Critique of games began long before the appearance of video games, so the literature on video games is still in its infancy. The books discussed in this section are often cited as the basis for concepts and terminology of studies of video games. Many cite Johan Huizinga’s Homo Ludens as one of the first detailed examinations of the role of games in culture and society. First published in Dutch in 1938 and translated into English a decade later and reprinted a number times since—obviously well before the first documented video games!—Homo Ludens analyzes games from various perspectives and cultures and it is also applied to modern play. Although some of Huizinga’s biases and perspectives conflict with current perspectives, many of the book’s key concepts carry through to modern game studies, such as the concept of the game as a “magic circle”—an environment in which the rules and reality of everyday life are substituted with the rules and reality of the game.
Roger Caillois expands the concepts of play in his works, particularly in Man, Play, and Games, first published in French in 1958 and soon thereafter in English. In this book Caillois creates a new terminology of game types and experiences, and this terminology comes up regularly in video game analysis. Caillois expands the world of rules and competition described by Huizinga to incorporate elements of chance, role-playing, and an enjoyable loss or suspension of control by the players. His breakdown of games into elements of ludus, or rule-based play, and paidia, i.e., open-ended, spontaneous play, portend future discussion in game design and analysis of differences between scripted experiences and open-ended “sandbox” experiences in video games.
Elliott Avedon and Brian Sutton-Smith’s thoroughly researched The Study of Games arrived on the scene just as video games were becoming popular, and it cites additional precursor work. A later work from the mid-1980s, Geoffrey Loftus and Elizabeth Loftus’s Mind at Play, is surprisingly prescient in its discussion of the psychology of video game design and the creation of addictive game experiences.
More recently, there are handbooks and overviews of games and game criticism that illustrate modern ideas and perspectives. Handbook of Computer Game Studies, edited by Joost Raessens and Jeffrey Goldstein, provides a broad overview of video game research, exploring elements of history, psychology, identity, design, and aesthetics. A similar work, The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies, edited by Mark J. P. Wolf and Bernard Perron, explores similar issues and also offers interdisciplinary perspectives on the role of video games in society and culture. Broad in scope, the above works are useful for researchers just starting to examine the many components of game studies, or wishing to start with an expansive view of games as a phenomenon, industry, or cultural institution.
Another interesting starting point for video game researchers is Debugging Game History: A Critical Lexicon, edited by Henry Lowood and Raiford Guins, which is at the intersection of game criticism and game history. Rather than make the volume all encompassing, the editors included 28 entries, and asked the contributors, all game scholars or critics, to focus on a specific element of game criticism and history. The entries are arranged alphabetically and among the topics they take up are intellectual property, narrative, and simulation. Some focus on a unique meaning of the word or phrase—for example, genre, save, or the hard-to-pin-down fun—within the realm of game studies. A literature review of work on game history looks at the weaknesses of other works—among those weaknesses: an overemphasis on nostalgia, excessive reverence, or lack of depth.
Another notable work is Stephen Kent’s two-volume Ultimate History of Video Games. The first volume, subtitled From Pong to Pokémon—The Story behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World, was published in the early 2000s. Twenty years later, Kent published the second volume, subtitled Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, and the Billion-Dollar Battle to Shape Modern Gaming, which closed the gap to the modern day.
Though many video game histories are purely or mostly text, there are exceptions, among them the useful graphic guide A History of Video Games in 64 Objects, put together by the World Video Game Hall of Fame (WVHF) in collaboration with the Strong Museum (Rochester, New York). This volume provides images of systems, peripherals, and supporting documents to illustrate key games and other works. It also serves indirectly as a partial catalog of the archives and works in the Strong Museum, suggesting additional venues for research in primary sources for those inspired by the key systems, games, and works presented.
In addition to overall history, many works focus on specific systems, games, or creators. For example, titles in MIT Press’s “Platform Studies” series, edited by Nick Monfort and Ian Bogost, provide in-depth history and analysis of some key systems. Of particular interest, and the first release in the series, is Monfort and Bogost’s Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System, which covers the Atari VCS (later 2600) console. This volume describes the harsh technical limitations, high expectations, and quick growth of the industry while examining the story behind games for the system—some massive successes, others notable failures. Other volumes in the series cover systems and consoles such as the Nintendo Wii, the Amiga home computer, and the Flash platform of web animation and interactivity.