Ian Bogost is Ivan Allen College Distinguished Chair in Media Studies and professor of interactive computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is the author of many books, including How to Do Things with Videogames and Alien Phenomenology: Or, What It's Like to Be a Thing (both Minnesota), as well as Unit Operations: An Approach to Videogame Criticism and Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames. He is the award-winning game designer of A Slow Year, Cow Clicker, and more.

Contents

Introduction. Nobody Asked for a Toaster Critic: Doing Videogame Criticism
1. The Squalid Grace of Flappy Bird
2. A Portrait of the Artist as a Game Studio: Flow, Flower, Journey
3. A Way of Looking: Mirror's Edge
4. The Blue Shell is Everything that’s Wrong with America: Mario Kart
5. Little Black Sambo, I’m Going to Eat You Up!: Scribblenauts
6. Can a Gobbler Have it All?: Ms. Pac-Man
7. Racketeer Sports: Farmville, Candy Crush Saga, and Free to Play
8. The Haute Couture of Videogames: Hundreds
9. Can the Other Come Out and Play?: Between and Way
10. Free Speech is not a Marketing Plan: Bully and Medal of Honor
11. Shaking the Holocaust Train: Manhunt, Train, and Gestural Control
12. The Long Shot: Heavy Rain
13. Puzzling the Sublime: Orbital & Drop7
14. Work is the Best Place to Goof Off: Flight Simulator, Euro Truck Simulator, and the New Simulation
15. A Trio of Artisanal Reviews: Proteus
16. What is a Sports Videogame?: FIFA, Madden, and More
17. The Agony of Mastery: Swing Copters
18. The Abyss Between the Human and the Alpine: Mountain
19. Word Games Last Forever: Words with Friends
20. Perpetual Adolescence: Gone Home
Conclusion. Anything But Games: Not Doing Game Criticism
Notes