Alyanorne reviewed Extra lives by Tom Bissell
Review of 'Extra lives' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
This book is an exploration of what video games are, what they aren't, and what they may or may not become. It focuses mainly on first-person shooter games, which seem to be a favorite of Mr. Bissell. It reads like series of essays, and would have done well serialized in a magazine like "Wired." The most interesting reoccurring theme is whether or not narrative is interesting in video games, and how it should be presented. Fantastic games like Tetris have basically no plot. Some like Donkey Kong have simplistic contrived story lines that don't affect the game at all, really. Those are both very successful games. But now we have RPGs and games like Halo with tied in stories and world building. Bissell explores whether story is necessary, and if it is, how should it be presented. Cutscenes? NPC dialogue? Choose your own adventure style where your responses to questions …
This book is an exploration of what video games are, what they aren't, and what they may or may not become. It focuses mainly on first-person shooter games, which seem to be a favorite of Mr. Bissell. It reads like series of essays, and would have done well serialized in a magazine like "Wired." The most interesting reoccurring theme is whether or not narrative is interesting in video games, and how it should be presented. Fantastic games like Tetris have basically no plot. Some like Donkey Kong have simplistic contrived story lines that don't affect the game at all, really. Those are both very successful games. But now we have RPGs and games like Halo with tied in stories and world building. Bissell explores whether story is necessary, and if it is, how should it be presented. Cutscenes? NPC dialogue? Choose your own adventure style where your responses to questions choose the story path? And what makes a good story? What things create emotional responses in players?
Bissell does not come to a whole lot of conclusions (or maybe I'm just too ESTJ and can't read between the lines?). There is a kind of two paragraph sum up in the last chapter, but it was awfully pat considering what had been going on in this chapter. It features Grand Theft Auto, and he draws parallels between video gaming and some unsavory behavior that video game critics were probably thrilled to use as ammo in their anti-gaming tirades. I think everyone should evaluate their own relationship to video games, as they can be abused, but his conclusion in this chapter would make me turn away from video games altogether, if I didn't already know better.
So...worth reading? Maybe. Lots of interesting experiences and behind the scenes looks at video games are given. But it isn't about "why video games matter" as the title would lead one to believe. If the book is intended to convince me of something, I'm not sure what that would be. It also doesn't really fill a lot of other categories it could: video game history, explanation of categories of video games, etc. Really, it is just open ended commentary on video games Bissell played, knows about, or found out about, and what his experiences were.
