Trigger Happy: Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution

by Steven Poole

Book Overview

A groundbreaking cultural study of videogames traces their history and explains why they will become the dominant popular art form in the 21st century. 20 illustrations. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1559705981
• ISBN13: 9781559705981
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.2" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

The best book out there, period.

If you love games like I do - I've been playing 'em all my life, and developing 'em for 6 years - you *need* to read this book. I've never read such a fascinating angle on gameplaying, situating video games in an illuminating context among art, cinema and books, and doing some really excellent thinking about how they work on your mind. This book was like a breath of fresh air to me. I gotta defend the author too against the factually incorrect attacks by a reviewer below. The reviewer says: "this man touches very lightly the fact that videogames came into fruition and refinement in Japan". Hey, Poole rightly points out that Taito saved the gaming industry with Space Invaders, he calls Miyamoto "the god of videogames", and most of the games he says are great - Metal Gear Solid, Zelda 64, etc - are Japanese. What more do you want? Jeez, of course this reviewer says he didn't even finish reading the book! Don't listen to him. Buy Trigger Happy: you won't regret it.

Pure Genius

Simply one of the best books I've ever read. As a longtime gamer it's wonderful for a really good writer to come along and analyse the boots off my electronic passions. Every page has a revealing insight - whether it's into the theoretical limitations of "interactive storytelling", the important differences in "cameras" between films and games, or the parallels between the evolution of perspective in art history and in videogames. Later on the book gets pretty hardcore, but the results - including the amazing chapter on semiotics - sure are worth it. And the guy's funny, too. Basically, anyone interested in videogames really needs to read this brilliant book.

Simply Excellent...

Poole knows games and writes a compelling academic look at where they came from, where they're going, and what makes a game, good. I picked the book up and read almost all weekend until I was finished. This isn't a dry history of video games, or a heavy-handed defense of games as art. This book is about looking at why we like video games, what makes some better than others, and where the industry might be heading. Poole has read almost everyone else's `history of video games' book, and cites things he has found as worthwhile. He also has read and researched the heck out of this subject leading to an amazing set of references not to mention 200+ pages of thoughtful dialogue. This book will lead you to other worthwhile subjects and solidify your current understanding of the `aesthetics' of games. Bottom Line: If you like video games at all, or are in any way involved with the industry...read it, read it, read it.

Brilliant aesthetic History of video games

With Trigger Happy, Steven Poole offers a critical look at the aesthetic history of games. To the informed reader of gaming literature, this subject matter may sound vaguely familiar: Another journalist - game aficionado writes a personal history of games based on personal reflections, email interviews with industry insiders, and the obligatory field trip to E3. Great. , I already read JC Herz's Joystick Nation four years ago; why should I read this? I'll have to admit that after reading Jon Katz' latest "up up down down", piece which discusses Trigger Happy, I was prepared to be disappointed. If all that Katz took away from the book was that games are an important part of contemporary culture, the electronic entertainment industry is as big as the movie industry, and Lara Croft has a hot body, then reading Trigger Happy would be a waste of time. Thankfully, Trigger Happy is more than an update of Joystick Nation; in fact, Trigger Happy is the most thorough deconstruction of the games themselves written to date while retaining the same witty, irreverent style that made Joystick Nation so engaging. Poole offers a fresh, entertaining, and insightful look at games that is accessible to novices and seasoned gamers alike. At its heartTrigger Happy is an aesthetic history of games, tracing their development from primitive black and white 2 player games into complex popular-art accomplishments. Poole, a journalist, writer, and composer brings a keen eye (and ear), to his subject matter, interweaving semiotics, personal history, critical analysis, and a love for games into a creative, cleverly written aesthetic discussion of games. In doing so, he raises the ante for game designers, critics and aficionados looking to examine games as an art-form. Trigger Happy succeeds because Poole examines games in much greater depth than any of his contemporaries. He looks at how games are made. He examines game players -- from a cross cultural perspective, and then he looks at the games themselves, applying literary, philosophical, and semiotic analysis to games. The book is thorough and well thought out -- enough that it could be used in an academic context. Fortunately, Poole doesn't lose the reader in technical jargon or philosophical babble; he keeps the focus squarely on the games, and what makes games fun. More than any other published book to date, Trigger Happy lays the foundation for a field of electronic gaming criticism. Steven Poole gives great insight into what makes a great game, and offers the reader a useful set of conceptual tools to understand games. Although, Poole's goal is not really to provide an academic treatise, Trigger Happy is so articulate, so original, that it succeeds as an academic work as well as entertainment. Of course, there are minor details that the reader may quibble with - but engaging in a dialogue with Poole about games is half the fun of reading this book. If you're looking for thoughtful look at the games that entertain us.

Essential Reading

This groundbreaking study of the culture of video games has got to be essential reading for anyone alive in the twenty-first century. Poole argues convincingly that video games are a putative art form, and supports this fascinating thesis through reference to literature, drama, art and film. This is the treatment gaming culture has been crying out for: intelligent, insightful and profoundly thought-provoking, with relevance not just within the game industry but throughout culture as a whole.