for British Council. https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/6270/
Wall, T. and Webber, N. (2014) Changing Cultural Coordinates: The Transistor Radio and Space/Time/Identity. In S. Gopinath and J. Stanyek, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Mobile Music Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 118-31.
Wall, T. and Webber, N. (2014) Personal Listening Pleasures. In M. Conboy and J. Steel, eds. The Routledge Companion to British Media History. New York/London: Routledge, pp. 539-49.
Webber, N. (2014) Law, Culture and Massively Multiplayer Online Games. International Review of Law, Computers and Technology, 28(1), pp. 45-59. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600869.2013.869919
Webber, N. (2014). What is Videogame History? In D. Stobbart and M. Evans, eds. Engaging with Videogames: Play, Theory and Practice. Leiden: Brill, pp. 155-67.
Webber, N. and Long, P. (2014) The Last Post: British Press Representations of Veterans of the Great War. Media, War and Conflict, 7(3), pp. 273-90. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750635214557988
Wall, T., Long, P. Barber, S. and Webber, N. (2013) Culture Cloud: Engaging online participants in crowd curation of the visual arts.
Webber, N. (2013) Controlling a Sandbox. In M. Wyzocki, ed. Ctrl-Alt-Play: Essays on Control in Video Gaming. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, pp. 59-71.
Webber, N. (2013) Technophilia and Technophobia in Online Medieval Fantasy Games. In D.T. Kline, ed. Digital Gaming Re-imagines the Middle Ages. New York and London: Routledge, pp. 214-26.
Webber, N. (2013) Grief Play, Deviance and the Practice of Culture. In N. Webber and D. Riha, eds. Exploring Videogames: Culture, Design and Identity. Leiden: Brill, pp. 155-165. https://doi.org/10.1163/9781848882409_017
Webber, N. and Riha, D., eds. (2013) Exploring Videogames: Culture, Design and Identity. Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9781848882409
Webber, N. (2012) Why walk when you can teleport? Themes of travel in online roleplaying games. Academic Quarter | Akademisk Kvarter, 4, pp. 276-90. https://doi.org/10.5278/ojs.academicquarter.v0i04.3296
Webber, N. (2012) Discourses of Departure in Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games (MMORPGs). In A.L. Brackin and N. Guyot, eds. Cultural Perspectives of Video Games: From Designer to Player. Leiden: Brill, pp. 55-68. https://doi.org/10.1163/9781848881617_007
Webber, N. (2011) Radio. In D. Southerton, ed. The Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 1193-1195. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412994248
Webber, N. (2008) England and the Norman Myth. In J. Barrow and A. Wareham, eds. Myth, Rulership, Church and Charters. Aldershot: Ashgate, pp. 211-228. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315248448
Webber, N. (2005) The Evolution of Norman Identity, c.911-1154. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer.