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Should we celebrate the 'serious' educational, social, and cultural value games, as academics and journalists are beginning to do? Or do these high-minded justifications simply perpetuate the stereotype of games as a lesser form of fun? This book offers an insider's view of online games and how they change us.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Review of"This Gaming Life",
By
This review is from: This Gaming Life: Travels in Three Cities (Hardcover)
Not a great gamer myself but bought this book as a present for some computer techi friends. Always have a quick browse of a book before giving it and I was hooked. Now I understand why some of my friends rush home from the pub or refuse a night out on the town to join their virtual community on line to organise space trading empires - to be part of a team of international players.
It's not only that Jim Rossignol has looked how gaming is played and affecting society all over the world but especially London, Seoul and Reykjavik. He has investigated academic research that has sought to ascertain the effects of gaming on ours and different cultures. He puts together his thoughts, arguments and comments, in an engaging and entertaining style. Truly a man of our time, proving that computer and console gaming has become part of world culture.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Eloquent and easy to understand. A geographical and analytic journey through modern gaming,
By
This review is from: This Gaming Life: Travels in Three Cities (Hardcover)
This is the first book about games and games culture that I have read, and I must say that it was both entertaining and informative. Gaming is becoming one of the main entertainment media of this generation and future generations and I'm surprised by the lack of academic interest in it. Or rather, the lack of coverage that gaming receives in the mainstream that takes it seriously.
Rossignol structures his book around his travels in Korea, England, and Iceland. In each country he meets gamers and game developers and examines the differences in games and their associated culture. The Korea section is particularly fascinating, with his examination of the effect gaming has had on youth culture in Seoul, where it's more common for youngsters to visit gaming cafes (baangs) than go out and obliterate themselves with booze. These travel segments and broken up with short sections about games as propaganda, emergent gameplay, and other topics. These analysis sections serve as palate cleansers between locales and they suit the pacing of the book very well. Rossignol's thoughts about the importance of gaming as a tool to limit boredom were pertinent and made me realise that, as a gamer, this is generally the place they fill in my life. Sometimes entertainment serves for entertainment's sake. Play has been an important learning mechanism for humanity (and indeed much of the animal kingdom) and computer games are an-often elaborate and thrilling-extension of this. Rossignol's writing is crisp and comprehensible throughout. The text rarely provides a paragraph with too much information to require more than one reading. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in the effect of gaming on society, the motivations of gamers, and some of the reasons why we play games.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant - accessible and thought provoking.,
By Harry Fish (Bristol, England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: This Gaming Life: Travels in Three Cities (Hardcover)
I was cautiously optimistic about this book; I had heard good things and had read articles on gaming sites that had been written by the author. The book did not disappoint in any way.
This is an ambitious book that raises such questions as what gaming is, how it meshes with human nature as a whole and how gaming differs in different cultures. The author obviously displays a thorough knowledge of games and gaming but he also conveys relevant and interesting observations about the people he meets and the places he visits on his extensive travels. The book is extremely well written. The author subscribes to the philosophy that it is best to present complex ideas in simple terms. It makes the text a pleasant and satisfying read. The author uses plenty of quotes and they are pertinent and excellently sourced, coming from industry luminaries such as Will Wright. I would recommend this book to anybody. It is thoughtful, well observed and beautifully written. As an introduction to the subject or as insider reading, it is essential.
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