The state of play: creators and critics on video game culture (First edition.)

FEATURING: IAN BOGOST - LEIGH ALEXANDER - ZOE QUINN - ANITA SARKEESIAN & KATHERINE CROSS - IAN SHANAHAN - ANNA ANTHROPY - EVAN NARCISSE - HUSSEIN IBRAHIM - CARA ELLISON & BRENDAN KEOGH - DAN GOLDING - DAVID JOHNSTON - WILLIAM KNOBLAUCH - MERRITT KOPAS - OLA WIKANDERThe State of Playis a call to consider the high stakes of video game culture and how our digital and real lives collide.

Here, video games are not hobbies or pure recreation; they are vehicles for art, sex, and race and class politics.The sixteen contributors are entrenchedthey are the video game creators themselves, media critics, and Internet celebrities.

They share one thing: they are all players at heart, handpicked to form a superstar roster by Daniel Goldberg and Linus Larsson, the authors of the bestsellingMinecraft: The Unlikely Tale of Markus "Notch" Persson and the Game that Changed Everything.The State of Playis essential reading for anyone interested in what may well be the defining form of cultural expression of our time."If you want to explain to anyone why videogames are worth caring about, this is a single volume primer on where we are, how we got here and where we're going next.

In every way, this is the state of play." Kieron Gillen, author ofThe Wicked + the Divine, co-founder of Rock Paper ShotgunFrom the Hardcover edition.