New Book On The History Of Videogames

For all of you that are currently taking classes in media history, American academic Mark J. P. Wolf has edited and published a new collection of essays, The Video Game Explosion, which look at the history and development of videogames. The blurb reads:

Once dismissed as a fleeting fad of the young and frivolous, video games have become a booming industry that promises to drive the future of new media and emerging technologies. Today, video games have become a limitless and multifaceted medium through which major corporations and Hollywood visionaries alike are reaching broader global audiences and influencing cultural trends at a rate unmatched by any other media.This book traces the growth of a global phenomenon that has become an integral part of popular culture today. All aspects of video games and gaming culture are covered inside this engaging reference work, including the leading video game innovators, the technological advances that made the games of the late 1970s and those of today possible, the corporations that won and lost billions of dollars pursing this lucrative market, arcade culture, and the demise of free-standing video consoles and the rise of home-based and handheld gaming devices. Narrative chapters explore the ongoing debates about whether video games lead to violence in children and teens (as was the case with the Columbine High School shootings) in addition to other topics, such as the evolution of the new games, and the battle between Sony's PlayStation 3, Nintendo's Wii, and Microsoft's Xbox 360.

Sure we know much of this story already, but it's certainly interesting stuff, considering you couldn't find the word 'videogame' in a school, college or university anywhere a decade ago! Normally, if you put a gamepad in an unwitting tutor's hand you are sure to bring them out in a rash, but accompany it with a book like this and I am sure gaming will receive a much warmer reception. It's refreshing to learn about how games are made and received further afield; what about games in south america, australia, france, germany, CANADA? Games are slowly finding their way into education, and getting the history right is an important contemporary project for researchers around the world. Better games history means better reference resources for games designers, which means better games! Everybody wins!