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The emergence of book-length games criticism. Brendan Keogh

The emergence of book-length games criticism. Brendan Keogh. The emergence (ish) of book-length games criticism Why write a book about a videogame? Why not write a book about a videogame? How to write a book about a videogame Digital Books Totally Okay Now.

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The emergence of book-length games criticism. Brendan Keogh

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  1. The emergence of book-length games criticism. Brendan Keogh

  2. The emergence (ish) of book-length games criticism • Why write a book about a videogame? • Why not write a book about a videogame? • How to write a book about a videogame • Digital Books Totally Okay Now

  3. The rise of books about a single videogame • Generally speaking: • Written by a critic (not a/the developer) • Written for players (not developers (except for developers-as-players of course)) • About one game (or series)(or theme). Not a collection of different essays by different games. • Primarily concerned with an analysis of the game, not a grand theory.

  4. Why (I) write a book about a videogame? • Essays are great to focus on broad themes or specific moments. • “This game did X really well” • “This one fight worked like this” • With The Line, I was fascinated with howthe whole thing worked together. • How this scene was dependent on that scene. • How motifs returned and narratives progressed • Wanted to understand the game as a whole, unified, single work.

  5. Why (I) write a book about a videogame? • Books give you the breathing space to go deeper and broader with your analysis. • You can flesh out the broader themes you want to discuss, and you can spend more time describing more specific moments. • Just be a careful you don’t use that breathing space to just wank on about nothing. • I am totally guilty of this. It’s hard not to!

  6. Why not write a book a videogame? • Because you don’t necessarily need to. • Books are great. But they are not necessarily better than essays or shorter pieces. • Killing is Harmless gave me to the space to discuss how The Line slowly builds its themes and subversions of a genre slowly over time. • Tearaway is an utterly amazing and thematically confident game. But I can say everything I need to say about it in an essay.

  7. How to write a book about a videogame • There’s no one way to write about games. It depends on what the game is doing, and what you want to say about it. • For The Line, as a linear shooter with an interesting progression arc, writing a narrative of playing from start to end felt right. • Other options: • Collection of essays/interviews • ‘Oral History’ (good for MMOs, games with ‘communities’) • Embedded in person experience (Ken Baumann’s EarthBound) • Dissecting the game’s code/engine (Daniel Johnson’s A Critical Analysis of Wario Land 4 • A mixture of all the above.

  8. Digital Books Totally Okay Now • Digital books (normalise that! Sounds so much better than ‘ebooks’) are becoming normal. • Just like digital games/music/film, people are coming round to the idea of reading books on a digital device. • Yes it’s nice to have a print book but it is so easy to get something out in a digital version. Find a designer friend. Give them a cut of the sales. Bam. Away you go. • Okay, America probably has some decent print-on-demand services you could use tbh.

  9. Some Publishers To Talk To • Stolen Projects • Boss Fight Books • Press Select • (or just go ahead and do it yourself)

  10. Some Other Books To Check Out/Support

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