Extra Lives

I finished reading Extra Lives by Tom Bissell before it is available to the public. A friend loaned me his 'Bound Galley', which are advanced copies handed out for review. Somehow the book is cooler for being pre-release.

Anyway, it's an interesting read if you play games, but it's an excellent read if you have played most of the AAA titles in the last 5 years. The author walks through a number of his emotional moments in gaming, of which I shared similar moments but vastly different experiences in the very same games. If you haven't freed the Little Lamplighters from the Slavers or made the choice between Kaidan and Williams, then I'm not sure you're going to understand his connection to characters he simultaneously lambastes and lauds.

The writing is funny and insightful, though his more literary background does show up in an odd mixture of obscure references and detailed definitions. For instance, he explains that a bug is an 'instance in which the game behaves in a way that is not intended'. Yet, on the previous page he drops a John Gardner reference like it's immediately obvious who John Gardner is and why he is important.

What Bissell really nails is an understanding of where games really shine, the direction designers should explore if they ever hope to convince the Eberts of the world. The key is in the unique and highly personal experience of the individual gamer.

Capturing what playing Left 4 Dead feels like is not easy. But set Left 4 Dead to its highest difficulty level, recruit three of its best players you can find, push your way through one of the game's four scenarios, and make no mistake: What will go down will be so emotionally grueling, it will feel as though you have spent an hour playing something like full-contact psychic football. The end of the game, however it turns out, will feel epic to no one who did not take part in it, but those who did take part will feel as though they have marched, together, through a gauntlet of the damned.