Staff Picks
Level Up: Non-fiction for Gamers
- Rebecca K.
- Tuesday, February 12, 2019
Collection
Be at the top of your game with these books that celebrate the rich history, diversity, creativity, and evolution in video game culture.
Chainmail Bikini
The Anthology of Women Gamers
Published in 2015
"Chainmail Bikini is an anthology of comics by and about female gamers! Forty cartoonists have contributed comics about the games they’re passionate about -- from video games to tabletop role-playing to collectible card games. The comics in Chainmail Bikini explore the real-life impact of entering a fantasy world, and how games can connect us with each other and teach us about ourselves. Alliances are forged, dice get rolled, and dragons get slain! Chainmail Bikini shows that while women are not always the target market for gaming, they are a vital and thoroughly engaged part of it, and are eager to express their personal take as players, makers, and critics of games."--provided by Amazon.com.
Rise of the Videogame Zinesters
How Freaks, Normals, Amateurs, Artists, Dreamers, Dropouts, Queers, Housewives, and People Like You Are Taking Back an Art Form
Published in 2012
Discusses the history of the zinester videogame scene and advises the reader on how best to make their own videogames.
Metagaming
Playing, Competing, Spectating, Cheating, Trading, Making, and Breaking Videogames
Published in 2017
"The greatest trick the videogame industry ever pulled was convincing the world that videogames were games rather than a medium for making metagames. Elegantly defined as "games about games," metagames implicate a diverse range of practices that stray outside the boundaries and bend the rules: from technical glitches and forbidden strategies to Renaissance painting, algorithmic trading, professional sports, and the War on Terror. In Metagaming, Stephanie Boluk and Patrick LeMieux demonstrate how games always extend beyond the screen, and how modders, mappers, streamers, spectators, analysts, and artists are changing the way we play. Metagaming uncovers these alternative histories of play by exploring the strange experiences and unexpected effects that emerge in, on, around, and through videogames. Players puzzle through the problems of perspectival rendering in Portal, perform clandestine acts of electronic espionage in EVE Online, compete and commentate in Korean StarCraft, and speedrun The Legend of Zelda in record times (with or without the use of vision). Companies like Valve attempt to capture the metagame through international e-sports and online marketplaces while the corporate history of Super Mario Bros. is undermined by the endless levels of Infinite Mario, the frustrating pranks of Asshole Mario, and even Super Mario Clouds, a ROM hack exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art. One of the only books to include original software alongside each chapter, Metagaming transforms videogames from packaged products into instruments, equipment, tools, and toys for intervening in the sensory and political economies of everyday life. And although videogames conflate the creativity, criticality, and craft of play with the act of consumption, we don't simply play videogames--we make metagames"-- Provided by publisher.
Tetris
The Games People Play
Published in 2016
"It is, perhaps, the perfect video game. Simple yet addictive, Tetris delivers an irresistible, unending puzzle that has players hooked. Play it long enough and you'll see those brightly colored geometric shapes everywhere. You'll see them in your dreams. Alexey Pajitnov had big ideas about games. In 1984, he created Tetris in his spare time while developing software for the Soviet government. Once Tetris emerged from behind the Iron Curtain, it was an instant hit. Nintendo, Atari, Sega--game developers big and small all wanted Tetris. A bidding war was sparked, followed by clandestine trips to Moscow, backroom deals, innumerable miscommunications, and outright theft. In this graphic novel, New York Times--bestselling author Box Brown untangles this complex history and delves deep into the role games play in art, culture, and commerce. For the first time and in unparalleled detail, Tetris: The Games People Play tells the true story of the world's most popular video game"--Page 2 of cover.
Power Play
How Video Games Can Save the World
Published in 2017
The phenomenal growth of gaming has inspired plenty of hand-wringing since its inception--from the press, politicians, parents, and everyone else concerned with its effect on our brains, bodies, and hearts. But what if games could be good, not only for individuals but for the world? In Power Play, Asi Burak and Laura Parker explore how video games are now pioneering innovative social change around the world. As the former executive director and now chairman of Games for Change, Asi Burak has spent the last ten years supporting and promoting the use of video games for social good, in collaboration with leading organizations like the White House, NASA, World Bank, and The United Nations. The games for change movement has introduced millions of players to meaningful experiences around everything from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the US Constitution. Power Play looks to the future of games as a global movement. Asi Burak and Laura Parker profile the luminaries behind some of the movement's most iconic games, including former Supreme Court judge Sandra Day O'Connor and Pulitzer-Prize winning authors Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. They also explore the promise of virtual reality to address social and political issues with unprecedented immersion, and see what the next generation of game makers have in store for the future.
Replay
The History of Video Games
Published in 2010
A comprehensive overview of the evolution of video games covering topics such as, "Atari revolution;" "rise of cartridge-based consoles;" American video game industry; international video game industry; "Apple Mac;" "Nintendo Entertainment System;" Sega video games; PlayStation video games; and "girl gaming."
Embed with Games
A Year on the Couch with Game Developers
Published in 2015
"In January of 2014 Cara wasn't quite making rent but her cultural criticism on games for places like The Guardian seemed pretty popular. On a whim she pledged to her Twitter followers that she would do gonzo journalism and travel each month to stay with game creators she found across the world, if they put a bit of money towards it. Cara put a page up on Patreon and said if it got to $1000 that would be enough for her first flight. She thought it would never get there ... Within an hour this 'cyberpunk hair-dyed Attenborough' had kicked herself out of her home and sent herself hurtling across a year of four continents, living on gamemakers' couches, writing about their cities and creations. Six hundred readers funded her round-the-world trip, from London to Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne. This is a collected work of all the essays Cara wrote along the way, a map of independent game creation as she found it."--Jacket.
All Your Base Are Belong to Us
How Fifty Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture
Published in 2011
Examines the creativity, controversy, and passion behind the videogame's rise to the top of pop culture.
Girl Code
Gaming, Going Viral, and Getting It Done
Published in 2017
The teenage phenoms behind viral video game Tampon Run share the story of their experience at Girls Who Code and their rise to fame, plus a savvy look at starts-ups, women in tech, and the power of coding. This book includes bonus content to help you get started coding.
The Comic Book Story of Video Games
The Incredible History of the Electronic Gaming Revolution
Published in 2017
Art of Atari
Published in 2016
"ATARI is one of the most recognized names in the world. Since its formation in 1972, the company pioneered hundreds of iconic titles including Asteroids, Centipede and Missile Command. In addition to hundreds of games created for arcades, home video systems, and computers, original artwork was specially commissioned to enhance the Atari experience, further enticing children and adults to embrace and enjoy the new era of electronic entertainment. ART OF ATARI is the first official collection of such artwork. Sourced from museums and private collections worldwide, this book spans over 40 years of the company's unique illustrations used in packaging, advertisements, catalogs, and more!,"--Amazon.com.