With the videogames industry growing at an exponential rate, it’s hardly surprising that Rough Guides, a mainstream, well-respected brand best known for its travel guides, is publishing a book on the subject.

After all, the publisher’s reference series covers almost every genre of film and music, as well as more technical subjects such as Macs and iPods, their mission being to illuminate complex or specialist subjects through knowledgeable, entertaining writing. Videogames surely deserve a place in these ranks, too.

To tell the truth, my co-author Geoff Howard and I had written about games before for Rough Guides, back in 2001 and 2002, but despite some glowing press reviews these pocket guides didn’t amount to much. So when asked to submit a new proposal, we leapt at the chance to write a larger-scale, full-colour book that would delve into the history and culture of videogames as well as the games themselves.

After some to-ing and fro-ing, the contents were agreed: a history of gaming; potted biographies of a handful of creators, characters and companies; a miscellany of other info and articles; but the biggest section would be “the Canon”, our pick of 75 games that shouldn’t be missed.

Instant Classics

Choosing these was tough. Some games (Bioshock, Super Mario 64) picked themselves, but others were borderline and the subject of repeated discussion; one wasn’t even decided until the week before we went to print, when Grand Theft Auto IV came out.

When you’re faced with all the games ever made, it’s easy to be swayed by nostalgia into gushing about favourites that don’t stand up to play today. On the other hand, the latest and greatest can carry too much weight too, something that’s hard to judge without the perspective of time.

Our choices are downright biased and unlikely to coincide exactly with anyone else’s top 75, but at least the capsule pieces on dozens of other games, strewn throughout the book, along with feature boxes on subjects ranging from Japanese RPGs to Tom Clancy, allowed us to be more inclusive.



As is often the case in book publishing, it’s been a long process: we submitted the initial proposal in January 2006 and were commissioned towards the end of that year. Soon after, Geoff moved to Australia, which briefly threatened the future of the project, as did the demands of my own job as editorial director of Rough Guides UK travel team.

But thanks to Internet phone calls and online word processors, and, not least, my quitting the job to write full-time, we were able to work together almost as efficiently as we had before. Unlike the earlier books, though, we wrote this one largely without the assistance of anyone in games PR. This wasn’t as hard as you’d think, since we already owned most of the older games we wanted to write about. The others we rented or bought, a practice that wouldn’t be sustainable over the long term.

Why Bother?

If you’re wondering why anyone would write a book about games when there’s so much out there on the Internet, well, it’s because the book format offers something different. The experience of reading a book isn’t the same as browsing online, or even digesting a monthly magazine; books also last longer than most magazines and you can flick through them, or devour them cover to cover, in many more places than you‘d want to take your laptop. Unable to compete with other media when it comes to up-to-the minute info, books are instead forced to take a long view of their subject matter, focusing on the broader perspective. 

Who then, will our readers be? They’ll probably be somewhat educated and independent-minded, but otherwise hard to define. Our aim has been to write about videogames in a way that’s accessible to any intelligent reader, young or old, male or female, new Wii owner as well as hardcore PC gamer. To shine a spotlight over the entire range of what are termed videogames, without being obscure or elitist, but just as importantly without dumbing down or diminishing this massive, complex and thoroughly exciting subject.

The Rough Guide to Videogames is released August 1 in the UK; in the US on September 15; and the rest of the world later in September. For more info, check out Kate’s blog at atypicalgamer.com.