Everything to play for How videogames are changing the world

In this well-researched and convincing work, Did presents not a history of video games so much as a look at their political elements and potential. Seem farfetched? Did, an award-winning games critic, dissuades any doubts, noting that video games make more profit than the film and music industries combined, yet are not critiqued seriously as an art form. She also shares numerous examples of how the political right has used the video-game community for its own gain (e.g., Steve Bannon's connection to #Gamergate) and argues that the political left is, well, left behind. Starting with a "Tutorial" chapter and working up to "Final Boss," Did eases readers into the idea that gameplay can be more politically impactful than narrative and that activism already exists in gaming spaces, such as review bombing, charity streams, equitable loot distribution in MMO guilds, and the GameStop short squeeze. Did is clearly passionate about her subject and openly conflicted about that passion, repeatedly damning the industry's immoral production methods in the Global South. This is an obvious choice for gamers, but its large-picture approach will intrigue many curious readers.

Videogame critic Did debuts with a blistering critique of the gaming industry's ethical and political shortcomings. Charting how gaming became a boys club, she notes that a sales slump in the mid-1980s led companies to focus their marketing on "boys aged eight to sixteen and their fathers," even as such megahits as Barbie Fashion Designer, which outsold Doom in the 1990s, proved the industry was leaving a lucrative market untapped. As games became increasingly by and for young men, problematic character design and gameplay became the norm, Did contends, lamenting the proliferation of "women in tiny bikinis who can be brutally beaten." Conditions inside EA, Rockstar Games, and other developers are often as unethical as what they put on screen, marked by notorious "crunch" periods in which employees work 60-to-100-hour weeks without overtime compensation. Arguing that better alternatives are possible, Did details the business model of French gaming studio Motion Twin, where employees share "equal salary and decision making powers." With nuanced analysis (she asserts that games, contrary to their reputation as the purview of alienated loners, often provide the basis for community, recounting how Doom "inspired conversations and hours of socializing" around amateur modifications of its levels), Did offers a damning portrait of the gaming industry that nonetheless finds reasons for hope. This one's a winner. (Sept.)