# Nonfiction about games



## Carolyn Hill (Jun 1, 2007)

This request is out of left field . . .

I teach a reading and composition class in college, and I want to use "Games" as the theme this fall.  ("Games" includes board games, sports, card games, and so on--not just computer games.)  I need to assign nonfiction reading about games, including scholarly articles that aren't too jargon-heavy.  I want to avoid run-of-the-mill popular articles such as those that natter on about how video games are/aren't ruining kids; I'm interested in analysis of games and gamers and gaming communities (sociological, psychological, anthropological, historical, play theory, etc.).  And I'd really like the articles to be well-written, so that they grab the students' interest.  

Do you have any suggestions for nonfiction articles or books I could add to the reading list?


----------



## ray gower (Jun 1, 2007)

Apart from card games like canasta, poker and pontoon, the only games I can think of that have prompted 'learned' articles are scrabble, mahjong and chess, both seem well represented on the net, the wikipedia being a good place to start:
Scrabble - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 
Mahjong - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chess - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


----------



## scalem X (Jun 2, 2007)

How about: fighting fantasy novels?
These are novels that are games. They are fun to play, (unless you get trapped in a maze for hours and end up using mathematical calculations so you get out )
linkage!!!
if you can get the books themselves, it would be fun to play one in class.

They are really easy to play, yet fun.


----------



## Carolyn Hill (Jun 2, 2007)

Ray, I see two potentially useful texts in the Wikipedia bibliographies for scrabble and for chess:

Fatsis, Stefan. _Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players_. ISBN 0-14-200226-7

Gobet, Fernand, de Voogt, Alex, & Retschitzki, Jean (2004). _Moves in Mind: The Psychology of Board Games_. Psychology Press. ISBN 1841693367 

Thanks!  Those look scholarly enough.  I'll check them out and see what they've got to offer.


Scalem, thank you; the games-that-are-novels are interesting!  But I'm looking for nonfiction about games, not fiction.


----------



## McMurphy (Jun 17, 2007)

Brown Rat said:


> This request is out of left field . . .
> 
> I teach a reading and composition class in college, and I want to use "Games" as the theme this fall.  ("Games" includes board games, sports, card games, and so on--not just computer games.)  I need to assign nonfiction reading about games, including scholarly articles that aren't too jargon-heavy.  I want to avoid run-of-the-mill popular articles such as those that natter on about how video games are/aren't ruining kids; I'm interested in analysis of games and gamers and gaming communities (sociological, psychological, anthropological, historical, play theory, etc.).  And I'd really like the articles to be well-written, so that they grab the students' interest.
> 
> Do you have any suggestions for nonfiction articles or books I could add to the reading list?



Brown Rat, there is actually quite a bit nonfiction coming out in regards to video games relating to theory out there.  Below is a list of some examples currently available on Amazon.com:

*The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon--The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World      *

*High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games, Second Edition*

*What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy*      by James Paul Gee

* The Video Game Theory Reader*      by Mark J. P. Wolf and Bernard Perron 

*Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents: Theory, Research, and Public Policy*      by Craig A. Anderson, Douglas A. Gentile,  and Katherine E. Buckley

*Sex in Video Games*      by Brenda Brathwaite

*Character Development and Storytelling for Games (Game Development Series)*      by Lee Sheldon

*Game Writing: Narrative Skills for Videogames (Charles River Media Game Development)*                by Chris Bateman

*The Medium of the Video Game*      by Mark J. P. Wolf and Ralph H. Baer

*Better Game Characters by Design: A Psychological Approach (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Interactive 3D Technology)*                by Katherine Isbister


----------

