Customer Reviews

Game On

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Any book that says on its cover "The History abnd Culture of Videogames" and doesn't mention Ralph Baer (the inventor of home videogames) or only devotes one sentence to Nolan Bushnell ( the founder of Atari), isn't worth its price in salt. Stick to Phoenix: The Fall & Rise of Videogames or The Ultimate History of Videogames.

This book is subtitled "The History and Culture of Videogames," but it focuses on the latter, not the former. Granted, there are a lot of nice photographs of consoles and screenshots of games, but the bulk of the book consists of essays from little-known authors, freelance writers, and assorted educators who are (at most) nominally involved with the videogame industry. Some of their opinions are interesting, but most offer little in the way of entertainment or educational value.

The book might have been fine as a companion to a museum show (which it apparently was), but as a stand-alone volume it is lacking. Even though there aren't very many books written on the subject of videogames, I can't recommend this one. Game Over, High Score, and The First Quarter are more educational, Supercade has more information and better pictures, and Arcade Fever is more entertaining.

This book accompanies the Game On exhibit. As such it is a good introduction to the growing field of game studies. It makes a good introduction to those who have never thought of videogames as anything but entertainment and shows that videogames are just as worthy of serious academic thought as film or television.
That being said, it is only an introduction and does not break any new ground. For someone who is already interested in game studies, this book may be too superficial and lacking in any in-depth analysis. However, this is not what it is attempting to do, and it should be evaluated on thsoe terms.
It is richly illistrated throughout and has a nice design. I found the second half of the book to be more interestiing, and found myself asking why some of the articles in the first half were included.
Overall, a good introduction with nice pictures. So if you are new to game studies, pick it up, if not you may want to pass, or try to find a used copy at best.

There are many better texts on video games out there. Not only that, this book is really misleading by the title. It doesn't ever go into much detail on the history or culture of video games at all. As one who teaches a course on the subject, I really didn't find more than a couple of ideas in the entire book. Also, this isn't so much a book as it is a collection of essays.

This is an interesting illustrated collection of articles on a huge variety of topics regarding gaming. Includes the academic/scholarly study of video games in pop culture (cultural studies/American studies). Articles include:

Violence and the Political Life of Video Games
I Love My Video Games
Pokemon as Japanese Culture?
All Clicked Out
Report from the PAL Zone: European Games Culture
My Story: Girls Playing Games
Broads, A Bitch, Never the Snitch
The Art of Contested Spaces
Character Forming
Gaming the System - Multi-player Worlds Online
Telefragging: Monster Movies
Story as Play Space: Narrative in Games
Do Independent Games Exist?
Head Games - The Future of Play