Boss Fight Books
Quality book-length critical dives into specific video games are still quite rare, which makes the Boss Fight Books series a true gem. Currently finished with printing book number 28, they utilize an open pitch-and-commission system to address canonical games from all eras, which allows for novel critical approaches for each work. For a few examples of my favorites: Red Dead Redemption becomes a highly researched middle-state work using the game as a framework to explore the historical and artistic formulation of the American West; Final Fantast VI is a deep dive into music theory and the form of the opera; Postal is a gonzo-journalistic metacommentary on the psychosis and moral panics of media society; Katamari Damacy a showcase of Keita Takahashi’s (its creator) radical alternative philosophy for the relationship of games and society; ZZT looks at DIY technology and queerness. I could feature any individual work (and might still), but the reason Boss Fight Books is in resources is twofold: The books themselves are very approachable for almost any readership, and there is a high number of use cases: If you are a student, these books provide excellent jumping-off points for research. (If you are a librarian, this would be an amazing addition to the collection!) If you are working on games, they can provide complicating pictures to stogy canonical assumptions. They are also just good foundational books for curators and arts professionals trying to come to a richer understanding of what games are and how they function in culture.
Series Editor: Gabe Durham
Link: https://bossfightbooks.com/
Disclosure: I know Gabe socially. If you read this, “Hi, Gabe!”