Bros, Matt Barton's Book

I know many of your are familiar with Matt from his "Matt Chat." Yet, have any of you checked out his book called Dungeons and Desktops: The History of Computer Role-playing Games, where he attempts to write a history of crpgs? IF So, what do you all think? I just checked it out of my library and am going to start reading it now, so will comment soon.​

Side-note, people tell me that J_C fella is Matt in disguise , so hopefully he does not come here and start praising and or defending the book, that would be really awkward.

 

J_C is currently working on a Hungarian translation of that book.

 

As much as I like J_C, I don't see the point of that book, which looks like a series of brief facts on RPGs. Some reviewers on Amazon say that you don't get more out of them than reading the Wikipedia articles about them.

His videos are more worthwhile because they contain interviews with the actual people who made them and give us some inside information.

 

THE BOOK IS AWESOME!!!!! BUY IT!!!!!!!!

I've bought the book a year ago on amazon (ebook format). It is a very good read, lists every major and even minor cRPGs (if important) and writes about them. It is nowhere as detailed as a Wikipedia article, but it is not the purpose of the book. It is about the history of RPGs, how they have been developed, how they evolved from one to another. It is not a review about each and every one of them. The printed version has very nice pictures (unfortunately the ebook is just black and white).

And I'm not Matt Barton dammit!

 

He should make a book about beer.

 

Well if JC loves the book THIS MUCH and he clearly is not Matt who would shamelessly advertise his own book about rpgs on a rpg site, I have no other option but to buy it.

 

I find it tasteless of J_C to do such shameless self advertisement. Won't read the book as there's a free wiki containing all that info.

 

It's kinda "meh" so far, work as a nice little encyclopedia, but not as much as a history. Also, it's not really balancing the feeling of scholarly with enthusiast very well, if that makes sense.


Also, he seems to mention the presence of Lord of the Rings on RPgs, but really nothing about Vance's Dying Earth. Dying earth added a lot more than the magic system to dnd.

 

I read this when it was first released - I seem to remember it worked ok as a relatively comprehensive encyclopedia of titles but there wasn't a great deal of depth to it (eg examining trends/developments, reasons for the genre going in and out of popularity etc).

 

I love this book THIS MUCH! Yes it is great, I love the style and the info, it's a great book to keep by your bed. Or maybe I'm just an information addict.

 

Mind. Blown.

This guy:


is an English professor? As in, he is DOCTOR Matt Barton?

Sorry if this was common knowledge, but I totally did not see this one coming.

 

Yep, I am he is an English professor.

 

This is very common in this kind of book, but I can't blame him. Unless he devotes years of serious research to the subject, adding info like "Why dungeon crawlers vanished" would be no more than an educaded guess, and that can sometimes cause more harm than good. Any mistake can and will spread out through the community, since "it's a fucking book on the subject, the guy is a expert, right?", and cause much misinformation. Here on the Codex we would just rage, but imagine a newfag trying to find guidance on the world of cRPGs and reading (on a expert, printed book) that "old cRPGs were turn-based due hardware limitations" or similar shit we already heard from "serious" developers?

Matt took the noble route and limited itself to facts. Better yet, he's a easily reached guy, so you can always just ask him for his take on the subject, right J_C?

 

Mobygames > Matt Barton.

 

Does the book mention rats at all?

 

Yes it does.

 

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What? He looks like a pretty standard Proffesor.

 

Huh, I'd think a ph.D. would be smarter

Oh, a state school.