Trigger Happy

• Year: 2007
• Leaves: 430
• Edition: web download edition
• Category: Fiction

✦ Synopsis

Videogames first came on the market thirty years ago as a marginal technological curiosity. Now they are virtually everywhere. Videogame sales have equaled movie sales. They are played by more adults than children, and game design can even be studied in college. Yet videogames are still often viewed as a minor form of entertainment, at best shallow, or at worst harmful. Now, Steven Poole argues that videogames are a nascent art for on track to supersede movies as the most popular and innovative form of entertainment in the new century.

✦ Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 6
Our virtual history......Page 8
Pixel generation......Page 11
Meme machines......Page 16
The shock of the new......Page 26
Beginnings......Page 33
Art types......Page 43
Happiness is a warm gun......Page 44
In my mind and in my car......Page 49
Might as well jump......Page 54
Sometimes you kick......Page 59
Heaven in here......Page 64
Two tribes......Page 67
Running up that hill......Page 70
It’s a kind of magic......Page 73
We can work it out......Page 77
Family fortunes......Page 80
Let’s get physical......Page 83
Let’s stick together......Page 93
Life in plastic......Page 99
Out of control......Page 107
4ELECTRIC SHEEP......Page 117
The gift of sound and vision......Page 120
Ciné qua non?......Page 128
Camera obscura......Page 140
You’ve been framed......Page 151
A tale of two cities......Page 159
Back to the future......Page 164
How many roads must a man walk down . . .......Page 170
Erase and rewind......Page 174
Cracked actors......Page 179
Talking it over......Page 185
The play’s the thing......Page 190
Tie me up, tie me down......Page 193
Vector class......Page 197
The art of the new......Page 202
Pushing the boundaries......Page 204
Points of view......Page 211
Being there......Page 215
The user illusion......Page 224
The third way......Page 231
Brave new worlds......Page 234
Dress code......Page 238
Virtual megalocephaly......Page 242
Gender genres......Page 248
Character building......Page 256
Some say life’s the thing . . .......Page 265
Tiny silver balls......Page 269
Power tools......Page 274
Veni, vidi, lusi......Page 280
Get into the groove......Page 289
You win again......Page 296
9SIGNS OF LIFE......Page 305
I am what I eat......Page 306
Deep in conversation......Page 315
Time, gentlemen, please......Page 320
Say something else......Page 328
Information overlord......Page 337
Drawing you in......Page 343
God’s gift......Page 349
Burn this......Page 352
Bad company......Page 354
Genesis......Page 362
The final frontier......Page 365
In an ideal world......Page 369
Virtual justice......Page 376
The moral maze......Page 380
Ashes to ashes......Page 386
AFTERWORD......Page 396
BIBLIOGRAPHY......Page 409
INDEX......Page 416
ABOUT THE AUTHOR......Page 428