As video gaming and video gaming culture became more mainstream in the 1970s, science fiction authors began to incorporate aspects of each into their work. In this examination of how video gaming and video gaming culture are depicted in science fiction, Jason Barr examines how preconceived, media-fueled paranoia about video gaming, first formed almost fifty years ago, still resonate in modern science fiction prose. This works reveals how the negative stereotypes of gamers and gaming have trickled through mainstream thought through the years and still dominate science fiction and almost every discussion or depiction of modern video gamers in media and entertainment. As a result, faithful and honest portrayals of gamers and gaming are still wanting, even in the forward thinking worlds of science fiction.