Book Review: Rise of the Videogame Zinesters

I recently finished read Rise of the Videogame Zinesters. I picked up it in Powells, an impluse based on being overwhelmed with selection, yet somehow compelled to walk out with something, since I had travelled the width of the country to be there.

The book appealed to me because it appeared to scratch an intellectual itch i've been having as of late: are video games a form of art? If so, why has there been so little diversity of tropes? In particular, there has been a huge focus on games that are rediculously violent, have shallow plot lines, low intellectual vigor, and amazing graphics that require fantastically expensive hardware. The concept had been simmering in my mind until I heard an interview with Ian Bogost (creator of Cow-Clicker) (http://www.bogost.com/) on NPR. That really blew the door open, and the concept had been running rampant in my mind, so I have been looking for some meaty literature to see what anyone else was thinking about it.

Rise of the Videogame Zinesters spends time exploring several aspects of videogame culture in depth, along with a passel of references. It doesn't make it as an all encompassing treatise on the topic.  A lot of the examples were from Anthropies own explorations in game creation. Thus the book caries a slightly despondent tone, and the recurring lesbian theme leaves the reader wondering what -other- audiences mainstream game creation has left behind. To be clear, there are other examples in the book, they do not recieve the same amount of attention and affection.

The books strengths are played out in the examination of the decidely technical and male foundations of video game culture,  and the tools available to people to make their own games, without needing to have extensive experience in computer science. It really pushes the idea that video games can be made by anyone with an idea and a little passion, along with the insinuation that are many unexplored orthogonal tropes that could be explored. The list of easy-to-use tools is a little short. I would have added Wiring and Quartz Composer, for instance.

In those areas, the books gives the reader some new tools to look at the video game world. I have found myself digging for more information about how small developers put together titles, and I am trying to see possibilities in new places. What kind of (worthwhile!) games can be made in HTML5, for instace? I have also started looking explicity for games that somehow break the mold in terms play and message. In spite of the sheer number of large, glitzy major production titles in the market, there are quite few games made by small teams and individuals. The potential is pretty exciting.