Books about games

[faithabor]

I personally think there should be books about these popular games like GTA and stuff.
What do you guys think?

[Fyraltari]

What kind of books? Essays on the social utility of video games? Tie-ins to the stories? Testimonies on the development process?

Because all of these already exist.

[Peelee]

I had a Blaster Master kids novel way back in the day. Never played the game, but I loved the book.

[dps]

What kind of books? Essays on the social utility of video games? Tie-ins to the stories? Testimonies on the development process?

Because all of these already exist.

And books reviewing games, and guidebooks.

[JoshL]

I also like a lot of literature about fictional game worlds. Neil Stephenson's "Reamde" (and "Fall"), and Diane Duane's "Omnitopia Dawn", though I feel sort of alone in my love for the latter.

[Dire_Flumph]

I personally think there should be books about these popular games like GTA and stuff.
What do you guys think?

Are you familiar with Boss Fight Books?

[Wraith]

I started reading the novelisation of the Baldur's Gate series.

No. There should not be more books about popular games. Ever.

[Dire_Flumph]

I started reading the novelisation of the Baldur's Gate series.

No. There should not be more books about popular games. Ever.

I think the OP was talking about books about games rather than novelizations. Of the ones I've read I've enjoyed Designers & Dragons (about the history of roleplaying games), Blood, Sweat and Pixels (making of a few different popular games), Console Wars (about the Sega-Nintendo rivalry), and Masters of DOOM (duh). I've started going through the Boss Fight Books I linked above (got them from a Humble bundle I think) and they've been pretty good so far, but I haven't gotten through enough to make any specific recs.

And the novelization of Planescape was worse.

[Mechalich]

Literature regarding the history, cultural impact, and other social phenomena surrounding video games does exist. It's a limited field at the moment, because video games are a young and rapidly evolving field that hasn't yet attracted a huge amount of dedicated research in the same fashion as other major social phenomena and because most video games are either solitary or small community experiences and don't lend themselves to the kind of commentary that sports do.

Also, because the video game landscape is constantly changing, most literature connected to video games is extremely transient. Literary criticism, for example, can be expected to withstand time fairly effectively, as notable pieces of literature may remain read for decades or even centuries. By contrast, relatively few video games remain widely played even a decade after release. This tends to limit appreciation of games, even major classics, to particular age cohorts active at a specific time.

[Wraith]

I think the OP was talking about books about games rather than novelizations.

Ah, I see, that also makes sense. Thank you.

In which case, I'm quite sure that such books exist and it's just a matter of finding them.

One that immediately springs to mind is Things I Learned From Mario's Butt by Laura Kate Dale is a discussion about the evolution of video game design and aesthetic through the tongue-in-cheek (pun not intended) lens of characters' butts.

Another is Dice Men: Games Workshop by Ian Livingstone, writing a semi-autobiography about the foundation and development of one of the world's biggest miniatures/boardgames manufacturers, though that one stops at 1985 so doesn't include much (if anything) from their advances into the digital age unfortunately.

There's also an edition of the Guinness World Records that includes nothing but Video Games trivia - Kurtjmac having walked the furthest distance in a single Minecraft world, AdmiralBahroo completing the fastest speed-run of Borderlands 2, etc.