Good Reads - Of Video Games and Fancy Book Learnin'

[Calin Kim]

I have been thinking of starting this thread for a hell of a long time, and I think that today is the day. Not only do I have the perfect thing to kick it all off, but there is just so much good writing about games these days not to start this thing up. So, without further ado, welcome to the thread you come to when you want to read some cool stuff that's been written about games or when you have found a good read about games. I think we can probably define what should go here pretty broadly since we all have diverse interests, but I will say anything related to video games fits here. If it's about people who play games, game music, game art, whatever it can go here.

To start this thing off, I was browsing my Twitter feed today and came across a few people posting this article about Soviet era arcade games. It's a really interesting look into a culture that almost never gets discussed in mainstream games coverage: http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/th ... cade-games

[Alex Connolly]

Fascinating article, sir. What a great read. Absolutely Soviet vending machines, too! Look like engine cowlings from armoured personnel carriers.

[Calin Kim]

Yeah, I was really struck by the fact that the arcade cabinets themselves are about twice the weight of an equivalent US or Japanese cabinet because the USSR did not have the same tools at their disposal.

[Calin Kim]

I knew that we would eventually get an article on how exactly GOG does what they do, and now we do. Thoroughly fascinating read: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/09 ... ideogames/

[Alex Connolly]

A fun comparative read on dinosaur designs in ARK, versus their real-[Lost] world counterparts. Good stuff if you're into seeing where we're at in contemporary dinosaur depiction and scientific accuracy.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/09 ... -accuracy/

[Calin Kim]

They're doing a story bundle that has a couple of things I can vouch for.

Mona is Leigh Alexander's shot at Silent Hill 2 short fiction. It's moody and wistful in the way that all of her best writing is.

Ashly Burch and her brother's book on Metal Gear Solid is also very readable. A lot of times with the books in this series, the writers are so in love with the games that they perhaps don't spend quite as much time thinking about the flaws. That is not the case here. It's clear that they love the game, but they're also willing to write intelligently about its flaws. It's a good read and topical given that a few of us are playing through the series at the moment.

https://storybundle.com/games