“This book” writes Adrian Seville “is devoted to showing why the Game of the Goose can lay claim to being the most influential of any printed game in the cultural history of Europe” (p. 14). It does exactly that, setting out a detailed history of the game.
Read MoreIt’s been a great year to be reviewing books that fall under the umbrella of game studies. This year has given us a labor history of gaming, queer studies, and the politics of game mechanics. A book about the nature of sex, play, and game studies feels like a perfect fit.
Read MoreIn Japanese Culture Through Videogames, Rachael Hutchinson aims to bridge the two fields of Japanese Studies and Game Studies, addressing a relative paucity in the literature of using videogames as a lens through which to interpret and analyse Japanese culture.
Read MoreThis book does exactly what its title suggests: it’s an encyclopedia of game mechanisms, but it’s also rather more than that – it’s an engaging read that’s packed with insightful comment and an invigorating invitation to think about the future directions of tabletop gaming.
Read MoreIn this book, Darshana Jayemanne presents a central thesis that videogames as performances are messy and that they lack a homogeneity that lends itself to linear analysis.
Read MoreIn their latest book, Video Games Have Always Been Queer, Bonnie Ruberg lays out the case for the fabric of play and gaming being essentially queer. That title is, as internet speak suggests, something of a BIG MOOD and can serve as a rallying cry and a reminder: video games have always been queer.
Read MoreMarx at the Arcade, like Luigi in his haunted mansion, clears out the cobwebs and names the spectre haunting gaming. Woodcock’s text ties together several, hitherto disparate, branches of research and commentary into and of gaming. The text brings together modern labour movements, games criticism, and history under the umbrella of Marxist analysis.
Read MoreTransgressions in games are multifaceted, with boundaries that shift depending on the player and the game. Transgression in Games and Play edited by Kristine Jørgensen and Faltin Karlsen recognises this nature of games and play to offer a truly compelling anthology.
Read MoreWe’ve never lived in a better worse moment for politics in gaming. Worse in the sense that mass layoffs, union busting, and the leftover gg trash pockmark the landscape like a bad skincare routine, and best in that now is the moment where taking a stand is starting to show its payoff. Game Workers Unite is gaining steam, Queer indie devs and Queer Game Studies are making bigger impacts on the industry and academia, and theorizing the politics of games is a scaffolding taking the shape of a space in which we can all find room. Coeval to this dialectical change is Liam Mitchell’s Ludopolitics: Videogames Against Control published in 2018 by Zero Books.
Read MorePlaying Smart by Julian Togelius is the latest addition to MIT Press’s Playful Thinking Series. Readers familiar with the series will have an idea of what to expect – namely engaging, thought provoking, and fairly brief books.
Read MoreFor such an exhaustive study, it’s a refreshing read. Perron has done the grueling archival work of scraping archived websites and hand translating the emergence and course of the perception of Survival Horror.
Read MoreMarco Arnaudo’s new book, Storytelling in the Modern Board Game joins the growing body of critical work on analogue games, finding a place alongside books such as Paul Booth’s Game Play (2015).
Read MoreKaren Schrier, Associate Professor of Games/Interactive Media, Director of the Play Innovation Lab, and Director of the Games and Emerging Media at Marist College (NY), presents a fantastic volume on knowledge games.
Read MoreWhile it has been out for some time, The Dark Side of Game Play: Controversial Issues in Playful Environments (Routledge, 2015), proved to be such an interesting and thought-provoking collection that it seemed that a short review was in order.
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