Robert B. Marks is publishing a new collection book of Garwulf’s Corner which gathers all his articles at The Escapist (since 2015) related to video games, pop xulruew, and other topics. The book is slated to ship on October 2016, but pre-orders are available now.

garwulfs-corner-2016An Odyssey into Video Games and Pop Culture: The Collected Garwulf’s Corner from The Escapist and More
By Robert B. Marks

INSIGHTFUL BOOK MARKS THE RETURN OF ONE OF THE FIRST VIDEO GAMES COMMENTATORS TO THE WORLD OF POP CULTURE.

A pioneer in video game commentary, Robert B. Marks was one of the first – if not the first – video games issues columnists in the English language, writing a column for Diabloii.net between 2000-2002. From March 2015 to March 2016 he returned with a new column in the pages of The Escapist to take a fresh new look at video games and pop culture.

This brand new collection includes all 29 installments of Garwulf’s Corner from the pages of The Escapist, covering issues ranging from outrage culture to diversity to the culture war over the Hugo Awards; a collection of previously unpublished installments including an examination of shared cinematic universes, an analysis of one of the most famous Twitter harassment criminal cases of all time, and the first two parts of “The Road to GamerGate,” a planned but abandoned 4-part series taking a historical look at the events of August 2014; and Garwulf Speaks, Robert B. Marks’ magazine experiment, with feature articles covering video game piracy to the history of the public climate change debate to the changing identity of the gamer – and short stories ranging from comedy to science fiction to horror.

An Odyssey into Video Games and Pop Culture also explores:

  • The effect modern outrage culture has had on the marketplace of ideas.
  • The controversy over video gaming’s first mass murder simulator.
  • The challenge of implementing diversity and avoiding the token character trap in
    storytelling.
  • The impact of harassment on video game development.
  • How we can set aside the polarization in modern pop culture and restore a true marketplace of ideas.

“This is a very exciting time to looking at pop culture – but it also feels much more like a ‘Thunderdome of ideas’ than a marketplace,” says Marks. “To be able to return as a columnist, to have the chance to help restore the marketplace of ideas we once had, to provide some perspective that is all-too-often missed in modern outrage culture – and, most of all, to have my readers meet me halfway in every single installment – was more than I could ever have hoped or dreamed.”

Robert B. Marks is an author, writer, editor, trained historian, and publisher. He is the author of Diablo Demonsbane, The EverQuest Companion, The Traveler on the Road of Legends, Garwulf’s Corner: An Odyssey into Diablo and the World Beyond the Video Game, and the co-author of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Agora.

In his spare time, Robert makes mead, practices German Longsword, plays Magic: the Gathering, and very rarely (and very badly) plays the violin. He lives in the area of Kingston, Ontario, with his wife Johanna. Available on October 15, 2016 at bookstores and online, and now available for pre-order on Amazon.com.