游戏设计师的书单

这是游戏设计师Chris Crawford在其著作（ Chris Crawford on Game Design）中列出的游戏设计师的书单。制作文明的Sid Meier大家都知道，而这位Chris在游戏设计师这个领域的出名比Sid还要早十多年，可谓是大宗师级别的人物。这分书单并非简单列出，而有其理由。
在该书第七章 Creativity : The Missing Ingredient中，他说：
“阅读是一生的事业。我还记得在六年级时候读Shirer的第三帝国的兴亡，因为那是我当时见到过最大部头的书了。你不用跟我一样狂热，但要是你的书架上只有科幻小说和一些技术手册，可能你真的要考虑一下自己是不是真想做游戏设计师。
不过，你也别以为这是我Chris Crawford的一家之言。Will Wright常跟我推荐一些超诡异的书。我看了之后很好奇这家伙脑子里整天都在想些什么。Sid Meier的阅读广度能把你吓尿。Dan Bunten狂热的喜欢看书。还有Brian Moriarty， Gordon Walton，等等，所有伟大的游戏设计师都是重度阅读人士，所以我也是。”
接下来，在Education of a Game Designer这一章中，他按照不同类别列出了相应的参考书单。这个书单肯定是他的一家之言，我们也未必要一本本读下来，从中如果看到感兴趣的，就看，看到已经看过的，可以在重读，或者重看英文版，另外也是对自己如何构建作为游戏设计的思想和知识体系的一个参考吧。
首先是 系统。 他认为优秀的设计师应当对世界上的各种系统有所了解，从而利用其作为设计游戏的来源。这个和作者是早期游戏设计师有关，80年代的游戏多以系统设计见长，而人类历史，军事，外交，语言，等等，当然是复杂系统的代表，不看的话，则没有基础去设计游戏系统。
The Way Things Work by David Macaulay （中文版《万物运转的秘密》）
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond （中文版《枪炮、病菌与钢铁》）
Connection by James Burke （不是一本书，而是一部纪录片，点这里）
River out of Eden and Climbing Mount Improbable by Richard Dawkins
A History of Warfare, The Mask of Command, and The Face of Battle by John Keegan
Six Easy Pieces and Six Not-So-Easy Pieces by Richard Feynmann （三卷本费恩曼物理学讲义的简本）
Bully for Brontosaurus by Stephen Jay Gould
The Rise of West by William McNeil
Balance of Power by Chris Crawford （从思想和算法角度解释作者最为成功的游戏）
The Story of Law by John Maxcy Zane
Archaeology and Language by Colin Renfrew
The Structure of Everyday Life, The Wheels of Capitalism, and The Perspective of the World by Fernand Braudel
Writing System by Geoffrey Sampson
The Origins of English Words by Joseph tWADELL sHIPLEY
Diplomacy by Henry Kissinger
How to Make War and A Quick and Dirty Guide to Way by James Dunnigan
The Decent of the Child by Elaine Morgan
Song of the Dodo by Dvid Quammen
At Home in the Universe by Stuart Kaufman
The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin (建议读缩略版)
The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison
然后是关于 思维。其中有一些作者认为是属于文学，逻辑方面的基本素养，不看的话，完全不能忍。另外，他作为美国游戏设计师，书单里自然少不了马克吐温，斯坦贝克，梭罗等人，作为西方人，亚里斯多德，柏拉图，荷马这些也是绕不过去的。这些其他文化背景的看看肯定是好事，但也要根据自己的兴趣来定。由此可以看出，文化根底上的一些关键文本不看的话是说不过去的。
Homo Ludens by Johan Huizinga
Hero with a Thousand Faces and The Power of Myth by James Campbell
The Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant
At lease three plays of Shakespeare
The Moral Animal and Non-Zero by Robert Wright
The Pre-history of the Mind by Steven Mithen
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Language & Species by Derek Bickerton
The Iliad and Odyssey by Homer
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Death, War, and Sacrifice by Bruce Lincoln
The Code of the Warrior by Rick Fields
When Wish Replaces Thought and Why Men Rule by Steven Goldberg
The Act of King Arthur by John Steinbeck
The Socratic Dialogs by Plato (只需要看以下四篇：Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo)
Beyond the Hero by Allen B. Chinen
Life on the Mississippi and A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain
Poetics by Aristotle
The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
The Origins of the Modern Mind by Merlin Donald
The Western Canon by Harold Bloom
Touched with Fire by Kay Redfield Jamison
The New Testament
The Folktale by Stith Thompson
Studies in Words by C.S. Lewis
The Sea Wolf and The Call of the Wild by Jack London.
Billy Budd by Herman Melville.
最后是关于沟通。Chris在后期的十几年里致力于开发互动文本，所以对语言学和语言系统研究有特别的专注。
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
The Design of Everyday Things and Turn Signals are the Facial Expressions of Automobiles by Donald Norman
Visual Explanation and Envisioning Information by Edward Tufte
The Art of Interactive Design by Chris Crawford
Game Design Theory and Practice by Richard Rouse
Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Language and Cambridge Encyclopaedia of English Language by Richard Crystal
The Art of Human-Computer Interface by Brenda Laurel
The Alphabet Effect by Robert Logan
About Face by Alan Cooper
The Art of the Comic Book by Will Harvey
The Liveliest Art by Arthur Knight
The Origins of Writing by Senner
The Humane Interface by Jef Raskin
Computers as Theatre by Brenda Laurel
接下来补充了几部他推荐的电影：
卓别林的 City of Lights and The Gold Rush
希区柯克的 Rear Window, North by Northwest, Vertigo，等等
Koyaanisqatsi
High Noon
The Red Ballon
Excalibur by John Boorman