Wow, so this is cool. I just got my copy of Halo Effect: An Unauthorized Look at the Most Successful Video Game of All Time, an anthology published by Dallas-based BenBella Books. Editor Glenn Yeffeth has pulled together 13 essays on the video game Halo. Yeffeth calls it the "first-person shooter that transformed the landscape of gaming."
The book purports to examine why Halo has been so successful and influential. Why, for instance, do gamers love to take on the persona of The Master Chief, who is, after all, a cyborg and ruthless killing machine? What does science say about the physics and astronomy of the Halo universe? How does religion permeate the story told in Halo? How realistic is the presentation of war in Halo?
Now, I don't play Halo , but I think the book's pretty cool -- because it includes this story, which I wrote, about a group of Highland Park High School students who created a machinima movie using the game, and it's alongside essays by science fiction authors, scientists, critics and gaming journalists. There's another entry that originally appeared in the paper version of Unfair Park: Former Observer writer Paul Kix's piece about Max Leto, a gamer who makes a living playing Halo. The book's in stores this week. --Glenna Whitley