City Hall > Help Desk > "Recommended" Reading

All lists are sorted in decreasing order of awesomeness.

Stuff on The Internet

• Extra Credits
  Excellent video series on game design. Highly recommended for anyone who... ... no, just for anyone :P
• Sequelitis
  Some Internet dude rants angrily about old video game sequels, yet somehow manages to look carefully and intelligently about what makes each good and bad :P Very fun :)
• The Daedalus Project
  A series of surveys and other research on MMORPG players.
• Grinding (video gaming) at Wikipedia
• Experience point at Wikipedia

Fun-to-read Fiction Books

• A Series of Unfortunate Events by "Lemony Snicket"
  A gothic tridecalogy about a mechanical engineer, a bookworm, a baby, and a conspiracy :P You'll find several references in PsyPets.
• His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
  A triology about kids traveling through parallel universe with their familiars/pets. That makes it sound cute; it can get pretty dark.
• Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
  I love Victorian era writing styles, and this is one of the early fictions on the hollow earth. Can't go wrong :)
• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein
  Just about every modern fantasy ANYTHING draws from Tolkein's representations of elves and dwarves. Also, PsyPets has a "One Ring", so... >_>

Games

• Every video game I ever played
  PsyPets contains references to Zelda, Mario, Final Fantasy VII, and even text-adventure games and rogue-likes. And that's just what I can think of off the top of my head. Some of these references are subtle; most are not.
• Mage: The Ascension (Revised Edition) edited by White Wolf Publishing
  This is the source book for the table-top role-playing game Mage. PsyPets borrows aspects of White Wolf's dice system. It is also one of my favorite table-top role-playing game systems and settings.
• Dungeons & Dragons (every edition) by various people
  PsyPets borrows heavily from RPGs, and RPGs (especially western RPGs) borrow heavily from Dungeons & Dragons. I also like to make fun of D&D, beacuse it's an easy target :P There is no shortable of D&D references in PsyPets.

TV & Movies

• Star Wars
  Mostly the original series, but I'm sure I've made fun of the newer ones somewhere, too...
• Indiana Jones
  But not the fourth one.
• The Matrix
  But only the first one >_>
• The X-Files
  PsyPets has too many aliens not to include X-Files references :P
• Star Trek
  Mostly The Next Generation/DS9.

Reference-type Books

• The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures by John & Caitlin Matthews
  Exactly what it sounds like - an encyclopedia of creatures from mythology. A hefty tome that's fun to flip through.
• Nature's Ways by Ruth Binney
  Explains the history behind the lore and legends of various animals, plants, and other natural things, for example why foxes are cunning, or lilies pure.
• Fantasy Encyclopedia, by Judy Allen
  Primarily made for children, this is a visual encyclopedia of monsters, creatures, elves, wizards, and all that.
• The Gruesome Guide to World Monsters by Judy Sierra
  Another children's book, this one provides bizarre illustrations of even bizarrer - yes, "bizarrer" - monsters, and tips for surviving encounters with them.
• Dictionary of Ancient Deities by Patricia Turner & Charles Russell Coulter
  I cannot believe how much information is in this book, not just on deities, but associated monsters and creatures.
• A Dictionary of Creation Myths by David & Margaret Leeming
  I've had a lot of fun reading this one, and writing creation "myths" of my own :)
• A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology by James MacKillop
  I love these dictionary-type mythology books. It's fun to just flip through and see what you find.
• Myths and Legends of Japan by F. Hadland Davis
  Contains a large number of stories from Japanese mythology.
• Sneakier Uses for Everyday Things by Cy Tymony
  Instructions on how to make everything from metal detectors to hidden pockets for your coat.
• Alchemy & Mysticism by Alexander Roob
  Contains countless pictures from alchemy, Masonry, the bible, and other arcane things, with bits of text about them. Not so good for reading straight through, but can be fun to flip through and go "ooh, what's that picture all about?"
• The History of Atlantis by Lewis Spence
  This book is a little boring to read, but there's a lot of information on Atlantis, and other things believed to now reside in the hollow earth.
• The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries & Jack Trout
  Probably not the most entertaining on this list >_> But there were some interesting ideas here.