Your favorite collection of gaming books?

A few come to mind. I love the eyes of Bayonetta 1 & 2. Gives you great insight into what went into both games from the development team. I also enjoyed Console Wars. It’s the quintessential read on the Nintendo and Sega wars of the 1990s. And finally, I love the MGS 1-4 art collection. I actually have kept it unopened because it‘s such a cool collector‘s item! 😄

How about you, GD? Your favorite collection of gaming books?

I don't have any I just like to look at old school store flyers from the 90's and early to mids 00's.

As someone who reads a lot, not really into developer novels, that's more for game designers. Art books, absolutely, love them (they have developer notes but nothing too extensive) The story books based on video games? gluch. . terrible stuff. To each his or her own how they wish to spend money and consume entertainment, but I cannot justify that lack of taste. Only for the most committed fans or people with too much free time, maybe both. .

For me not really any different from playing a video game based on a movie, or worse. . a television show! You're asking for bottom of the barrel quality, more often than not. The novel writers only do those jobs as an easy paycheck at barebone effort so they can fund passion projects that readers will enjoy.

Novels and graphic novels based on video games prioritize a market that doesn't know the meaning of a good read.

Outside concept/ commission artbooks with breathtaking talent, I do not really look into novel/ graphic novels related to video games. They come across as cheap cash grabs for gaming fans that just want something they can identify with. And I think that's not only trivialising books, but it's a condescending assumption that people who invest in video games are willing to buy garbage.

Pushing aside officially stamped fanfiction novels, games don't typically have good stories to tell anyhow, not impossible and I commend those that pull it off yet it's as rare as finding a 2022 game without microtransactions. Know that's a shocking revelation to some. Plus before someone does; spare me the notes of "that's opinions" "you ignorant" "Witcher 3 won story game awards" "The Last of Us is the greatest story ever told". Good for you. Frankly if you believe those quotation notes? you must be one who is easily pleased, easily manipulated to what media tells you to think, or limited yourself to popflick candy-fodder storytelling and assume that's a good rich story because an award said so.

It would be the equivalent to comparing a Michael Bay movie to live theatre.

*If I am coming across as meanspirited/and-or/ unfair. Just keep in mind that I read all of the Dark Souls: Breath of Andolus series, and be thankful that you haven't. Some fans claim that they can love DkS/ BB on the lore alone, and I think they're full of horse ****.

@RSM-HQ: read Console Wars. It's a good read

Had a little look into the novel and it's apparently more nostalgic to those that grew up in the 1980's (I didn't sadly) than a well written read. Juicy information about business in gaming aside it doesn't look like anything I would care to spend a night reading.

Seems more useful to someone who would go into game development/ publishing.

Not really into gaming books, but I do enjoy some podcasts about gaming (both current games and historical).

Triple Click, Get Played, and NoClip to name three.

I find game development as an industry to be pretty unattractive and I'd rather not read too much about it; if I didn't enjoy the resulting product so much, I'd probably ignore it entirely. However these podcasts I like are are just the right mix of experts from within and without of the industry that it provides just enough context, history, and opinion to be enjoyable. Plus the hosts are pretty entertaining (nothing worse than a dry podcast).

Yeah early days of many things are pretty interesting. It's where everyone seems like pioneers and it's easy to romanticize things.

Not to sound like a broken record but I just listened to the Get Played podcast, and I guess this guy sort of went back and looked at old audio through the various hardware and software systems and how, depending on your system, it would sound different. So he isolated the theme song from Monkey Island and it's just so interesting to hear how it could be different.

Today, everything is more or less the same (you can make things sounds mildly better if you have better hardware and you're an audiophile, but as far as what your ears hear it's all the same) as far as sound goes; what music sounds like on PS5 is what music sounds like on Xbox is what music sounds like on PC and so on.

Talk about an instant nostalgia trip; Monkey Island was one of the bigger games of my formative years, second I heard that song I hummed along, not having heard it for at least 20 years lol.

@girlusocrazy:I don't think you hijacked it, threads just evolve sometimes haha.

But yes....books. Can't say I've read any about games.

@SolidGame_basic: Any recommendations? Pretty interested in the history ones.

Only video games book I've read is Ready Player One and that's fictional, though it does reference a lot of games from the "golden years" of gaming (late 80's, early 90's). Nothing like the movie, by the way; it's not a giant advertisement.

A bunch of Brady games strategy guides I have for games like:

- Chrono Cross

- Final Fantasy XII

- Star Ocean: Till the End of Time

- Star Ocean: The Last Hope

- Kingdom Hearts II

- Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

- Suikoden V

- Dragon Quest VIII

- Tekken 6

Got a lot of great info in them to read and some nice artwork.

@mrbojangles25: get Console Wars!

what decade did you grow up in?!

Only ever purchased 2 strategy guides. Tekken 2 and Soul Caliber, both from the PS1 days. Probably still have them somewhere but don't really care.

For the most part, dude's rant up above about video game based books/comics being trash is spot on. The only exception I can think of would be the Injustice comic line. That was a great read that went on for 5 years, easily outliving the game. Don't get me wrong. It's not perfect, but it was a damn fun read.

I've read a few of them:

• Game Feel
• Game Programming Gems

Late 90's/ 2000's. We had a Super Famicon/ Super Nintendo but I use to find gaming boring outside the arcades like DDR. It wouldn't be until I invested in my own PlayStation 2 that I enjoyed gaming as a hobby. Nowadays I love the retro catalogues but in my youth you couldn't get me to look at 8-bit graphics, let alone 16-bit.

Needless to say if the book is cool for those that like to know the ins and outs of how gaming business worked? alrighty. It's just not something that strikes my fancy, even if a PlayStation 2/ Dreamcast/ Gamecube one was floating around. I have never been all that interested in gaming politics, brand bias, etc. I already work in marketing so would probably be soul shattering to me lol. My free time is to get away from my work life haha.

I just play good games and support good developers, and try my best not to support trashy games from trashy developers/ publishers.

Oh, I thought you were older! This book would still relate to you, but I get it, you don't like it!

@SolidGame_basic: My love for quite a few older games has made many question my age lol. In truth was introduced to many retro games much later, as I didn't try to enjoy them till my late teens. And a lot only through unethical means (which I would rectify if a reasonable port ever came around)

For me as someone who generally enjoys video games, I no longer base them on what generation, how old or new; what matters is how the game feels to play, is it well designed, mechanically solid with great controls, is the pacing pleasing? Many of these come together with the most importantly, is it fun? If a game can achieve all that and keep my attention it's a solid video game. And I couldn't care what year it is, not long ago I got into Dungeons and Dragon's, a tabletop game from 1974.

Games are awesome. May it be Tetris or Elden Ring. I find those who only like new games typically shallow (which I frankly was once among), and those who only like old games grumpy old-timers that like to live in the past. Sure both the past and present have many stinkers but they're also full of great games for a range of player preferences.

@RSM-HQ: definitely. Maybe you would be interested in Retro Gamer magazine?

Would not be against a good read if it involved knowledge on retro games I may have missed, and worded in an appealing manner. However I find out about such things in forums such as these, and the passion is real in many those suggestions, fans expressing how they feel about gaming is one of the many reasons to jump on a gaming forum/and or/ Discord server. Every now and then someone drops a niche favorite game and that itself can be an fascinating read.

Magazines typically contextualise what they think readers want to see in a manner that fits the publishers audience, many can be bias as well which leaves a lot to be desired, no different from a media website, if it's anything like Game Spot staff can come across as hotair, bad writing, and questionable selections.

D&D 5e Dungeon Master's Guide and the Player's Handbook.

Just got a couple of Persona 5 mangas I’ll probably never read lol