Reading Video Games

23.6.08

Earlier this month, Barcelona and Madrid
Mondo Pixel Vol. 1
, an ambitious publishing project that is officially defined as “a collection of books of theory and study on video games directed by
John Tones
and published by
Editorial
” was presented. Tébar. Each volume will have about 260 pages plus an independent programming supplement called
HardCode
, and its periodicity will be semi-annual” and unofficially as “a publication with the price of an imported cult magazine.” The project looks very good, among other things because the people behind it, especially John Tones himself, do not come from the academic field but from video game criticism (John Tones writes in
Superjuegos Xtreme
although that does not imply any official link between one and another publishing project) and at the same time they show interest, sensitivity and knowledge to analyze and understand video games as relevant cultural products. Finally, say that the publication is born from a blog (a process that is starting to happen often…), so that Mondo Pixel (the blog) is prior to Mondo Pixel (the publication).

The launch of Mondo Pixel is doubly news since literature on video games in Spain is not abundant (beyond specialized commercial magazines) and this year it seems that things are improving since another monograph already appeared, this one online, published by the UOC in the magazine
ArtNodes
and titled ”

Playability: art, video games and culture

“, which is added to the catalogs of the exhibitions ”

De-game

” in the
MEIAC
and “

Gameworld

” in
Laboral
, in addition to the monograph “
Game as critic as art
” published by the magazine
a:minima
.