They serve to make our real lives better. And they serve the purpose beautifully, better than any other tool we have. No one is immune to boredom or anxiety, loneliness or depression. Games solve those problems, quickly, cheaply, and dramatically. Life is hard, and games make it better. (...) Games don't distract us from our real lives. They fill our real lives: with positive emotions, positive activity, positive experiences, and positive strenghts. Games aren't leading us to the downfall of human civilization. They're leading us to its reinvention.
Read MoreJá falei de Tom Bissell noutro momento e, provavelmente, deste livro. De leituras recentes sobre videojogos esta foi a obra que mais me marcou, porque algumas das minhas ideias vão ao encontro das do autor mas também porque é contemporâneo a algumas linhas do discurso em volta dalgumas problemáticas do universo dos videojogos na actualidade.
Read MoreNestas férias levei comigo este livro do Steven Poole que já andava para ler algum tempo. Conheci-o através das excelentes crónicas na Edge e é uma das principais razões pelas quais ainda compro a revista. "Trigger Happy - The Inner Life Of Videogames" (2000) envelheceu muitíssimo mal, embora levante algumas questões interessantes que ao longo deste século têm sido ainda mais debatidas e, de certa forma, resolvidas.
Read MoreA noisy group of video-game critics and theoreticians laments the rise of story in games. Games, in one version of this view, are best exemplified as total play, wherein the player is an immaterial demiurge and the only "narrative" is what is anecdotally generated during play. (Tetris would be the best example of this sort of game.) My suspicion is that this lament comes less from frustration with story qua story than it does from the narrative butterfingers on outstanding display in the vast majority of contemporary video games. I share that frustration. I also love being the agent of chaos in the video-game world. What I want from games - a control as certain and seamless as the means by which I am being controlled - may be impossible, and I am back to where I began. Reload.
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