Well Played 1.0: Video Games, Value and Meaning [Paperback]

Drew Davidson (Author), et al. (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 30, 2010

Video games can be "well played" in two senses. On the one hand, well played is to games as well read is to books. On the other hand, well played as in well done. This book is full of in-depth close readings of video games that parse out the various meanings to be found in the experience of playing a game. 22 contributors (developers, scholars, reviewers and bloggers) look at video games through both senses of "well played." The goal is to help develop and define a literacy of games as well as a sense of their value as an experience. Video games are a complex medium that merits careful interpretation and insightful analysis.

Product Details

• Paperback: 442 pages
• Publisher: lulu.com (March 30, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0557069750
• ISBN-13: 978-0557069750
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,270,228 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For those of us that love gaming!, July 21, 2011

By 

G. Kimball "Horror Afficionado" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Well Played 1.0: Video Games, Value and Meaning (Kindle Edition)

Although I haven't played some of the games mentioned the articles or essays on them were for the most part very good. For someone who is just a casual gamer or not interested in games much at all there probably isn't much that's going to thrill but I found it a very interesting read. Each article is different, some more personal opinions, some more objective and some very interesting theories. I have to take away one star but it's because of my own personal annoyance with some of the authors. One author speaking about Parappa the Rapper seemed like she was only using her footnotes to promote her own book and not to expand on any previous thoughts in the article itself (which I'll admit was very good and I was pleased to see such a vastly overlooked gem being dwelt on with so much thoroughness and love). The other was just a private gripe of my own in that it pains me to hear people (especially people who profess to love games to the point they write about them) talk about skipping cutscenes and paying very little attention to the story (mostly brought up in the article about Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots). Yes, the game is there to be played but to me a game without some kind of story to it, even a paper-thin one, just doesn't feel right to me. The same argument holds true for players that brag about two-hour speed runs. To me that's barely even playing the game. It's just something you're hauling butt through to get it done and over with, like homework. It's not deriving any actual playing pleasure from the game itself. Well, enough with my little gaming rant ;) . The other one that annoyed me quite a lot had to do with one of my favorite games: Silent Hill 2. The author admits herself to only having played it a few times and seemingly hasn't played any of the other games in the series at all because if she had then she would have found one of her theories (that of the town of Silent Hill not existing in reality but only in the mind) patently false and the answer to one of her questions near the end of her article. Her opening statement of her theory states that James went to Silent Hill to come to grips with what happened to his wife is also blatantly false. A bit more research and playtime than she obviously put in would have gone a long way towards making her article a bit better. I did agree with some of her theories, just as I agreed with them way back in 2004 when some friends and I were talking about it and came up with quite a few of the same metaphors. She only mentions 3 of the 6 different endings you can get. I won't fault her for leaving out two of them because they are, as she states, joke endings. But one that she leaves out is not and it seems like she left it out either because she didn't know about it (which is slightly shoddy work in this day when even if you don't have a strategy book a quick stop at just about any game website will do the trick) or because it didn't fit into her theory so it was best ignored.

It was refreshing to read a book where the games are talked about with great detail and love for the games (for the most part). It was also nice to read about them in an intelligent way as well. I never once got the impression that I was being talked down to or got a hint of condescension. I never got the feeling they were thinking "Well, we better make this easy to understand because we all know gamers are not intelligent and can't understand words of more than one syllable". You'd be surprised how many people do think that because a persone plays video games their minds are slush. So I would definitely recommend this for other gamers like me that enjoy reading more in-depth about their favorites and maybe even discovering some new games to try out!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Discussions of the great computer games, July 1, 2011

By 

Ed Pegg "Math puzzler" (Champaign) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Well Played 1.0: Video Games, Value and Meaning (Kindle Edition)

This book has articles about some of the best computer games.
Ico, Super Mario Bros, Advance Wars, Ultima Underworld, Bully, Half-Life 2, Zork, Phoenix Wright, Shadow of the Colossus, Civilization 4, Parappa the Rapper, Silent Hill 2, Bioshock, Metal Gear Soid 4, Tempest, Guitar Hero, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Secret of Monkey Island, and World of Goo.

The articles can very wildly. Many are personal anecdotes of why they found a particular game so good. The article on Tempest is written like an HP Lovecraft story.

I have played most of these games, and thus could relate to the articles. If you're not a gamer, or haven't played the game described, then much of the discussions might not be meaningful.