Gaming Across the Generations
There are by now nine basic generations of home video game consoles, dating back to the release of the first home video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey, in 1972. In this time home gaming has evolved from the manipulation of a couple of monochrome dots along a television screen to the exploration of almost photorealistic virtual worlds. It is important to note that the generations discussed here are not discrete: there is a fair amount of overlap. Consoles can be discontinued a few years after their successor is released and competing consoles are not necessarily released right after each other or anything close to simultaneously. Also, many consoles are backward compatible, meaning they can play games from their immediate ancestor console. Xbox games can be played on an Xbox 360 for example.
To navigate through this feature, select the numbered generation at the top of this box. In each section, you'll find a link to explore our collections within these eras. You can find more information about these games and consoles in the Video & Computer Games section of this guide.
As we have already mentioned this generation dates back to 1972 with the release of the Magnavox Odyssey. The release of pong followed later in the same year and the release of Coleco Telstar followed this in 1976 (Coleco later went bankrupt in 1980). The games released on these consoles used the limited digital technology available to produce minimalist arrangements of moving pixels. These were too simple to resemble anything in real life to the extent later generations elaborated, although pong is a two-dimensional recreation of ping pong that is easily recognizable.
To see some of the consoles and games we have from this generation, scroll down to the bottom of our "Game Consoles" page or the "Retro (pre-1995) Games" section of our holdings.
The second generation saw the release of the Atari 2600, which featured more complex graphics and design than previous consoles. Two of the most popular games on this console were an early iteration of Pac-Man and Combat (a game featuring battle between opposing military aircraft).
For more Atari 2600 games, check out our catalog holdings.
The third generation saw the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Atari 7800, and the Sega Master System. Utilizing greater processing power, these systems introduced more visually and interactively complex games. The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), for example, saw the breakthrough introduction of games like Super Mario Bros and the adventure fantasy game The Legend of Zelda.
For more NES games, check out our catalog holdings.
For more Sega games, check out our catalog holdings.
The fourth generation included consoles like the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo. The Sega Genesis introduced Sonic the Hedgehog in an effort to compete with Nintendo’s Mario franchise. Meanwhile, the SNES expanded the Mario franchise with Super Mario World and later Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island. This generation saw an explosion in the variety of different games, from sports and fighting games to RPGs.
For more Sega games, check out our catalog holdings.
For more SNES games, check out our catalog holdings.
Within the fifth generation, the Sega Saturn and Playstation were released around the same time in 1995 with the Nintendo 64 coming later in the following year. The Nintendo 64 was unique among these as it used cartridges like earlier consoles while the Saturn and Playstation used CD-ROMs. Utilizing a breakthrough in memory card technology, the Playstation was able to enable longer narrative gaming experiences like that of games like Final Fantasy VII. The Nintendo 64 had the same capability but was compatible with far fewer games, although it continued to release exceedingly popular new iterations of trusted franchises like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The console was innovative in certain ways as well. The James Bond game Goldeneye 007 represented a breakthrough in the development of the first-person shooter, which would consequently become one of the most popular genres in all of gaming.
For more Nintendo 64 games, check out our catalog holdings.
For more Playstation games, check out our catalog holdings.
The sixth generation saw further developments in graphics and processing power. The fourth main consoles that constitute this generation are the Sega Dreamcast, the Sony Playstation, the Nintendo Gamecube, and the Microsoft Xbox (although at the beginning of this generation Microsoft was not a player yet in the industry). It saw the introduction of online gaming to the console format. These consoles featured increasingly imaginative games that utilized an improved audiovisual capacity. Some of the more popular titles for Playstation include Kingdom Hearts II (a high fantasy game) and God of War (an action-adventure game inspired by Greek mythology). Some of the Gamecube’s most popular titles were sequels or expansions of beloved franchises like Super Mario Sunshine and Metroid Prime (the continuation of a series that had been skipped over by the Nintendo 64). Some of the most popular games on the Xbox were Halo and Halo 2, a first-person shooter series that immersed gamers in a rich and complex science fiction world. The Sega Dreamcast, just as it was the first of this generation to emerge, was the first to be discontinued in 2001. This left the console field to be dominated by the three companies that persist to the present day: Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo.
For more Playstation 2 games, check out our catalog holdings.
For more Nintendo GameCube games, check out our catalog holdings.
For more Xbox games, check out our catalog holdings.
The seventh generation of console gaming saw the further expansion of online gaming to match the proliferation of high-speed WiFi. For the first time, these consoles permitted gamers to download games and related content directly via online stores accessed through the console. The main consoles representing this generation are the Xbox 360, the Playstation 3, and the Nintendo Wii. Among these, the Nintendo Wii is unique as it relied on a remote that enabled kinetic gameplay. One of the most popular games that utilized the full extent of motion sensitivity was Wii Sports, which provided gamers with a virtual experience of bowling, tennis, and other activities. The Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 both shared select titles in common and competed with differing titles. Popular games unique to the Playstation 3 include The Last of Us (a post-apocalyptic adventure game) and inFamous (a superhero game). Popular games unique to the Xbox 360 include Gears of War 2 (a post-apocalyptic war game) and Halo 3 (a science fiction first-person shooter game).
For more Playstation 3 games, check out our catalog holdings.
For more Nintendo Wii games, check out our catalog holdings.
For more Xbox 360 games, check out our catalog holdings.
The Eighth generation saw the release of the Playstation 4 and Xbox One in 2013 and the Nintendo Switch later in 2017. The Playstation 4 and Xbox One continued to improve processing speed, supporting up to 60 frames per second at 1080p resolution. The Nintendo Switch is innovative because it is the first hybrid console. That is, it can be docked and used as a home console or as a portable device. Popular games on the Nintendo Switch include Welcome to Animal Crossing: New Horizons as well as Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield. Popular games unique to the PS4 include Shadow of the Colossus (an action-adventure monster-fighting game) and Horizon: Zero Dawn (a post-apocalyptic fantasy role-playing game). Popular games unique to the Xbox One include Sea of Thieves (a pirate adventure game) and Forza Horizon 3 (a realistic racing game).
For more Playstation 4 games, check out our catalog holdings.
For more Nintendo Switch games, check out our catalog holdings.
For more Xbox One games, check out our catalog holdings.
The ninth generation is the current generation of console gaming and comprises the Xbox Series X and the PS5. These consoles feature almost photorealistic graphics and an extensive array of games in every conceivable genre. Popular games unique to the PS5 include Returnal (a science-fiction adventure game) and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart (an adventure game that continues a series begun with the PS2). Popular games unique to the Xbox X Series include Halo Infinite (a continuation of the series mentioned above).
For more Playstation 5 games, check out our catalog holdings.
For more Xbox Series X games, check out our catalog holdings.
Representation & Identity in Games
Video games have long been created and designed by, as well as enmeshed in, marginalized communities. Unfortunately, however, members of these groups, and their experiences, have not always been represented the gaming industry or games themselves. This feature will highlight games from our collections that feature protagonists or significant characters, and/or were created and designed by individuals, from underrepresented communities.
To learn more about this topic, feel free to engage with some of the resources we used to create this feature below:
- I Need Diverse Games (Organization)
- "Leveling Up Representation: Depictions of People of Color in Video Games" (PBS Independent Lens)
- "Beyond Visibility Ways, Wants, and Wins" from the 2021 Games for Change Festival (Video)
- "Advancing Indigenous Futurism in Games" from the 2021 Games for Change Festival (Video)
- "Video Game Minority Report: Lots Of Players, Few Characters" (ScienceDaily)
- "Behind the Movement to Create More Black Video Game Characters" (The New York Times)
- "A Brief History of Native American Representation in Video Games" (Cliqist)
- "Race and video games" (Wikipedia entry)
- "Why Do Games Still Struggle With Trans Inclusion?" (Wired)
- "The ‘gay button’ in gaming: LGBTQ+ representation in videogames is often hidden – it shouldn’t be" (The Conversation)
- "The State of Trans Representation in Video Games" (Game Developer)
Image courtesy of the The Gender Spectrum Collection
Spider-Man: Miles Morales Call Number: Wells Library - Media Services - Video BrowsingIn the latest adventure in the Marvel's Spider-Man universe, teenager Miles Morales is adjusting to his new home while following in the footsteps of his mentor, Peter Parker, as a new Spider-Man. But when a fierce power struggle threatens to destroy his new home, the aspiring hero realizes that with great power, there must also come great responsibility. To save all of Marvel's New York, Miles must take up the mantle of Spider-Man and own it.
Representation: Black protagonist
Assassin's Creed III Call Number: Wells Library - Media Services - Video BrowsingThe American colonies, 1775. As a native American assassin fights to protect his land and his people, he will ignite the flames of a young nation's revolution. Conspire with real historical leaders. Engage in naval warfare.
Representation: Indigenous American protagonist
Apex Legends - Champion Editions Call Number: Wells Library - Media Services - Video BrowsingApex Legends is a free-to-play hero shooter game where legendary competitors battle for glory, fame, and fortune on the fringes of the Frontier.
Representation: Black protagonists, LGBTQ & Nonbinary characters
Assassin's Creed: Syndicate Call Number: Wells Library - Media Services - Video BrowsingIn 1868, at the tail end of the Industrial Revolution, with the Assassin Brotherhood all but eradicated in Victorian London, twins Jacob (Paul Amos) and Evie Frye (Victoria Atkin) leave Crawley for London and arrive to find a city controlled by the Templars, with both the Church and the Monarchy losing their power. Raised as Assassins to follow the Creed, Jacob and Evie aim to take back the city from Templar control by infiltrating and uniting London's criminal underworld.
Representation: Bisexual protagonist
Hades Call Number: Wells Library - Media Services - Video BrowsingAs the immortal Prince of the Underworld, you'll wield the powers and mythic weapons of Olympus to break free from the clutches of the god of the dead himself, while growing stronger and unraveling more of the story with each unique escape attempt.
Representation: Bisexual & non-monogamous protagonist
The Last of Us: Part II Call Number: Wells Library - Media Services - Video BrowsingFive years after their dangerous journey across the post-pandemic United States, Ellie and Joel have settled down in Jackson, Wyoming. Living amongst a thriving community of survivors has allowed them peace and stability, despite the constant threat of the infected and other, more desperate survivors. When a violent event disrupts that peace, Ellie embarks on a relentless journey to carry out justice and find closure. As she hunts those responsible one by one, she is confronted with the devastating physical and emotional repercussions of her actions.
Representation: Lesbian protagonist
The Sims 4 Call Number: Wells Library - Media Services - Video BrowsingCreate unique Sims. Bring your imagination to life as you customize your own Sims with distinct appearances, aspirations, and quirky personalities.
Representation: LGBTQ & racially diverse characters, character creation allows for an array of sexual and gender identities
Cyberpunk 2077 Call Number: Wells Library - Media Services - Video BrowsingCyberpunk 2077 is an open-world, action-adventure story set in Night City, a megalopolis obsessed with power, glamor, and body modification. You play as V, a mercenary outlaw going after a one-of-a-kind implant that is the key to immortality. You can customize your character's cyberware, skill set, and playstyle, and explore a vast city where the choices you make shape the story and world around you.
Representation: LGBTQ characters, player character selection allows for transgender/nonbinary identities
Life is Strange 2 Call Number: Wells Library - Media Services - Video BrowsingAfter a tragic incident, brothers Sean and Daniel Diaz run away from home. Fearing the police, and dealing with Daniel’s new telekinetic power, the boys head to Mexico. Each stop on their journey brings new friends and new challenges.
Representation: Latinx charactersCrackdown 3
Call Number: Wells Library - Media Services - Video BrowsingTime to step up your boom and stop crime as a super-powered Agent in Crackdown 3's sandbox of mayhem and destruction. Explore the heights of a futuristic city, race through the streets in a transforming vehicle, and use your powerful abilities to stop a ruthless criminal empire.
Representation: Black protagonist
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider Call Number: Wells Library - Media Services - Video BrowsingDeath of the Outsider brings players back to the Empire of the Isles, with breathtaking visuals, intricately designed levels, and brutal combat systems that are a hallmark of the Dishonored series. With a new character comes a unique new set of supernatural abilities, deadly weapons and powerful gear, empowering players to become the ultimate assassin. And with Arkane Studios' signature style, you can once again be as bloodthirsty - or as merciful - as you like.
Representation: Black protagonist
Tabletop Games
While we have a significant collection of tabletop games, the titles featured here were created or designed by women or LGBTQ creators.
Dream Askew / Dream Apart by Dream Askew is a game about queer community amidst the apocalypse. It gives us ruined buildings, haunted faces, strange new psychic powers, fierce queer love, and turbulent skies, asking “What do you do next?” Dream Apart gives us demons and wedding jesters; betrothals and pogroms; mystical ascensions and accusations of murder; rabbi’s daughters running away to be actresses or bandits or boy soldiers; the sounds of the shofar ringing through cramped and muddy streets, of cannon fire, of the wolf’s footfalls in the snowy pine forest; asking “What do you do next?”
Mutants and Masterminds by ISBN: 9781934547908Publication Date: 2018-10-09Every hero needs an origin story and this can be yours! Written with newgamers in mind, the Basic Hero's Handbook streamlines and clarifies theflexible, robust third edition rules of Mutants & Masterminds. Withsimplified character creation and a selection of ready-made adventures, theMutants & Masterminds Basic Hero's Handbook lets players jump right into theaction. The book is fully compatible with the Deluxe Hero's Handbook and theentire library of third edition Mutants & Masterminds supplements, instantlyexpanding your character options and adventure potential. Whether you're justgetting started, or want an extra player-friendly reference at the table, theMutants & Masterminds Basic Hero's Handbook is the choice for yourworld-saving needs!
Pathfinder: Core Rulebook by ISBN: 9781601251503Publication Date: 2009-09-01This complete, standalone, fantasy roleplaying game takes your fantasycampaigns to new heights of adventure! Backward-compatible with 3.5fantasy rules but offering new solutions and options that place it firmly onthe cutting edge, the Pathfinder RPG is the culmination of the largestopen public playtest in RPG history. The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game CoreRulebook includes: revised rules for the classic seven fantasy RPG races;updated options for the 11 core classes; a streamlined skill system that makesthings easier for players and GMs; a host of new and familiar feats, includinginnovative combat feats and item creation rules; new equipment; additionalcombat options; overhauled rules for domains, familiars, bonded items, specialtyschools, and more; dozens of new and revised spells; updated rules for NPCs,including quick-generation rules; new rules for curses, diseases, and poisons; acompletely overhauled experience system with options for slow, medium, and fastadvancement; hundreds and hundreds of magic items... and much, muchmore!Monsterhearts 2 by
ISBN: 9781734445015Publication Date: 2021-08-06A roleplaying game about the messy lives of teenage monsters. Create stories about sexy monsters, teenage angst, personal horror, and secret love triangles.
Jigsaw Puzzles
All of these puzzles were designed by BIPOC artists. We also have a series of puzzles on order from Apostrophe Puzzles, which you can find here.
The quilts of Gee's Bend: 1000 piece puzzle ISBN: 9780735369665The Quilts of Gee's Bend 1000 Piece Puzzle features 40 colorful quilt patterns created by the women of Gee's Bend a small, remote, Black community in Wilcox County, Alabama. This world famous group has created hundreds of quilt masterpieces dating from the early twentieth century to the present.
Derrick Adams x Dreamland: 500 piece double-sided puzzle ISBN: 9780735370470The Derrick Adams x Dreamyard 500 Piece Double-Sided Puzzle features a painting by artist Derrick Adams on one side, and paintings by Dreamyard middle school students in the Bronx who were inspired by Adams on the other side. For easy sorting, puzzles pieces are matte finish and shiny on opposite sides. Adams is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores how African American experiences intersect with art history, American iconography, and consumerism. DreamYard In School Programs provide over 150 residencies and after school programs to more than 45 Bronx public schools, combining standards-based art instruction with social justice pedagogy systems to inspire students to develop character, scholarship and artistic voice to create change
Kitty McCall, Lost in the garden: 500 piece puzzle ISBN: 9780735368514The Lost In the Garden 500 Piece Puzzle features the colorful floral artwork of Nigerian-born, UK-based artist, Kitty McCall. Influenced by the natural world around her, along with the vibrant landscape of her early childhood in Nigeria, Kitty McCall has developed a signature style of bold colors, overlaid patterns, and shapes to create geometric designs and floral landscapes for interiors, and accessories.
Kitty McCall, Palm Springs: 1000 piece puzzle ISBN: 9780735368521The Kitty McCall Palm Springs 1000 Piece Puzzle features a pastel-colored image of an entrance to an elegant and modern home in Palm Springs, CA., from Nigerian-born, UK-based artist, Kitty McCall. Influenced by the natural world around her, along with the vibrant landscape of her early childhood in Nigeria, Kitty McCall has developed a signature style of bold colors, overlaid patterns, and shapes to create geometric designs and floral landscapes for interiors, and accessories.
Books from our collection
Gaming Representation: race, gender, and sexuality in video games by ISBN: 9780253025739Publication Date: 2017-07-03Recent years have seen an increase in public attention to identity and representation in video games, including journalists and bloggers holding the digital game industry accountable for the discrimination routinely endured by female gamers, queer gamers, and gamers of color. Video game developers are responding to these critiques, but scholarly discussion of representation in games has lagged far behind. Gaming Representation examines portrayals of race, gender, and sexuality in a range of games, from casuals like Diner Dash, to indies like Journey and The Binding of Isaac, to mainstream games from the Grand Theft Auto, BioShock, Spec Ops, The Last of Us, and Max Payne franchises. Arguing that representation and identity function as systems in games that share a stronger connection to code and platforms than it may first appear, the contributors to this volume push gaming scholarship to new levels of inquiry, theorizing, and imagination.
Video Games Have Always Been Queer by ISBN: 9781479831036Publication Date: 2019-03-19Argues for the queer potential of video games While popular discussions about queerness in video games often focus on big-name, mainstream games that feature LGBTQ characters, like Mass Effect or Dragon Age, Bonnie Ruberg pushes the concept of queerness in games beyond a matter of representation, exploring how video games can be played, interpreted, and designed queerly, whether or not they include overtly LGBTQ content. Video Games Have Always Been Queer argues that the medium of video games itself can--and should--be read queerly. In the first book dedicated to bridging game studies and queer theory, Ruberg resists the common, reductive narrative that games are only now becoming more diverse. Revealing what reading D. A. Miller can bring to the popular 2007 video game Portal, or what Eve Sedgwick offers Pong, Ruberg models the ways game worlds offer players the opportunity to explore queer experience, affect, and desire. As players attempt to 'pass' in Octodad or explore the pleasure of failure in Burnout: Revenge, Ruberg asserts that, even within a dominant gaming culture that has proved to be openly hostile to those perceived as different, queer people have always belonged in video games--because video games have, in fact, always been queer.
Gaming at the Edge: sexuality and gender at the margins of gamer culture by ISBN: 9780816693153Publication Date: 2015-01-01Video games have long been seen as the exclusive territory of young, heterosexual white males. In a media landscape dominated by such gamers, players who do not fit this mold, including women, people of color, and LGBT people, are often brutalized in forums and in public channels in online play. Discussion of representation of such groups in games has frequently been limited and cursory. In contrast, Gaming at the Edge builds on feminist, queer, and postcolonial theories of identity and draws on qualitative audience research methods to make sense of how representation comes to matter. In Gaming at the Edge, Adrienne Shaw argues that video game players experience race, gender, and sexuality concurrently. She asks: How do players identify with characters? How do they separate identification and interactivity? What is the role of fantasy in representation? What is the importance of understanding market logic? In addressing these questions Shaw reveals how representation comes to matter to participants and offers a perceptive consideration of the high stakes in politics of representation debates. Putting forth a framework for talking about representation, difference, and diversity in an era in which user-generated content, individualized media consumption, and the blurring of producer/consumer roles has lessened the utility of traditional models of media representation analysis, Shaw finds new insight on the edge of media consumption with the invisible, marginalized gamers who are surprising in both their numbers and their influence in mainstream gamer culture.
The Queer Games Avant-Garde: how LGBTQ game makers are reimagining the medium of video games by ISBN: 9781478005919Publication Date: 2020-03-20In The Queer Games Avant-Garde, Bonnie Ruberg presents twenty interviews with twenty-two queer video game developers whose radical, experimental, vibrant, and deeply queer work is driving a momentous shift in the medium of video games. Speaking with insight and candor about their creative practices as well as their politics and passions, these influential and innovative game makers tell stories about their lives and inspirations, the challenges they face, and the ways they understand their places within the wider terrain of video game culture. Their insights go beyond typical conversations about LGBTQ representation in video games or how to improve "diversity" in digital media. Instead, they explore queer game-making practices, the politics of queer independent video games, how queerness can be expressed as an aesthetic practice, the influence of feminist art on their work, and the future of queer video games and technology. These engaging conversations offer a portrait of an influential community that is subverting and redefining the medium of video games by placing queerness front and center. Interviewees: Ryan Rose Aceae, Avery Alder, Jimmy Andrews, Santo Aveiro-Ojeda, Aevee Bee, Tonia B******, Mattie Brice, Nicky Case, Naomi Clark, Mo Cohen, Heather Flowers, Nina Freeman, Jerome Hagen, Kat Jones, Jess Marcotte, Andi McClure, Llaura McGee, Seanna Musgrave, Liz Ryerson, Elizabeth Sampat, Loren Schmidt, Sarah Schoemann, Dietrich Squinkifer, Kara Stone, Emilia Yang, Robert Yang
Queer Game Studies by ISBN: 9781517900366Publication Date: 2017-03-28Video games have developed into a rich, growing field at many top universities, but they have rarely been considered from a queer perspective. Immersion in new worlds, video games seem to offer the perfect opportunity to explore the alterity that queer culture longs for, but often sexism and discrimination in gamer culture steal the spotlight. Queer Game Studies provides a welcome corrective, revealing the capacious albeit underappreciated communities that are making, playing, and studying queer games. These in-depth, diverse, and accessible essays use queerness to challenge the ideas that have dominated gaming discussions. Demonstrating the centrality of LGBTQ issues to the gamer world, they establish an alternative lens for examining this increasingly important culture. Queer Game Studies covers important subjects such as the representation of queer bodies, the casual misogyny prevalent in video games, the need for greater diversity in gamer culture, and reading popular games like Bayonetta, Mass Effect, and Metal Gear Solid from a queer perspective. Perfect for both everyday readers and instructors looking to add diversity to their courses, Queer Game Studies is the ideal introduction to the vast and vibrant realm of queer gaming. Contributors: Leigh Alexander; Gregory L. Bagnall, U of Rhode Isl∧ Hanna Brady; Mattie Brice; Derek Burrill, U of California, Riverside; Edmond Y. Chang, U of Oregon; Naomi M. Clark; Katherine Cross, CUNY; Kim d'Amazing, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology; Aubrey Gabel, U of California, Berkeley; Christopher Goetz, U of Iowa; Jack Halberstam, U of Southern California; Todd Harper, U of Baltimore; Larissa Hjorth, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology; Chelsea Howe; Jesper Juul, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts; merritt kopas; Colleen Macklin, Parsons School of Design; Amanda Phillips, Georgetown U; Gabriela T. Richard, Pennsylvania State U; Toni Rocca; Sarah Schoemann, Georgia Institute of Technology; Kathryn Bond Stockton, U of Utah; Zoya Street, U of Lancaster; Peter Wonica; Robert Yang, Parsons School of Design; Jordan Youngblood, Eastern Connecticut State U.
Ethnographies of the Videogame: gender, narrative and praxis by ISBN: 9780754679783Publication Date: 2011-07-28Ethnographies of the Videogame uses the medium of the videogame to explore wider significant sociological issues around new media, interaction, identity, performance, memory and mediation. Addressing questions of how we interpret, mediate and use media texts, particularly in the face of claims about the power of new media to continuously shift the parameters of lived experience, gaming is employed as a 'tool' through which we can understand the gendered and socio-culturally constructed phenomenon of our everyday engagement with media. The book is particularly concerned with issues of agency and power, identifying strong correlations between perceptions of gaming and actual gaming practices, as well as the reinforcement, through gaming, of established (gendered, sexed, and classed) power relationships within households. As such, it reveals the manner in which existing relations re-emerge through engagement with new technology. Offering an empirically grounded understanding of what goes on when we mediate technology and media in our everyday lives Ethnographies of the Videogame is more than a timely intervention into game studies. It provides pertinent and reflexive commentary on the relationship between text and audience, highlighting the relationships of gender and power in gaming practice. As such, it will appeal to scholars interested in media and new media, gender and class, and the sociology of leisure.
Scholarly Articles
Music in Games
Music has long been an integral part of the experience of games, with sound being just as important a design element as the visual. In many cases, the composers of video game soundtracks have become well-known for their beautiful work, from Koji Kondo's formative contributions to early Nintendo games to the haunting compositions of Akira Yamaoka for the Silent Hill series. Moreover, it was announced in 2022 that video game scores will be celebrated in their own category for the first time at the Grammy's in 2023, joining the BAFTA's in acknowledging and further cementing the significance and legacy of music in games.
In this feature and playlist, we want to highlight some of the most memorable musical moments and soundtracks across video game history, from the bleeps and bloops of Super Mario Bros to the orchestral beauty of games like Journey and Kentucky Route Zero. To learn more, consult some of the resources and lists we used to create this overview below, as well as books from our collection relevant to game music in the second tab of this feature.
- "A History of Video Game Music" (GameSpot)
- "Composing Classics: A History of Video Game Music" (National Museum of Play)
- "A Brief History of Video Game Music" (video, Library of Congress)
- "The Evolution of Video Game Music" (video, Fake Life Lore)
- Pixelated Audio (Podcast)
- "The Evolution of Video Game Music" (All Things Considered, NPR)
- "Video Games Inspire a Generation of Classical Music Fans" (Wired)
- "How Music Shapes the Way We Play Video Games" (Mashable)
- "Video Game Music" (Wikipedia)
- "The 100 Best Video Game Soundtracks of All Time" (FACT)
- "The 25 Best Video Game Soundtracks of All Time" (Happy)
Understanding Video Game Music by ISBN: 9781107116870Publication Date: 2016-09-08Understanding Video Game Music develops a musicology of video game music by providing methods and concepts for understanding music in this medium. From the practicalities of investigating the video game as a musical source to the critical perspectives on game music - using examples including Final Fantasy VII, Monkey Island 2, SSX Tricky and Silent Hill - these explorations not only illuminate aspects of game music, but also provide conceptual ideas valuable for future analysis. Music is not a redundant echo of other textual levels of the game, but central to the experience of interacting with video games. As the author likes to describe it, this book is about music for racing a rally car, music for evading zombies, music for dancing, music for solving puzzles, music for saving the Earth from aliens, music for managing a city, music for being a hero; in short, it is about music for playing.
The Cambridge Companion to Video Game Music by ISBN: 9781108473026Publication Date: 2021-04-29Video game music has been permeating popular culture for over forty years. Now, reaching billions of listeners, game music encompasses a diverse spectrum of musical materials and practices. This book provides a comprehensive, up-to-date survey of video game music by a diverse group of scholars and industry professionals. The chapters and summaries consolidate existing knowledge and present tools for readers to engage with the music in new ways. Many popular games are analysed, including Super Mario Galaxy, Bastion, The Last of Us, Kentucky Route Zero and the Katamari, Gran Turismo and Tales series. Topics include chiptunes, compositional processes, localization, history and game music concerts. The book also engages with other disciplines such as psychology, music analysis, business strategy and critical theory, and will prove an equally valuable resource for readers active in the industry, composers or designers, and music students and scholars.
Ludomusicology: approaches to video game music by ISBN: 9781781791974Publication Date: 2016-09-01The last half-decade has seen the rapid and expansive development of video game music studies. As with any new area of study, this significant sub-discipline is still tackling fundamental questions concerning how video game music should be approached. In this volume, experts in game music provide their responses to these issues. This book suggests a variety of new approaches to the study of game music. In the course of developing ways of conceptualizing and analyzing game music it explicitly considers other critical issues including the distinction between game play and music play, how notions of diegesis are complicated by video game interactivity, the importance of cinema aesthetics in game music, the technicalities of game music production and the relationships between game music and art music traditions. This collection is accessible, yet theoretically substantial and complex. It draws upon a diverse array of perspectives and presents new research which will have a significant impact upon the way that game music is studied. The volume represents a major development in game musicology and will be indispensable for both academic researchers and students of game music.
Game Sound: an introduction to the history, theory, and practice of video game music and sound design by ISBN: 9780262033787Publication Date: 2008-08-08An examination of the many complex aspects of game audio, from the perspectives of both sound design and music composition. A distinguishing feature of video games is their interactivity, and sound plays an important role in this: a player's actions can trigger dialogue, sound effects, ambient sound, and music. And yet game sound has been neglected in the growing literature on game studies. This book fills that gap, introducing readers to the many complex aspects of game audio, from its development in early games to theoretical discussions of immersion and realism. In Game Sound, Karen Collins draws on a range of sources--including composers, sound designers, voice-over actors and other industry professionals, Internet articles, fan sites, industry conferences, magazines, patent documents, and, of course, the games themselves--to offer a broad overview of the history, theory, and production practice of video game audio. Game Sound has two underlying themes: how and why games are different from or similar to film or other linear audiovisual media; and technology and the constraints it has placed on the production of game audio. Collins focuses first on the historical development of game audio, from penny arcades through the rise of home games and the recent rapid developments in the industry. She then examines the production process for a contemporary game at a large game company, discussing the roles of composers, sound designers, voice talent, and audio programmers; considers the growing presence of licensed intellectual property (particularly popular music and films) in games; and explores the function of audio in games in theoretical terms. Finally, she discusses the difficulties posed by nonlinearity and interactivity for the composer of game music.
Unlimited Replays: video games and classical music by ISBN: 9780190265250Publication Date: 2018-05-01Classical music is everywhere in video games. Works by composers like Bach and Mozart fill the soundtracks of games ranging from arcade classics, to indie titles, to major franchises like BioShock, Civilization, and Fallout. Children can learn about classical works and their histories from interactive iPad games. World-renowned classical orchestras frequently perform concerts of game music to sold-out audiences. But what do such combinations of art and entertainment reveal about the cultural value we place on these media? Can classical music ever be video game music, and can game music ever be classical? Delving into the shifting and often contradictory cultural definitions that emerge when classical music meets video games, Unlimited Replays offers a new perspective on the possibilities and challenges of trying to distinguish between art and pop culture in contemporary society.
Sound Play: video games and the musical imagination by ISBN: 9780199969968Publication Date: 2014-04-03Video games open portals to fantastical worlds where imaginative play and enchantment prevail. These virtual settings afford us considerable freedom to act out with relative impunity. Or do they? Sound Play explores the aesthetic, ethical, and sociopolitical stakes of people's creative engagements with gaming's audio phenomena-from sonorous violence to synthesized operas, from democratic music-making to vocal sexual harassment. William Cheng shows how video games empower their designers, composers, players, critics, and scholars to tinker (often transgressively) with practices and discourses of music, noise, speech, and silence. Faced with collisions between utopian and alarmist stereotypes of video games, Sound Play synthesizes insights across musicology, sociology, anthropology, communications, literary theory, philosophy, and additional disciplines. With case studies spanning Final Fantasy VI, Silent Hill, Fallout 3, The Lord of the Rings Online, and Team Fortress 2, this book insists that what we do in there-in the safe, sound spaces of games-can ultimately teach us a great deal about who we are and what we value (musically, culturally, humanly) out here. Foreword by Richard Leppert Video Games Live cover image printed with permission from Tommy Tallarico
Transgender World Making in Video Games
Videogames and gaming in general has often created spaces where people can escape, join a new community, and redefine reality - even if only for a couple hours. As such, videogames have become a wonderful resource for gender diverse and transgender people as they can log in and change how they appear in a world that they control. This feature shares the concept of transgender video game worldmaking and character building as well as spotlighting several games that transgender and gender diverse people created in order to process the stresses and pressures of gender norms in everyday life.
Further Readings
- Why do games still struggle with trans inclusion? by Emma Flint - Wired
- The State of Trans Representation in Video Games by Lilly Contino - Game Developer
- How Gamers Use Video Games to Explore Their Gender Identity by Andrew Fishman - Psychology Today
- 'In the game, I knew myself as Hannah': the trans gamers finding freedom on Roblox by Tom Faber - The Guardian
Dys4ia by Publication Date: 2012Dys4ia is an autobiographical Adobe Flash video game about the artist Anna Anthropy’s decision to start hormone replacement therapy. It is a journal of six months of her life told through abstract mini-games. Each mini-game deals with a different emotional stage of her hormone therapy, and conveys her frustrations and accomplishments through innovative game mechanics and lo-fi graphics. Dys4ia is available to play for free, with the download of an adobe flash chrome extension.
Transgalactica: A Tune Your Own Adventure by Publication Date: 2018In this game, you are a trans person hurtling through space and listening to a radio. Follow the trail of broadcasts from T.R.A.N.S -- the Trans Radio Artists' Network in Space to find them and join them. This game is available to play for free - click the link above!
GENDERWRECKED by Publication Date: 2018GENDERWRECKED is a post-apocalyptic genderpunk visual novel about traveling broken lands and kissing/fighting/talking to monsters in an attempt to learn the true meaning of a mysterious force called GENDER. This game is available for downloadable play on Windows, macOS, and Linux for $6.99. A Demo of the game is available for free.
Mainichi by Publication Date: 2012A short, rpg- style game about navigating daily life as a black trans woman. The game can be downloaded and played for free from Brice’s website: http://www.mattie brice.com/mainichi.
Second Puberty by Second Puberty is an album/collection of seven short games, created over the course of two years, about various feelings surrounding medically transitioning and dealing with isolation during a pandemic. Second Puberty is available to play for free on Squinky's website: https://squinky.itch.io/second-puberty
One Night, Hot Springs by Publication Date: 2018Haru is invited by her old friend Manami to spend a night at the hot springs. All Haru wants to do is enjoy the hot springs like everyone else, but she doesn't want to cause any trouble... One Night, Hot Springs is a visual novel. Play as Haru, a young transgender woman, and join her at the hot springs in Japan. This game is available to play for free with a steam account.Celeste by
Publication Date: 2018Help Madeline survive her inner demons on her journey to the top of Celeste Mountain, in this super-tight, hand-crafted platformer from the creators of multiplayer classic TowerFall. Celeste is available for purchase to play through Steam.
Heaven Will Be Mine by Publication Date: 2018Heaven Will Be Mine is a queer science fiction mecha visual novel from the creators of queer cult horror visual novel We Know The Devil, about joyriding mecha, kissing your enemies, and fighting gravity’s pull. Follow three women piloting giant robots in the last days of an alternate 1980s space program fighting for humanity’s future—or ditching their jobs to make out with each other instead. Heaven Will Be Mine is available for purchase to play through Steam.If Found... by
Publication Date: 2020On December 31st 1993 in the crumbling ruins of a mansion on Achill Island, Kasio destroys her diary. It tells the story of her return home to the West of Ireland, her conflict with her family, the friends she makes, and the challenges she goes through. If Found... is available for purchase to play through Steam.
- The Queer Games Avant-Garde: How LGBTQ Game Makers Are Reimagining the Medium of Video Games by ISBN: 9781478005919Publication Date: 2020-03-20In The Queer Games Avant-Garde, Bo Ruberg presents twenty interviews with twenty-two queer video game developers whose radical, experimental, vibrant, and deeply queer work is driving a momentous shift in the medium of video games. Speaking with insight and candor about their creative practices as well as their politics and passions, these influential and innovative game makers tell stories about their lives and inspirations, the challenges they face, and the ways they understand their places within the wider terrain of video game culture. Their insights go beyond typical conversations about LGBTQ representation in video games or how to improve "diversity" in digital media. Instead, they explore queer game-making practices, the politics of queer independent video games, how queerness can be expressed as an aesthetic practice, the influence of feminist art on their work, and the future of queer video games and technology. These engaging conversations offer a portrait of an influential community that is subverting and redefining the medium of video games by placing queerness front and center.
Gaming Utopia: Ludic Worlds in Art, Design, and Media by ISBN: 9780253054487Publication Date: 2021-04-06In Gaming Utopia: Ludic Worlds in Art, Design, and Media, Claudia Costa Pederson analyzes modernist avant-garde and contemporary video games to challenge the idea that gaming is an exclusively white, heterosexual, male, corporatized leisure activity and reenvisions it as a catalyst for social change. By looking at over fifty projects that together span a century and the world, Pederson explores the capacity for sociopolitical commentary in virtual and digital realms and highlights contributions to the history of gaming by women, queer, and transnational artists. The result is a critical tool for understanding video games as imaginative forms of living that offer alternatives to our current reality. With an interdisciplinary approach, Gaming Utopia emphasizes how game design, creation, and play can become political forms of social protest and examines the ways that games as art open doors to a more just and peaceful world.- Gaming Representation: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Video Games by ISBN: 9780253025739Publication Date: 2017-07-03Recent years have seen an increase in public attention to identity and representation in video games, including journalists and bloggers holding the digital game industry accountable for the discrimination routinely endured by female gamers, queer gamers, and gamers of color. Video game developers are responding to these critiques, but scholarly discussion of representation in games has lagged far behind. Gaming Representation examines portrayals of race, gender, and sexuality in a range of games, from casuals like Diner Dash, to indies like Journey and The Binding of Isaac, to mainstream games from the Grand Theft Auto, BioShock, Spec Ops, The Last of Us, and Max Payne franchises. Arguing that representation and identity function as systems in games that share a stronger connection to code and platforms than it may first appear, the contributors to this volume push gaming scholarship to new levels of inquiry, theorizing, and imagination.
Rated M for Mature: Sex and Sexuality in Video Games by ISBN: 9781628925760Publication Date: 2015-10-22The word sex has many implications when it is used in connection with video games. As game studies scholars have argued, games are player-driven experiences. Players must participate in processes of play to move the game forward. The addition of content that incorporates sex and/or sexuality adds complexity that other media do not share. Rated M for Mature further develops our understanding of the practices and activities of video games, specifically focusing on the intersection of games with sexual content. From the supposed scandal of "Hot Coffee" to the emergence of same-sex romance options in RPGs, the collection explores the concepts of sex and sexuality in the area of video games.
Manifestations of Queerness in Video Games by ISBN: 0367900645Publication Date: 2022-07-29Taking the reader on a journey through queer manifestations in games, this book advocates for video games as a rich, political and cultural medium, which provides us with tools to navigate the future of gaming. Situated at the intersection of New Media, Game, Cultural and Queer Studies, the book navigates diverse interspecies relationships, queer villains from the past, Pokémon memes on border politics, flânerie in post-industrial cities and one-sided erotic fights. It provides new critical engagements with the works of Jose Esteban Muñoz, Bo Ruberg, Guy Debord and Jack Halberstam, examining queer representation, gaming subcultures and dissident play practices. Making the bold claim that video games might be the queerest medium today, this book provides organic, self-reflective and, ultimately, thought-provoking thinking in which both games and gamers are queered. This book will be of interest to scholars researching game studies, sex, gender and sexuality in new media, but also readers interested in literature, digital media, society, participatory culture and queer studies.
Queerness in Play by ISBN: 9783319905419Publication Date: 2018-11-06Queerness in Play examines the many ways queerness of all kinds--from queer as 'LGBT' to other, less well-covered aspects of the queer spectrum--intersects with games and the social contexts of play. The current unprecedented visibility of queer creators and content comes at a high tide of resistance to the inclusion of those outside a long-imagined cisgender, heterosexual, white male norm. By critically engaging the ways games--as a culture, an industry, and a medium--help reproduce limiting binary formations of gender and sexuality, Queerness in Play contributes to the growing body of scholarship promoting more inclusive understandings of identity, sexuality, and games.
Video Games Have Always Been Queer by ISBN: 9781479843749Publication Date: 2019-03-19Argues for the queer potential of video games While popular discussions about queerness in video games often focus on big-name, mainstream games that feature LGBTQ characters, like Mass Effect or Dragon Age, Bo Ruberg pushes the concept of queerness in games beyond a matter of representation, exploring how video games can be played, interpreted, and designed queerly, whether or not they include overtly LGBTQ content. Video Games Have Always Been Queer argues that the medium of video games itself can--and should--be read queerly. In the first book dedicated to bridging game studies and queer theory, Ruberg resists the common, reductive narrative that games are only now becoming more diverse. Revealing what reading D. A. Miller can bring to the popular 2007 video game Portal, or what Eve Sedgwick offers Pong, Ruberg models the ways game worlds offer players the opportunity to explore queer experience, affect, and desire. As players attempt to 'pass' in Octodad or explore the pleasure of failure in Burnout: Revenge, Ruberg asserts that, even within a dominant gaming culture that has proved to be openly hostile to those perceived as different, queer people have always belonged in video games--because video games have, in fact, always been queer.- Gaming at the Edge: Sexuality and Gender at the Margins of Gamer Culture by ISBN: 9780816693153Publication Date: 2015-01-01Video games have long been seen as the exclusive territory of young, heterosexual white males. In a media landscape dominated by such gamers, players who do not fit this mold, including women, people of color, and LGBT people, are often brutalized in forums and in public channels in online play. Discussion of representation of such groups in games has frequently been limited and cursory. In contrast, Gaming at the Edge builds on feminist, queer, and postcolonial theories of identity and draws on qualitative audience research methods to make sense of how representation comes to matter. In Gaming at the Edge, Adrienne Shaw argues that video game players experience race, gender, and sexuality concurrently. She asks: How do players identify with characters? How do they separate identification and interactivity? What is the role of fantasy in representation? What is the importance of understanding market logic? In addressing these questions Shaw reveals how representation comes to matter to participants and offers a perceptive consideration of the high stakes in politics of representation debates. Putting forth a framework for talking about representation, difference, and diversity in an era in which user-generated content, individualized media consumption, and the blurring of producer/consumer roles has lessened the utility of traditional models of media representation analysis, Shaw finds new insight on the edge of media consumption with the invisible, marginalized gamers who are surprising in both their numbers and their influence in mainstream gamer culture.
Gender and Sexuality in Online Game Cultures: Passionate Play by ISBN: 9780415897662Publication Date: 2011-12-21How do gender and sexuality come to matter in online game cultures? Why is it important to explore "straight" versus "queer" contexts of play? And what does it mean to play together with others over time, as co-players and researchers? Gender and Sexuality in Online Game Cultures is a book about female players and their passionate encounters with the online game World of Warcraft and its player cultures. It takes seriously women's passions in games, and as such draws attention to questions of pleasure in and desire for technology. The authors use a unique approach of what they term a "twin ethnography" that develops two parallel stories. Sveningsson studies "straight" game culture, and makes explicit that which is of the norm by exploring the experiences of female gamers in a male-dominated gaming context. Sundén investigates "queer" game culture through the queer potentials of mainstream World of Warcraft culture, as well as through the case of a guild explicitly defined as LGBT. Academic research on game culture is flourishing, yet feminist accounts of gender and sexuality in games are still in the making. Drawing on feminist notions of performance, performativity and positionality, as well as the recent turn to affect and phenomenology within cultural theory, the authors develop queer, feminist studies of online player cultures in ways that are situated and embodied.
Rise of the Videogame Zinesters: How Freaks, Normals, Amateurs, Artists, Dreamers, Dropouts, Queers, Housewives, and People Like You Are Taking Back an Art Form by ISBN: 9781609803728Publication Date: 2012-03-20Part critical essay, part manifesto, part DIY guide and altogether unprecedented, Anna Anthropy's Rise of the Videogame Zinesters shows why the multi-billion dollar videogame industry needs to change - and how a new generation of artists can change it. In this first intergalactic offensive against corporate systems of production, condescending media coverage and pervasive 'gamer' culture, Anthropy takes a look at the new artists who are beginning to build an alternative body of work. A unique guide for anyone who wants to join the coming revolution of videogames.
#Trans: An Anthology about Transgender and Nonbinary Identity Online by ISBN: 9781543175882Publication Date: 2017-02-16#Trans is an essay collection featuring the works of twenty transgender and nonbinary writers as they share their experiences with online communities, video games, and dating apps--among other technologies. Each author's experience of their identity breaks away from the typical transgender narrative that is predominantly hung up on surgery and medical intervention. While that aspect is still a part of the story for some of these writers, surgery has never been the sole inspiration which pushes these writers forward. Whether it was the love of a particular movie, the desire to share a feeling on social media, or a song they couldn't get out of their heads, these twenty writers' experiences of their identity have been shaped by media, technology, and the internet. And now, #Trans is ready to share with all of you.Authors include YouTuber Skylar Kergil, academic Evelyn Deshane, Latinx writer Ariel Estrella, micro-memoirist Erika D. Price, anthropologist Harlow Figa, poet mud howard, LGBTQ romance author J.K. Pendragon, and many more.
- Rivera, Sien. 2022. “From Battleground to Playground: The Video Game Avatar as Transitional Phenomenon for a Transgender Patient.” Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 70 (3): 485–510. doi:10.1177/00030651221104487
- Kosciesza, A.J. 2023. “The Moral Service of Trans NPCs: Examining the Roles of Transgender Non-Player Characters in Role-Playing Video Games.” Games and Culture 18 (2): 189-208–208. doi:10.1177/15554120221088118.
- McKenna, J.L., C.R. Williams, K. McGregor, E.R. Boskey, and Y.-C. Wang. 2022. ““You Can’t Be Deadnamed in a Video Game”: Transgender and Gender Diverse Adolescents’ Use of Video Game Avatar Creation for Gender-Affirmation and Exploration.” Journal of LGBT Youth, January. doi:10.1080/19361653.2022.2144583.
- Thach, Hibby. 2021. “A Cross-Game Look at Transgender Representation in Video Games.” Press Start 7 (1): 19–44. http://press-start.gla.ac.uk/index.php/press-start/article/view/187
- Shaw, A. 2009. “Putting the Gay in Games: Cultural Production and GLBT Content in Video Games.” Games and Culture 4 (3): 228-253–253. doi:10.1177/1555412009339729.
- Heritage, Frazer. 2022. “Politics, Pronouns and the Players: Examining How Videogame Players React to the Inclusion of a Transgender Character in World of Warcraft.” Gender & Language 16 (1): 26–51. doi:10.1558/genl.20250.
- Tarik Sabry. 2017. “Talking to Gaymers: Questioning Identity, Community and Media Representation.” Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture 9 (1). doi:10.16997/wpcc.150.
- Ruberg, Bo, Chris J. Young, and Greig de Peuter. 2019. “The Precarious Labor of Queer Indie Game-Making: Who Benefits from Making Video Games ‘Better’?” Television & New Media 20 (8): 778–88. doi:10.1177/1527476419851090.
- Hester, Jennessa. 2023. “Nintendo Switch-Ing Genders: Bowsette and the Potentiality of Transgender Video Game Mechanics.” Visual Resources: An International Journal of Documentation, March, 1–15. doi:10.1080/01973762.2023.2184234.