"Editors Daniel Goldberg and Linus Larsson are interested in the way in which writing about the video game medium has grown from product criticism to social and political commentary. This broadening of scope is due not only to maturation, they argue. It is also the result of the democratization of game-making, which has allowed independent creators to release games on personal and seemingly noncommercial topics, in that way stimulating critical conversation." —The New York Times Book Review
“A groundbreaking anthology that all video game players should read and ponder.”—Library Journal, starred review
"If you want to explain to anyone why videogames are worth caring about, this is a single volume primer on where we are, how we got here and where we're going next. In every way, this is the state of play." —Kieron Gillen, author of The Wicked + the Divine, co-founder of Rock Paper Shotgun
"Highlights include incredible texts by anna anthropy and merritt kopas who discuss making games to explore intimacy, sexuality, play, relationships, and destabilizing the idea of universal narrative through presenting perspectives of women and queer-identified gamemakers. Another standout is Hussein Ibrahim's 'What It's Like to Always Play the Bad Guy: On the Portrayal of Arabs in Online Shooters'—a critical essay on the problematic one-dimensionality of the Other in shooting games. This should be a mainstay in media theory classrooms. Overall, this book presents a much-needed alternative look at the state and stakes of video game culture, today and tomorrow."—Angela Washko, artist and founder of The Council on Gender Sensitivity and Behavioral Awareness in World of Warcraft
“Through a combination of deeply personal narratives and academic analyses State of Play effectively illuminates the social and cultural relevance of gaming. We see games as cultural representations reflecting societal tensions and priorities, social systems with insiders/outsiders and ethical dilemmas where conflicts can be worked out or not, opportunities for exploration and tools for presentation of counter narratives. The authors do not simply discuss what games are technically, but what they are, can and should be culturally.”—Ellen Middaugh, San José State University, author of The Civic Potential of Video Games
"We are past the era when it was surprising to learn that video games are more than just pleasurable power fantasies. Video games are emotional explorations of race, gender, sex and love. Video games gives us intense experiences of being others, or finding ourselves, alone with the computer or surrounded by crowds, in physical or virtual spaces. The State of Play is a key collection of writings to understand why playing video games matters more than ever."—Miguel Angel Sicart, author of Play Matters and The Ethics of Computer Games, Associate Professor at the Center for Computer Game Research at IT University Copenhagen
"Video games are now on the front lines of the culture wars. The State of Play gathers essential voices who are trying to make a more just, more true, more playful gamespace, one that's fun for everybody." —McKenzie Wark, author of Gamer Theory
"Like a game that opens your heart, I found more than I came for in The State of Play. . . . Not what I expected, but much more. The thoughtful, articulate essays recursively confirm the importance of gaming to society, the book's key theme. Beautifully written in workmanlike, accessible prose, and highly recommended." —Bonnie Nardi, author of My Life as a Night Elf Priest: An Anthropological Account of World of Witchcraft
"This diverse collection demonstrates the deep power of anchoring our design theories in the lived experiences of players and creators. It offers a kaleidoscopic view of the possibility space of games, providing exciting new perspectives on play and the construction of play spaces." —Brian Upton, author of The Aesthetic of Play
★ 06/15/2015
Editors Goldberg and Larsson (coauthors, Minecraft: The Unlikely Tale of Markus "Notch" Persson and the Game That Changed Everything) gather a series of daring personal essays on the current state of video game culture and the industry it came from. The essayists are both game lovers and game creators. They're deeply involved in the video game industry and they care greatly about video games as art, representing the most significant voices in the controversies currently rocking the fault lines of the video game landscape. Standout essays by Anna Anthropy and Zoe Quinn demonstrate how creating games can be cathartic while highlighting the extreme prejudices and online harassment that marginalized creators face from their peers. Their essays and others paint an alarming but timely picture in the aftermath of the Gamergate controversy, which concerns sexism in video game culture. Additional pieces unpack issues such as violence, faith, class, and more as they relate to games. All of the contributors balance darkness with uplifting accounts of how games have improved their lives. VERDICT A groundbreaking anthology that all video game players should read and ponder.—Paul Stenis, Pepperdine Univ. Lib., Malibu, CA
2015-07-15
What video games mean and why they matter.Swedish technology writers Goldberg and Larsson (Minecraft: The Game that Changed Everything, 2011, etc.) gather a selection of "New Games Journalism" pieces, representing a recent development in writing about video games that focuses not on the technological or entertainment aspects of the medium but on the cultural, social, and political contexts in which the games exist. A focal point for this new approach has been the distressing "Gamergate" scandal, which found women who questioned sexist elements of games—or who created their own alternatives or merely presumed to make their voices heard at all—on the receiving ends of a massive torrent of online threats of sexual assault and murder from frustrated male gamers. Gamergate has inspired much insightful consideration (including Dan Golding's essay, "The End of Gamers," included here), but this book also includes thoughtful considerations of race, gender, sexuality, mental illness, and violence in gaming. Evan Narcisse writes of his frustration with the lack of acceptable representations of black people in games, while Hussein Ibrahim examines his ambivalence as an Arabic man killing scores of Arabic enemies in military shooter games. Developers like Merritt Kopas, Zoe Quinn, and Anna Anthropy recount their struggles to create games that meaningfully confront topics such as depression and sexuality, while other writers examine pervasive tropes and their larger meanings—e.g., the popularity of apocalyptic settings and the masochistic anti-pleasures of maddening time-wasters like "Flappy Bird." The essays are uniformly well-written, full of personal passion and journalistic rigor, and they fully convince readers of the relevance and urgency of this new form of criticism. A consistently engaging and insightful reckoning with the serious implications of the ascendant entertainment medium of the 21st century.
