The Video Game Theory Reader 2, edited by Bernard

摘要

If you have ever arrived at a ballgame well after it has begun, you probably have experienced a degree of disorientation, not being sure exactly how much you have missed, not being certain of who the players are, not knowing what the score might be. The same may be said of The Video Game Theory Reader 2, which is clearly intended as a continuation of The Video Game Theory Reader, published in 2003, so much so that the editors' introduction to the volume does not provide much in the way of instant replay or recap; instead, it begins in medias res and focuses on the contemporary state of video game studies. No doubt, readers familiar with the first Video Game Theory Reader will be pleased that the new volume does not duplicate but rather supplements the earlier publication. But this does pose a challenge for reviewers who are called on to evaluate the book on its own merits, and not as part of a matching set. Would it have made more sense to publish a second edition of the original reader, replacing some of the older articles with newer ones, and possibly expanding its scope and contributions? Would it have been better to publish one or more new volumes addressing specific subsets of the field of video game studies that the 2003 Video Game Theory Reader helped to establish for us (e.g., technology, aesthetics, culture)? Perhaps, but you go to war with the book you have, not the book you might want or wish to have at a later time, as the saying goes.