- The first book dedicated to exploring key video games from the 1970s to present day. - Provides a highly accessible overview of the history of video games from PONG, Pac-Man and Tetris to Minecraft, Animal Crossing and Assassin's Creed. - The selection covers a range of historical periods and platforms, genres, commercial impact, artistic choices, contexts of play, typical and atypical representations, uses of games for specific purposes, uses of materials or techniques, specific subcultures, repurposing, transgressive aesthetics, interfaces, moral or ethical impacts, and more.

- The first book dedicated to exploring key video games from the 1970s to present day. - Provides a highly accessible overview of the history of video games from PONG, Pac-Man and Tetris to Minecraft, Animal Crossing and Assassin's Creed. - The selection covers a range of historical periods and platforms, genres, commercial impact, artistic choices, contexts of play, typical and atypical representations, uses of games for specific purposes, uses of materials or techniques, specific subcultures, repurposing, transgressive aesthetics, interfaces, moral or ethical impacts, and more.

Do video games tell stories? And if they do, how and why do they do so? In this study, Dominic Arsenault takes the reader through the battlefield of ludology and narratology in video game studies, and argues for a radically new narratological conception of the video game. Like a Starcraft Zerg Drone, he extracts ideas from the rich veins of new media and video game studies, along with the latest developments of narratology and French film theory, and morphs them in with his own personal historical insights and gameplay experience with video games and pen-and-paper role-playing games. The resulting theoretical approach finds that narration, as a process, is intrinsic to video game playing, independently of the cut-scenes usually much touted by the proponents of interactive storytelling. Academics with an interest in video game studies, narratology or new media will find here a novel perspective on a well-researched subject, while like-minded students and amateur, professional and prospective game developers will also appreciate the quick, efficient and readable introduction to these hot topics.