{"id":132403,"date":"2023-03-12T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-12T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/#article-145615"},"modified":"2023-03-12T18:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-03-12T18:00:00","slug":"soapbox-why-arent-there-more-books-about-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2023\/03\/12\/soapbox-why-arent-there-more-books-about-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Soapbox: Why Aren’t There More Books About Games?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Tomorrow,<\/a>
Image: Gavin Lane \/ Nintendo Life<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they’ve been chewing over. Today<\/em>, Michelle reads an incredible novel about games, and<\/em> argues that books and games should get on the same page…<\/em><\/p>\n

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Two kids pore over Super Mario Bros.<\/a> in a hospital game room. One asks the other, \u2018What\u2019s the secret to landing high on the flagpole?\u2019 This is the beginning of Sam and Sadie\u2019s friendship, the centrepiece of Gabrielle Zevin\u2019s novel, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

For anyone who\u2019s tried and struggled with hitting the top of the flagpole, jamming buttons and sighing in frustration, it\u2019s a lovely nostalgic nod to the NES game. For everyone, it\u2019s the beginning of a deep friendship that will play out in the pages of this epic tome.<\/p>\n

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Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is the first book I\u2019d read that took games seriously yet spoke to a mainstream audience.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow charts the friendship of these characters from meeting as kids, to university students making amateur games, to world-famous developers. It offers insightful and funny commentary on creativity and maturity. It\u2019s not a \u2018gamer book\u2019 but a book about games; you don\u2019t have to be a capital-G gamer to enjoy it.<\/p>\n

Zevin proves a novel can champion characters who play games and can still be read by anyone. But why is this so unique? Where are the books where a character comes home from a long day and unwinds with their Nintendo Switch? (Totally not basing this off my own life). Why aren\u2019t there more books about games?<\/p>\n

Google \u2018books about games\u2019 and you\u2019ll see non-fiction books (Blood, Sweat and Pixels<\/strong>, Console Wars<\/strong>, art books, encyclopedias), and novels that occupy the sci-fi space (Ready Player One<\/strong>, Snow Crash<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

\"Disco<\/a>
Games such as Disco Elysium take inspiration from literature and literary forms, and engage players in a similar fashion to novels \u2014 Image: ZA\/UM<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Novels that weave games into a narrative, like T&T&T, are few and far between. Ready Player One, the poster child for game novels, is laden with references that are integral to the reader\u2019s understanding. Its science fiction label is firmly affixed, and it makes no real attempt to make games accessible or appealing to non-game audiences. There\u2019s nothing wrong with that, in theory. But it\u2019s typically the first game novel people think of, and this very fact means that when it comes to books, games still sit somewhere ‘else’, in an arena uninhabited by non-players.<\/p>\n

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the way mainstream media views games and \u2018gamers\u2019 hasn\u2019t changed much since the Game Boy. Zevin pushes against this clich\u00e9<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m sure plenty of aspiring novelists are penning manuscripts like T&T&T, that reference games in a way that\u2019s accessible to anyone. But publishers, like readers, might see such a manuscript, think it\u2019s Ready Player One-A, and toss it in the slush pile. Literature proper still doesn’t reflect the way games are played and consumed in real life. Maybe this is how filmmakers once saw games: a fine medium, sure, but one too otherworldly to be represented as in reality. Yet even as filmmakers improve their relationship with games (more on that later), authors resist. The ‘oldest’ medium has yet to embrace the ‘newest’.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s exactly why Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is such a \u2014 ahem<\/em> \u2014 game-changer.<\/p>\n

The literary world might hold up its strongest shield against the games sector, but whatever the reason, its defences should be lowered. Games are more popular than ever. Around 3 billion people play mobile games worldwide. Nintendo Switch sales have surpassed the Game Boy and PS4<\/a>. During the pandemic, Switches were sold out<\/a>, and our favourite lockdown island escape Animal Crossing: New Horizons<\/a> flew off the shelves. Non-gaming news articles might call it a \u2018booming\u2019 industry, but it\u2019s already boomed.<\/p>\n

And yet the way mainstream media views games and \u2018gamers\u2019 hasn\u2019t changed much since the Game Boy. Zevin pushes against this clich\u00e9. She gives gamer characters dimensions beyond their playing pleasures.<\/p>\n

Sam is raised by his grandparents, and we’re brought into this loving relationship as they care for him, guide him, and give him life advice even when he’s grown. They run a pizza place, which is the setting of Sam’s first gaming (and ‘greatest spiritual’) experience, on a Donkey Kong<\/a> machine. In Sadie, we see a child who’s concerned for her ill sister\/best friend, even while she’s ignored by her parents and forced to grow up at the ripe age of 11. Games become one of the few comforts in her life, even if she can only play for one hour a week. Sam and Sadie are more than gamers \u2013 they’re humans.<\/p>\n