Steven Poole's book on the aesthetics of video games now a free download

A Boing Boing reader says: "Back in the '90's, Steven Poole wrote an influential book called Trigger Happy, about the history and aesthetics of video games. You can now download it for free, or donate what you want."

Trigger Happy is a book about the aesthetics of videogames – what they share with cinema, the history of painting, or literature; and what makes them different, in terms of form, psychology and semiotics.

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Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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License Farm

I happened to pick this book up for only $1 unused sometime last year. I’m way behind the curve on video games, having lost most interest about 15 years ago until the introduction of the Wii, but I never discounted the medium’s relevance. I may give my hardcopy to a friend studying video game design (if she hasn’t already read it) and keep the PDF to read.
richlach

Another great book on Video Games as Art is, well, “Video Game Art” by Nic Kelman. It uses the language of art and art-history to analyze the visual work that appears in some of the top video games.
richlach

Another great book on Video Games as Art is, well, “Video Game Art” by Nic Kelman. It uses the language of art and art-history to analyze the visual work that appears in some of the top video games.