Indie Street Reads #41 • 08/14/10
EXTRA LIVES
PANTHEON
What an entertaining book. Tom Bissell’s Extra Lives is everything this nerd could want from a book on video games. While managing to avoid the Bogost-trap of delving into socio-political forms, Bissell makes reading about video games interesting and involved. Here, the author is concerned much more about how video games matter aesthetically. In a highly-detailed, autobiographical approach, Bissell examines games on a case-by-case basis to try to describe to both fans and critics that there is some intellectual worth to the best developed games. At some point during each chapter, it seems like you’re reading a lengthy review of each of the ‘spotlighted’ games: Fallout, Resident Evil, Left 4 Dead, Gears Of War, Littlebigplanet, Braid, Mass Effect, Far Cry, and of course Grand Theft Auto. Presumably, it ends up reading this way in an attempt to appeal to non-gamers, but it doesn’t leave seasoned vets wanting more. Detailed accounts of emotional connections to characters and environments left me nodding my head in solidarity. It was like reminiscing about ‘old times’ with a good friend. In this way, I firmly believe that Bissell makes his point. The best games don’t tell the player to do anything, the best games act as an extension of one’s own consciousness thereby effecting a virtual environment while achieving some sort of emotional or intellectual resonance. Total thumbs up for gamers like Eric and myself, but also for those who dwell a lot on seeing video games as just something that lazy fat aggro- kids do.
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What To Listen To While Reading This Book:
The Music That You’re Supposed To Be Reviewing For Episode 302
