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2018 Reading: Miscellany


On 01/21/2019 at 04:44 PM by daftman

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We've talked about novels and those books with visuals. Now there is just clean up. Early last year I read Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, which tells the development stories for a bunch of games like Destiny, The Witcher 3, and Stardew Valley. I love stuff like this and the book did not disappoint. Definitely look it up if you're into the real world side of game development. Something I actually did blog about last year is Empires of EVE, a history of the first few years of EVE Online. I've never played that game and have no real desire to, but the history of what happened was still remarkedly compelling. The second volume is supposed to come out this May and I am excited to see what happened next.

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels

I read one of Neil Gaiman's short story collections, Trigger Warning, and it was a really solid collection. It's not like every story blew my socks off but there were quite a few that did and no duds in the line up. One story in particular gave me physical chills as I realized what was going on. Finally, wrapping up this recollection of last year, I read Brave New World Revisited, in which the author of Brave New World came back 26 years later to explain why his dystopian vision of the future was possible—perhaps even probable—and what steps the world had taken in that direction. It's a little out of date now but it was interesting to see the author's reasoning and to learn how far our understanding of human psychology and drug use had come even by 1958, when it was first published. The discussion of propoganda, however, felt as spot on and relevant as ever.

That wraps up my 2018 reading. Will I be able to keep pace with that in 2019? I don't know. It's a tough act to follow but I'm going to try. Thanks for reading!


 

Comments

Super Step Contributing Writer

01/21/2019 at 06:06 PM

Damn. All of these sound incredibly interesting! I for one would also like more game development documentaries. There's an excellent one about the making of Dead Space on YouTube now. Never played those games, but I love hearing the inspiration behind them as both a gamer and cinephile. 

Your vagueness on the Gaiman novel has me curious and I want to read BNW: Revisited despite never being a big fan of that novel. Also want to read the Utopian novel it apparently satirized, if I'm remembering correctly. 

Edit: Huxley said it was a parody of H.G. Wells novels like Men Like Gods and A Modern Utopia. 

daftman

01/22/2019 at 11:35 AM

Ooh, I like Dead Space a lot. Maybe I'll look that doculmentary up.

Super Step Contributing Writer

01/22/2019 at 05:44 PM

Matt Snee Staff Writer

01/22/2019 at 11:03 AM

I didn't read many nonfiction books last year, but I'm definitely going to change that this year. I'm trying to double my intake of books, and so far it's working. 

daftman

01/22/2019 at 11:35 AM

I don't often read nonfiction but I probably should more often.

KnightDriver

01/22/2019 at 10:55 PM

I'm getting a taste of what IT work is like in my classes. Making games is cool but I don't know about all that coding. I think it's interesting but I ask myself, can I get into it that much. Those guys work some crazy hours. I know it's a labor of love for them, but sheesh, you gotta really love it. 

I'm tempted to read books on game development, but I get a lot of it through interviews on IGN's Unfiltered podcast lately. 

daftman

01/23/2019 at 11:07 PM

Some people can't do something for a living and a hobby, so you might be better off looking in from the outside. I don't know. But yeah, the hours sound crazy.

KnightDriver

01/25/2019 at 11:12 PM

I really want to work in a library or in a school. I'm going to start there. What they heck I'll do there, I still have to figure out. 

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