Hugh J. O'Donnell

Video Game of the Year

Written by Jordan Minor
I
llustrated by Wren McDonald

Design by Heesang Lee

Published by Abrams Image


The Skinny: 40 years of Video Game History, no controller required.

As a medium, Video Games are very recent and still developing their full potential. Jordan Minor’s new collection of short personal essays, Video Game of the Year, follows them from their earliest cultural impact, the breakout (heh) hit Pong through the market crash of the ’80s, the console wars of the ’90s, the rise mobile phone phenomenon Pokemon Go, and right up to the present. Using one particular title per year as an exemplar, Minor presents a compelling history of the video game industry and hobby. He doesn’t merely catalog his favorite games like a long-form listicle, but by thoughtfully presenting games in order, delivers a narrative of the medium’s development from crude novelty to complex narrative format and cultural powerhouse.
Minor’s writing, accompanied by short inclusions from writers and professionals throughout the gaming industry, is a love letter to the medium, but doesn’t shy away from the darker portions of that history. His chapter on Minecraft highlights both its impact and its creator’s darker history. The chapter on Depression Quest considers games’ unique ability to consider difficult subject matter via interactivity and the ugly reaction and lingering cultural damage of Gamergate. While the chapters are brief, Video Game of the Year is an excellent overview of the history of the medium, and captures both its highs and lows. I wish that Jordan had included a bibliography, or a section suggesting further reading for more specific topics on gaming history for new readers, such as Masters of Doom, Game Over, or Fight, Magic, Items.
The book is formatted as a coffee table book more than a reference or standard non-fiction book. It features wonderful and eye-catching illustrations by artist Wren McDonald, who does not get enough credit for their contributions to the book. Each chapter opens with an image of players gathered on couches in front of a TV or leaning over monitors, with an iconic shot of the game on the screen. The Video in video games is as important as the interactivity, and these illustrations do just as much work as the writing in showing the importance of the selected games, what they mean and why their inclusion in Minor’s list matters
While the illustrations are great, some of the other design choices are a bit harder on the eye. The back cover copy is printed in a rainbow font on a black background, making it difficult for me to read. The style is repeated for the book’s foreword, which was also frustrating. The interior design is broken up into multiple columns on a page, like a print newspaper. I found this choice was also distracting, but none of these choices were enough to make me set the book down.
Video Game of the Year is a smart, stylish look at the history of video games as a medium. It features a number of tiny glimpses, like facets in a jewel, of a grand and often fractious art movement, hobby, and industry. While it doesn’t dig quite as deep as it could into its many topics, it is a fascinating read, and a great first step for readers curious about how gaming got its start.