Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter by Tom Bissell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
After reading some articles by Tom Bissell on video games, I was fully expecting this to be a revelation on the meaning of video games, with me coming out of the book convinced once and for all that video games do matter (I haven’t made up my mind yet, but then I’m like that with everything). While Extra Lives was very interesting, well-written and informative, it didn’t convince me as I thought it would. Maybe it’s because I’ve moved almost completely away from the genres Bissell prefers (shooters, open-world RPGs) and the consoles he mostly plays them on: for years I’ve shown more and more of a preference towards strategy and an erratic choice of influential, innovative and/or quirky indie games – all the realm of the PC rathen than the console. I have tried maybe half of the games he chose to unfurl his point with –Fallout 3, Mass Effect, Grand Theft Auto 4, Braid– but wouldn’t say I’m a big fan of any of them (except for maybe Braid). I can certainly say that I haven’t gone back to replay -or finish- them , for one.
I wouldn’t want to let our genre discordance influence my judgment, though. Extra Lives was a very enjoyable read and a mature, honest look at the situation of games today 3 years ago. I think Tom Bissell did a fantastic job on showing why the potential of the medium matters and how he himself is torn between realising that on the one hand and on the other “understanding why non-gamers think games are a waste of time”. It’s just that, at this point in my life, I’m leaning -however slightly- towards the latter.
The conclusion? Do games matter? Will they at some point, if they don’t now? Well, that depends on who you are and what your outlook on games is – as well as, I suppose, what your own preferred genres are.