Videogames have come a long way in the more than thirty five years since Pong made its debut at a small bar in Sunnyvale, California. During the last quarter century videogames have become a mainstay of popular culture, with the sale of videogames now surpassing those of DVDs. What was once considered a toy for children has now morphed into what Dennis Dyack, president of game developer Silicon Knights, has referred to as "the eighth art". With this new emphasis on videogames as their own medium, separate from other established arts such as dance and film, scholars and academics have begun to examine videogames more seriously. The emerging name used to describe this area of study is "ludology", from the Latin word ludus, meaning "game". Where a century ago film took previously established artistic forms such as theater, dance, and architecture, and blended them together to form a new expressive medium, videogames too offer us something new in the form of "interactivity", being that the medium is fundamentally and uniquely an interactive one. As this new interactive medium emerges, it is exciting to think of where it will take us next, and what new forms of interactivity it will offer.

 

 

 

This pathfinder is intended for users of the Martin Luther King, Jr. library in San Jose as well as students at San Jose State University. The materials presented here are located in the King library or available online. These materials are presented as an introduction to critical topics covering videogames and their meaning as a medium.  The sources are composed of materials located in the King library, freely available online journals, and blogs and other public discussions available freely on the web. This pathfinder is not intended  as a history of games, nor is it a list of reviews and recommendations.