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Tuesday, May 06, 2003

Handselling pick for this week:
You ask, Why would I want to read a book on the history of the violent video game DOOM? And I say, It's about more than video games, it's biography and history. It shows what happened in the early 90's when computers made this gigantic leap from holding promise for business and school-related tasks, with a Solitaire game to make it look fun, to home computers being entertainment centers that finally reached faster processing speeds capable of doing more than balance a checkbook. (At one point, Bill Gates taps Doom to showcase the power of Windows 95.) The games also got more violent than ever, with Doom and Mortal Combat most often singled out in the media and on gamers' Christmas wish lists. Kushner's bio on the creators of Doom, a company called Id Software, shows how the dysfunctional childhoods of the two lead designers led them to video games, then to computer programming, and ultimately to Doom.


Masters of Doom tells the story of Id Software and how a small group of outsiders can make a huge change on our culture. Id Software came before the Internet hit mainstream, before Columbine, before the stock market went on its wild love affair with tech stocks. But the story connects all of these. For anyone who has stayed up all night to finish a video game or wondered why video games are so appealing, give this a try.





DavidKushner.com

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