Myth conservation and video game design combine in this rollicking romp of dry academia! A sizzling 200 pages of virtual heritage, game narrative, and culture. Buy yours today!
Game Design Meets Conservation
It’s out! Released into the wild! My magnum opus (so far)! The culmination of the last seven years of grad school and dissertation writing!
Okay, okay, so it’s just my doctoral thesis bound up using Amazon’s print-on-demand service. But it has a very pretty cover slapped onto it. Still, I’m very proud of it. And I encourage every other PhD to self-publish their work to make it more accessible.
Who is this book for?
Game developers and heritage conservationists. Well technically, since it’s just a doctoral thesis, it’s geared toward academics. I do have hopes to rewrite it for general audiences. That said, I specifically wrote it with conservationists and designers in mind. It is written slightly more toward conservationists who are interested in virtual heritage, as that is more where I land on the spectrum. But it is written to be of use to game designers who have in interest in heritage conservation as well.
What can I learn from it?
Narrative and its theories play a large role in this book. Particularly the impact narrative has on our perceptions. It is closely tied to how we perceive history and retell its stories. That in turn has cultural impact. Though the book focuses more on myth rather than history, narrative and perception remain an important part of heritage conservation – be it tangible or intangible. As such, the benefits and problems of heritage conservation are also weighed.
Finally, the book offers a framework that functions as a springboard in the conversation between heritage conservationists and game developers. The use of myth in popular media has long and short-term repercussions, and like it or not it is an act of heritage conservation or heritage violation. My framework offers a starting point for the responsible use of myth in games.
Where can I get it?
I have a page dedicated to it right here on my website. It’s most beneficial, as you can just download the PDF of the original for free from there. The PDF best because, apart from being free, it has all the original images. I did have to remove some for the paid version. Speaking of which, if you’re really dying for a Kindle copy or, GASP, a hard copy, those are available on Amazon (yes, it’s an affiliate links because I have student debt).
Why charge for it?
Because Amazon is making me, is the short answer. The whole point was to make it discoverable beyond my univerity library’s dusty shelf. I originally set out to make it open access, and it is if you already know about it and download it from my website. I wanted to at least make the published versions affordable. The Kindle version is, sure. The paperback edition…. well, to comply with the permission I got from the lovely game developers whose images I used, it had to be in color (it looks better, anyway). Which spiked the printing cost (according to Amazon). Then they charge a commission on top of that, to what amounts to 75% of the printing costs. So I have the price point set to the minimum allowable price to cover their demands. Which means I’m earning about 50 cents of royalties on the sale of a paperback.
Any why does that irritate me? After all, I was originally planning to make it free, or as close to as possible. Remember the 7 years I mentioned? 7 years of my life sucked away and a life-time of tuition debt ahead of me? I won’t lie, that fact that people are being gouged on cost and I’m not even seeing a cent of the rankles me.
So please, just download the PDF.
That being said, I am considering a 2nd edition already. It would remove all images, thereby negating the need for color printing. I would also publish it with Draft2Digital rather than Amazon, making it available in more places AND they allow much lower pricing on e-books. So fuck off, Amazon.