Games And Books Getting Along

The Guardian and Wired are taking a look at the connections between books and games this week. The Guardian's Games Blog has a look at games in literature. Wired, on the other side of the coin, has a look at books written in gaming worlds. From the Wired article: "Sam Fisher is, of course, the hero of the Splinter Cell video game. I've spent countless hours using my Xbox controller to sneak him past armed guards, scale walls and club enemies unconscious. But I didn't know much about his personal life until I wandered into an airport bookstore recently and encountered Splinter Cell -- the novel. That's right: the novel. In the last few years, publishers have taken a cue from the booming world of fan fiction and have begun commissioning novels based on famous games. It's now such a successful cottage industry that when you wander into any Barnes & Noble, there are shelves groaning under the weight of books written from Resident Evil, Halo, Tomb Raider and MechWarrior."

Comments

Splinter Cell books?

[hunterx11]

Wouldn't you rather just read an actual Tom Clancy novel?

Re:Gaming Literature

[KevinKnSC]

You're ignoring the possibility of a novelization of said movie.

After reading Doom the Novel

[Dark Paladin]

I read Doom. The first two books. Where I learned that the Mormon church has a secret army of tanks underneath the Temple to defend themselves against the combined armies of Hell and the IRS.

After getting that far, "groaning" is certainly the right word I'd used to describe it.

Re:Gaming Literature

[DavidTC]

This is because the human brain is programmed with filters so we don't go worrying about absurd things all the time.

For example, when we step out of bed in the morning, we do not consider we may have been magically teleported into 'walking on the ceiling' land, and are about to fall eight feet to the ceiling.

Or when when we sit down in front of the TV, we do not consider that may not be our TV at all, but a giant maneating ferret posing as our TV waiting for us to sit down.

Or when we talk about possible novels made in the future, we do not consider that some people may have decided to make a novel out of the Super Mario Brother's movie.