This Gaming Life: Travels in Three Cities [Hardcover]

Jim Rossignol (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 29, 2008

"In May 2000 I was fired from my job as a reporter on a finance newsletter because of an obsession with a video game.

It was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

So begins this story of personal redemption through the unlikely medium of electronic games. Quake, World of Warcraft, Eve Online, and other online games not only offered author Jim Rossignol an excellent escape from the tedium of office life. They also provided him with a diverse global community and a job—as a games journalist.

Part personal history, part travel narrative, part philosophical reflection on the meaning of play, This Gaming Life describes Rossignol’s encounters in three cities: London, Seoul, and Reykjavik. From his days as a Quake genius in London’s increasingly corporate gaming culture; to Korea, where gaming is a high-stakes televised national sport; to Iceland, the home of his ultimate obsession, the idiosyncratic and beguiling Eve Online, Rossignol introduces us to a vivid and largely undocumented world of gaming lives.

Torn between unabashed optimism about the future of games and lingering doubts about whether they are just a waste of time, This Gaming Life also raises important questions about this new and vital cultural form. Should we celebrate the “serious” educational, social, and cultural value of 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? In this beautifully written, richly detailed, and inspiring book, Rossignol brings these abstract questions to life, immersing us in a vibrant landscape of gaming experiences.

“We need more writers like Jim Rossignol, writers who are intimately familiar with gaming, conversant in the latest research surrounding games, and able to write cogently and interestingly about the experience of playing as well as the deeper significance of games.”
—Chris Baker, Wired

“This Gaming Life is a fascinating and eye-opening look into the real human impact of gaming culture. Traveling the globe and drawing anecdotes from many walks of life, Rossignol takes us beyond the media hype and into the lives of real people whose lives have been changed by gaming. The results may surprise you.”
—Raph Koster, game designer and author of A Theory of Fun for Game Design

“Is obsessive video gaming a character flaw? In This Gaming Life, Jim Rossignol answers with an emphatic ‘no,’ and offers a passionate and engaging defense of what is too often considered a ‘bad habit’ or ‘guilty pleasure.’”
—Joshua Davis, author of The Underdog

“This is a wonderfully literate look at gaming cultures, which you don't have to be a gamer to enjoy. The Korea section blew my mind.”
—John Seabrook, New Yorker staff writer and author of Flash of Genius and Other True Stories of Invention

digitalculturebooks is an imprint of the University of Michigan Press and the Scholarly Publishing Office of the University of Michigan Library dedicated to publishing innovative and accessible work exploring new media and their impact on society, culture, and scholarly communication. Visit the website at www.digitalculture.org.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"We need more writers like Jim Rossignol, writers who are intimately familiar with gaming, conversant in the latest research surrounding games, and able to write cogently and interestingly about the experience of playing as well as the deeper significance of games."
---Chris Baker, Wired

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: University of Michigan Press; First Edition edition (May 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0472116355
• ISBN-13: 978-0472116355
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,427,052 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars PC Gaming and its Cultural Context July 12, 2008

By David Berck

Format:Hardcover

This book is a basic overview of different aspects of gaming. It discusses some cultural differences in the way Westerners game vs. those from the East (with the possible general exception of Japan). It is interesting to note the difference not only in game style preferences, but the way gamers are perceived in Western vs. South Korean culture, specifically.

The author also examines what he calls emergent gaming. These are methods of gaming and actions within the game that the designers did not anticipate. He goes on, at length, about the evolution of EVE Online and how it is the players that have largely driven that change rather than developers. He also waxes philosophical when it comes to what games mean in a larger context. Are games merely a waste of time and energy better spent on other endeavors or do they ultimately represent something else? This discussion is not very deep, but he does give reference to some other works that delve deeper into this debate.

Besides the few annoying grammatical errors, the tone is kept fairly light, yet you can tell Jim Rossignol is passionate about his current chosen focus in life. There is some good information here, but it really is best for someone who is looking for a PC-gaming biased overview of what gaming has been, is in its current state, and could possibly be. Console gaming is touched upon, but not discussed in any great detail. Those looking for minute detail and insights into the gaming industry won't find them here. But he does point the way to others who discuss his more philosophical points at length. This Gaming Life is certainly worth a read if you're interested in gaming no matter what level you wish to explore, unless you've already delved into this field.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, relevant, and well-written June 16, 2008

By Alexis Radcliff

Format:Hardcover

Right from the start, you can tell that Jim is a talented writer who succeeds in vividly describing the settings and the people he encounters in his travels to the three major cities in the book (London, Seoul, and Reykjavik). The stories he tells serve to illustrate his points and provide a vivid backdrop for his personal quest to better understand the hobby, passion, or obsession that we call gaming, a major theme of the text.

While the book is written in a way that's meant to initiate the non-gamer into the world of gaming, I think that it's gamers themselves (and particularly those of us who dissect, analyze, think, and write about games) who will most benefit from considering the issues he examines and asking ourselves the questions he raises. The most compelling question that the book tackles, in my opinion, is whether or not we're wasting our time with the thousands upon thousands of hours that we sink into gaming. It's certainly a question I've asked myself on numerous occasions.

The book is an odd mix of travel narrative, journal, and philosophical examination on the purpose of gaming (which it readily admits to being, if you glance at the inside cover). While the individual personal examples and discussions of gaming sub-culture are well-written, the parts I enjoyed the most were the sections towards the end of each chapter and the book's concluding chapter, "The Window," wherein Rossignol ties everything together and discusses the relevance of the medium from a number of different angles.

There are times when the book seems like it's trying to pull in too many directions at once or tackle too many topics in rapid succession, and much of the discussion of EVE Online in the later chapters seems unnecessarily detailed and ponderous. Even for someone like me, who lives and breathes this stuff, there's only so much I care to read about the intricacies of one specific, complicated game whose purpose in the text is to illustrate a larger point about player creativity.

Still, This Gaming Life is well worth reading for anyone interested in what it means to be a gamer and what purpose gaming might have in both a personal and larger social context. The international examples provide some much-needed multicultural perspective on the phenomenon of the universal attraction of electronic entertainment, the personal stories give insight and encouragement for those interested in striking out into the games industry themselves, and the philosophical meanderings of a traveling lifelong gamer scratch the surface of issues that could easily be spun off into entire books or academic dissertations in their own right. If you're serious about games and the culture of gaming, the read is worth the price of admission.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Good book September 15, 2010

By theman

Format:Paperback

I'm a gamer and I found this to be a unique global view on gaming and its culture from a very good writer. Sure, not for everyone, but for gamers that like to read, I'd say this is one of the best books out there.