default header

Theory

Books on games

Moderator: JC Denton

Books on games

Unread postby zinger » 12 May 2008 21:35

I've never read one.

I did a search for "videogame" on Amazon which brought up a ton of different titles (though most of them have been given pretty embarassing titles, practically stating their incompentence as game theorists).

I'd like to believe that there's valuable information behind at least some of those rigid hardbacks. So anyway, share your thoughts or experience on game literature: what has been written, what needs to be written, what have you read so far and so on?
User avatar
zinger
 
Joined: 22 Oct 2007 16:32
Location: Sweden

Unread postby icycalm » 12 May 2008 22:10

Interesting topic, and very relevant to what I am working on at the moment (I've recently started writing a book on games, which is why updates on the site will be somewhat less frequent until I finish it).

Over the years, I've seen quite a number of books on games advertised on various websites, but none of them have seemed remotely interesting. I am not talking about "scholarly" hardbacks here, university textbooks and the like. I am talking about books by people in the game industry. Dean Takahashi, journalists like the UK's Triforce, Jim Rossignol, Stephen Poole, et al. The best of them seem to be sprinkled with interesting(ish) factoids, but nothing that would compel me to put on hold my study of Heidegger or Wittgenstein in order to read them. At this point in my life about the only kinds of books I read are philosophical ones, and even if I were to make an exception, I'd rather pick up some classic literature than a practically worthless book from some industry hack.

(Note that I am talking about the best of the best of these books. The worst of them are not even good for toilet paper. E.g. the ones that feature reviews of the "Top 50" or "Top 100" games of all time (Lumines, Oblivion, etc.))

Now as for the "university textbooks", I admit I am intrigued by those, but whenever I could be bothered enough to read a synopsis or the publisher's description or whatever, they've always seemed too specialized and boring. I mean, yeah:

Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents: Theory, Research, and Public Policy (Hardcover)

And then you have more mainstream stuff, which I can tell immediately from the title that will be half-filled with BS:

The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon--The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World (Paperback)

I know there are some interesting books (mainly Japanese, and perhaps also a couple of German ones) with lots of Encyclopedia-style info on old gaming systems, and those are the ones I'd be prepared to pay money for -- not so much to read but to copy-paste info into my website (lol).

Apart from those, I don't know. Perhaps there are a couple of serious books on this subject out there that are really worth reading. I am not, however, prepared to go out and look for them.

So yeah, it would be nice if someone brought them to my attention.
User avatar
icycalm
Hyperborean
 
Joined: 28 Mar 2006 00:08
Location: Tenerife, Canary Islands

Unread postby zinger » 12 May 2008 22:58

icycalm wrote:Now as for the "university textbooks", I admit I am intrigued by those, but whenever I could be bothered enough to read a synopsis or the publisher's description or whatever, they've always seemed too specialized and boring.

Isn't that the case with 90% of all academic writing though? Most of it is boring as hell to read, since it's all written by nerds on obscure topics in a staggering and complex language. To get such an in-depth perspective can be very satisfying afterwards of course, but you'd want to be assured that the writer knows what he or she is talking about first. But sure, I'd love to see a well-written, all-encompassing, universal study on the history of game design, but that won't surface until there's a well-established and critical videogameology to speak of.

Anyway, I might pick up one or two books on games later this year. I'll make sure to report back here and tell you my opinions if I do.

Oh, and here's an idea for a book: Insomnia - 1000 one-minute game reviews ;)
User avatar
zinger
 
Joined: 22 Oct 2007 16:32
Location: Sweden

Unread postby icycalm » 13 May 2008 01:47

zinger wrote:Isn't that the case with 90% of all academic writing though? Most of it is boring as hell to read, since it's all written by nerds on obscure topics in a staggering and complex language. To get such an in-depth perspective can be very satisfying afterwards of course, but you'd want to be assured that the writer knows what he or she is talking about first. But sure, I'd love to see a well-written, all-encompassing, universal study on the history of game design, but that won't surface until there's a well-established and critical videogameology to speak of.


Let's try and nail down what you/we are looking for here. Because, really, looking for "books" in general is kind of pointless. The point is: what sort of information exactly are you looking for?

So, if you want to learn about specific genres, obviously university professors and their books are not going to be much help. The question you need to ask is: Who are the most hardcore FPS/RTS/STG/FTG/Strategy/Racing/SRPG/JRPG/MMORPG/Text Adventure or whatever players in the world? Go find them and ask them what you need to know. Perhaps they've already written some detailed forum posts/blog posts/articles/essays or books. In that case, read them. But looking on Amazon is the wrong way to go about this.

So with that out of the way, what more could you possible want to know about videogames? There's only one thing left: How to design them (including how to program them). Which is the boring, technical part, except if you actually plan to design games. This is where textbooks come in.

And then the last kind of book that I can see is the "videogames vs. social issues" book, which is not technical and boring (like the textbooks), but just boring. Stuff like videogames as learning tools, videogames and violence, videogames and women, videogames and gay black dwarfs or whatever. I mean seriously.

I can't see another category of game-related books at the moment, but hey, perhaps I am missing something.

zinger wrote:Oh, and here's an idea for a book: Insomnia - 1000 one-minute game reviews ;)


It wouldn't really work, since the reviews are so short. Online is a better medium for this sort of thing. What WOULD work however, is what I have in mind. A series of books titled "Videogame Art", in which I will collect reviews of the best games ever, in a format that will look like this. Coffee-table kind of books, in other words. I've already got several reviews for the first volume (Deus Ex, Half-Life, Herzog Zwei, Arcana Heart, Ketsui and R-Type); once I have about 50 or so I think I'll be ready to publish it.
User avatar
icycalm
Hyperborean
 
Joined: 28 Mar 2006 00:08
Location: Tenerife, Canary Islands

Unread postby icycalm » 13 May 2008 01:55

Here's a (related) funny email exchange between me and some Spanish dude:

Dear Alex,

We are coordinating the production of a book on Videogames called Mondo Pixel (you may visit the website at: www.mondo-pixel.com), and we are interested in including articles from other countries. We believe that “Sequel: the Videogame” is an interesting piece and would like to now if we can translate it (all credits, website and author information quoted), and include it in this book. In exchange, we can offer, that once the book is published, you may use one of our articles for publication on your Website. All authors participating in this project are experts on the subject and are well known in Spanish Pop Culture circles (videogame top magazine editors, film directors, literary critics, etc.).

I thank you in advance and hope to here from you soon.

Yours Sincerely,

Álvaro Tébar Less

Editorial Tébar

calle de las Aguas, 4 - 28005 Madrid

Tel: 91 550 02 60 - Fax: 91 550 02 61

atebar@editorialtebar.com

www.editorialtebar.com


Hello Álvaro,

I am flattered by your interest in my article, but I am afraid I can't accept your offer without compensation... I spend a lot of money every month to buy games from Japan for review, and I could use all the help I can get. If you do have a budget to pay the writers who contribute to your book, then let me know and we can talk about it.

Best Regards,

Alex Kierkegaard


Dear Alex

I´m sorry, we don´t have a budget for writers, and this article was not written for us, it was published in your web some months ago. I think it could be an interesting idea to contribute in a book outside you country, it could be useful for your web to be known in Spain and America. Think about it, best regards.

Álvaro Tébar Less


I´m sorry, we don´t have a budget for writers, and this article was not written for us, it was published in your web some months ago.


Oh, really? Thanks for telling me.
I think it could be an interesting idea to contribute in a book outside you country, it could be useful for your web to be known in Spain and America.


I have thousands and thousands of readers in Spain and America already :)


Ok, congratulations. Bye

Álvaro Tébar Less

Editorial Tébar


Thank you! Good-bye :(


Fucking clowns!
User avatar
icycalm
Hyperborean
 
Joined: 28 Mar 2006 00:08
Location: Tenerife, Canary Islands

Unread postby Bigode » 13 May 2008 03:23

There´s Sirlin´s (sirlin.net) "Playing to Win", and "Masters of Doom".
Bigode
 
Joined: 29 Mar 2008 14:02

Unread postby zinger » 13 May 2008 10:36

I want books like creativity vs. technical limitations/market economy through history, the marketing and social construction of best-selling or praised games, economic forces and its impact on game hardware etc. I'm also curious to see how people choose to write about games in general.

Bigode wrote:There´s Sirlin´s (sirlin.net) "Playing to Win", and "Masters of Doom".

Would you like to elaborate?
User avatar
zinger
 
Joined: 22 Oct 2007 16:32
Location: Sweden

Unread postby zinger » 13 May 2008 16:50

And yeah, stuff like this: http://gdri.smspower.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Game Developer Research Institute (GDRI), officially established on August 26, 2006, is dedicated to finding out more information about the companies and the people that developed video games. Our specialty is researching contract developers that worked for larger publishers, but usually were not given proper credit.
User avatar
zinger
 
Joined: 22 Oct 2007 16:32
Location: Sweden

Unread postby new_pornographer » 14 May 2008 09:32

"Masters of Doom" is a very entertaining read on the humble beginnings of John Romero and John Carmack through to post-Id Software soap opera for Romero.

Interesting fact: Carmack was held in a juvenile correctional facility for a year for trying to steal a PC from his school at night.

Another book I read and enjoyed (in parts) was "1UP: How Japanese Video Games gave the video game industry an extra life" (Or something like that) by Chris Kohler. Now, Kohler's writing style is incredibly dry but the text shed light on quite a few things about the early arcade industry and the "big guns" of Japanese development that I didn't know.
new_pornographer
 
Joined: 01 May 2008 14:00
Location: London

Unread postby Molloy » 14 May 2008 11:56

I'd be interested in reading something about arcade history. That just reminded me of a pretty good history of Sega written by The Scribe going right back to the 1950's. Haven't looked at this in 5 or 6 years but I recall it being rather excellent. It's not a book but there's so much of it it might as well be.

http://www.eidolons-inn.net/tiki-index. ... er+Systems
User avatar
Molloy
 
Joined: 29 Mar 2006 20:40
Location: Ireland

Unread postby icycalm » 14 May 2008 13:22

zinger wrote:And yeah, stuff like this: http://gdri.smspower.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page


Well, you can be certain that no book like that exists, because otherwise those guys would have simply copy-pasted it into their site, and that when it does get published it will be published by those guys, once they finish their research.

But it is in the nature of such research that it can never be finished, which is why online is a better medium for reference-style "books" like this. Dictionaries, encyclopedias, databases, etc.
User avatar
icycalm
Hyperborean
 
Joined: 28 Mar 2006 00:08
Location: Tenerife, Canary Islands

Unread postby Kuzdu » 16 May 2008 03:24

Sirlin's book is about the psychology and habits of competitive gamers, as well as a little bit about the design of competitive games.

Some other books on games and play that I've enjoyed are

- Homo Ludens by Johan Huizinga
- Man, Play, and Games by Roger Caillois
- Gamer Theory by McKenzie Wark

Only the last one is about video games, the first two were written much earlier and are mostly about more traditional games.
Kuzdu
 
Joined: 14 May 2008 21:19

Unread postby Oils » 17 May 2008 06:12

I read The First Quarter about six years ago and it was off the chain. Maybe this book is such common knowledge that it isn't worth mentioning. I thought it was "better" than The Ultimate History of Videogames, but I'm not sure why. Maybe I felt it was more candid.

Among my favorite parts is when Sega releases the Genesis. Everyone thinks Sonic saved the Genesis from consumer apathy, but so did EA. EA, being sick of Nintendo's draconian business tactics, approaches Sega after the Genesis is launched and declares it to be a viable platform - one in which they are interested in supporting. Sega, desperately wanting to be just like Nintendo, is overjoyed and quickly tries to throw together the same kind of licensing contract Nintendo uses, and Trip Hawkins responds by bitchslapping them. They eventually reach an agreement, but as I recall it was largely under Trip's terms. All of this is written with zest and candor.

Another awesome part was when Shigeru Miyamoto approached Hiroshi Yamauchi (Nintendo guy) for a job. Miyamoto was sort of a traveling toy designer - as I recall, he wasn't expecting to make video games. With his customary bubbly personality, he pulls all these products designed for children out of his briefcase, including adorable wooden coat hangars are designed to have large, dull edges so there isn't a risk of being cut, and Yamauchi listens politely but also with some restrained impatience. I can't remember the rest with regards to how he was ended up with the group that developed Donkey Kong.
Last edited by Oils on 17 Jul 2010 00:12, edited 1 time in total.
Oils
 
Joined: 19 Mar 2008 01:48

Unread postby raphael » 20 May 2008 08:42

zinger wrote:
Bigode wrote:There´s Sirlin´s (sirlin.net) "Playing to Win", and "Masters of Doom".

Would you like to elaborate?

For a better idea on Sirlin's "Playing to Win", you can read the first few pages here.

It looks fairly interesting to me. At least the man knows what he is talking about.
User avatar
raphael
 
Joined: 04 Mar 2008 19:31
Location: Paris

Unread postby CosMind » 24 May 2008 02:28

Oils wrote:I read The First Quarter about six years ago and it was off the chain. Maybe this book is such common knowledge that it isn't worth mentioning. I thought it was "better" than The Ultimate History of Videogames, but I'm not sure why. Maybe I felt it was more candid.


I looked The First Quarter up and noticed something quite interesting. It appears that the latter book you mention is a re-release of the former. The author's comments below generalize the changes that he made to the new edition. It's funny that what he considers to be more professional you consider to be less interesting to read.

(from http://www.amazon.com/First-Quarter-25-year-History-Video/dp/0970475500)

A word from the author, October 28, 2001
By Steven L. Kent "gamereader" (The GREAT Northwest) - See all my reviews
I want to thank the people who were so kind in their reviews.

The First Quarter has been re-released as The Ultimate History of Video Games by Prima Publishing. This new version of the book includes an additional chapter, a time line, the oft-requested index, additional art, and above all--PROFESSIONAL EDITING.

As stated in many reviews, The First Quarter suffered from my lack of editing skills. I self-published that book. While my writing skills may be questionable, my editing abilities are indisputably bad.

Finally, I want to thank the people who bought my book and read it. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for sharing my enthusiasm for video games.
CosMind
 
Joined: 15 Sep 2007 02:36
Location: Austin, TX, USA

Unread postby new_pornographer » 04 Aug 2008 18:42

You're gonna just loooovvveeeee this:

http://kotaku.com/5032253/so-yeah-about ... ok-i-wrote
new_pornographer
 
Joined: 01 May 2008 14:00
Location: London

Unread postby JoshF » 04 Aug 2008 19:28

Yeah I want to learn about arcade games from Kotaku, Game | Life, and MTV.

Anyway we probably already have a better book, but it doesn't include bullshit about fucking crane games and photo booths so it was only an article.
User avatar
JoshF
 
Joined: 14 Oct 2007 14:56

Unread postby new_pornographer » 05 Aug 2008 06:50

It's true. He probably won't even mention 1CCing. Anyway sarcasm is hard to convey on the internet without overuse of emoticons. So....

:P :P :P :P :P
new_pornographer
 
Joined: 01 May 2008 14:00
Location: London

Unread postby JoshF » 05 Aug 2008 07:29

Exactly, and without that it's pretty useless. My guess is they'll just do the whole "those crazy japs" thing.
User avatar
JoshF
 
Joined: 14 Oct 2007 14:56

Unread postby icycalm » 05 Aug 2008 17:00

jesus fucking christ

Arcade Mania is divided into nine chapters, each of which deals with a different kind of game, starting with the UFO catchers and print club machines at the entrance and continuing through rhythm games, fighting games, shooting games, retro games, gambling games, card-based games, and only-in-Japan games.
User avatar
icycalm
Hyperborean
 
Joined: 28 Mar 2006 00:08
Location: Tenerife, Canary Islands

Unread postby icycalm » 15 Sep 2008 22:41

http://ask.metafilter.com/68096/Academi ... ideo-games

Jason Rutter maintains what I find to be one of the most comprehensive bibliographies of game literature to date, and it's updated frequently.


http://digiplay.info/digibiblio

Found 2594 results


The consumer society in action, lol. Good luck trawling through all this garbage to find a couple of actually interesting paragraphs.

I'd rather just play games.
User avatar
icycalm
Hyperborean
 
Joined: 28 Mar 2006 00:08
Location: Tenerife, Canary Islands

Unread postby icycalm » 15 Jul 2010 23:47

Here's a thread with some recommendations:

http://www.rllmukforum.com/index.php?showtopic=190490

They are all trash.

If you want the history of the hobby you are better off buying old magazines on ebay. If you want theory, you are better off reading this site.
User avatar
icycalm
Hyperborean
 
Joined: 28 Mar 2006 00:08
Location: Tenerife, Canary Islands

Unread postby starkidaway » 17 Jan 2011 15:22

lll
Last edited by starkidaway on 03 Sep 2011 08:52, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
starkidaway
 
Joined: 09 Jan 2011 03:20
Location: Tampa, Fl.

Unread postby icycalm » 17 Jan 2011 16:16

If you think that quote, by itself, means anything, you must be really stupid. If context is needed in order to make sense of it, but you didn't deem it worthwhile to give it to us, you are also stupid. Perhaps you haven't noticed, but this forum is not a repository for random quotes. I was going to say that "next time you waste my time with worthless posts you will be banned", but I don't see why I shouldn't just ban you right now for it and save repeating myself in the future.

So banned.
User avatar
icycalm
Hyperborean
 
Joined: 28 Mar 2006 00:08
Location: Tenerife, Canary Islands

Unread postby icycalm » 18 Apr 2012 15:38

Margalis wrote:Most academic-style game design writing is just not good. That doesn't mean academic writing about games has to be bad, but adopting academic affectations doesn't make something "adult", sophisticated or worthwhile either. Some academic fields (I won't name names) are awash in academic-styled garbage.

"Rules of Play" is not something I've read but paging through it on Amazon it looks ridiculous, even before you realize that the author is the guy behind "Top Chef: The Game". On page 75 the book is still concerned with defining what a "game" is and presents EIGHT different definitions and a chart comparing them. Get real.


http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread. ... st37025506
User avatar
icycalm
Hyperborean
 
Joined: 28 Mar 2006 00:08
Location: Tenerife, Canary Islands

Next

Return to Theory