Debugging Game History: A Critical Lexicon

by Henry Lowood (Editor), Raiford Guins (Editor)

Essays discuss the terminology, etymology, and history of key terms, offering a foundation for critical historical studies of games.

Even as the field of game studies has flourished, critical historical studies of games have lagged behind other areas of research. Histories have generally been fact-by-fact chronicles; fundamental terms of game design and development, technology, and play have rarely been examined in the context of their historical, etymological, and conceptual underpinnings. This volume attempts to “debug” the flawed historiography of video games. It offers original essays on key concepts in game studies, arranged as in a lexicon—from “Amusement Arcade” to “Embodiment” and “Game Art” to “Simulation” and “World Building.”

Written by scholars and practitioners from a variety of disciplines, including game development, curatorship, media archaeology, cultural studies, and technology studies, the essays offer a series of distinctive critical “takes” on historical topics. The majority of essays look at game history from the outside in; some take deep dives into the histories of play and simulation to provide context for the development of electronic and digital games; others take on such technological components of games as code and audio. Not all essays are history or historical etymology—there is an analysis of game design, and a discussion of intellectual property—but they nonetheless raise questions for historians to consider. Taken together, the essays offer a foundation for the emerging study of game history.

Contributors: Marcelo Aranda, Brooke Belisle, Caetlin Benson-Allott, Stephanie Boluk, Jennifer deWinter, J. P. Dyson, Kate Edwards, Mary Flanagan, Jacob Gaboury, William Gibbons, Raiford Guins, Erkki Huhtamo, Don Ihde, Jon Ippolito, Katherine Isbister, Mikael Jakobsson, Steven E. Jones, Jesper Juul, Eric Kaltman, Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, Carly A. Kocurek, Peter Krapp, Patrick LeMieux, Henry Lowood, Esther MacCallum-Stewart, Ken S. McAllister, Nick Monfort, David Myers, James Newman, Jenna Ng, Michael Nitsche, Laine Nooney, Hector Postigo, Jas Purewal, Reneé H. Reynolds, Judd Ethan Ruggill, Marie-Laure Ryan, Katie Salen Tekinbaş, Anastasia Salter, Mark Sample, Bobby Schweizer, John Sharp, Miguel Sicart, Rebecca Elisabeth Skinner, Melanie Swalwell, David Thomas, Samuel Tobin, Emma Witkowski, Mark J.P. Wolf

Genres: History, Philosophy, Games

464 pages, Hardcover

Published June 3, 2016

About the author

Henry Lowood is Curator for History of Science and Technology and for Film and Media collections at Stanford University and the coeditor of The Machinima Reader (MIT Press).

Reviews

[Alex Habgood · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book certainly contains a series of interesting academic essays relating to games, I can't help feeling that the books is actually misrepresented by it's title. Far from being a "Debugging" of game history, the book actually reads more like a handbook for game studies.

While small amounts of game history are speckled throughout the essays, these elements are often subservient to contemporary game studies discourse. What's notably absent throughout, is discussion of historiographical theory, and clear experimentation/reflection with how these might be applied to games history.

The introduction is perhaps the main exception, offering some interesting discussion of Hayden White and how his postmodern approach had influenced the book's editors. However, this isolated section seems to barely scratch the surface of exploring the ways different historiographical approaches could be applied to games.

Ultimately, for a book on game history, it feels like the insights of professional historians are somewhat absent. Nevertheless, the essays were interesting in their own right. I just think the book falls short in its stated aim to "debug" game history.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although set up like an encyclopedia, with alphabetical entries on key concepts in game criticism and history, this is actually a collection of essays by key writers, scholars, and critics in the field. The entries vary greatly, some focusing on historical perspectives that pre-date video games, others focusing on key examples of a concept or idea. There's a jarring disconnect in the purpose of some of the entries, with some veering far off-topic. My favorites are the detailed entry on "Machinima" and the fascinating observations in the "Save" entry. The book, as a whole, would have benefitted from more proper cross-referencing; the authors of the entries clearly weren't aware of the work of their co-writers, leading to some repetition and lack of connection between concepts. The use of illustrations is also uneven, with unnecessary images in "Immersion" and sections such as "Perspective" that would have benefitted greatly from screenshots of the games discussed.

[Kirbo (S28037) · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved it

[Timothy Yim-Stueve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unique approach, was invaluable for my thesis research. Operates like a fun-box of fascinating intellectual video game-related curiosities