TITLE: Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter
AUTHOR: Tom Bissell
PUBLISHER: Pantheon Books
RELEASED: June 2010

By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

This book was painful, and I mean painful to get through. The last thing a writer wants to do is turn a reader off so much they literally put the book down, and I did that at page 36 of the 200-page Extra Lives.

It’s not that Tom Bissell doesn’t have good intentions, or worthy subject matter. The book is about the psychological reactions video games elicit from us, how they can be compared to other mediums like film, and as the title suggests: Why they are an important, and often misunderstood part of our culture. But the way he goes about delivering his message has no charm, no entertainment value, no enjoyment factor. This book felt like a series of research papers on specific PlayStation games, written by a man who seems more interested in going on soulless rants on video game characteristics than he is about communicating a message to his audience.

The latter isn’t true, of course. But it sure as heck feels like it. Much of the first two chapters consist of a detailed play-by-play of Bissell’s experience playing Fallout 3, Call of Duty and Resident Evil, mixed in with his opinions. He spends page after page describing certain features in the games, which if you’ve already played them, you know all about anyway. For instance, on page 24, he tries to describe some of the tension integrated into Resident Evil‘s gameplay…

“You turn the corner to yet another camera change. You have only a second or two to make out the particulars—a tiny room, a downed figure, another figure bent over him – before what is called a cutscene kicks in. The camera closes in on a bald humanoid, now turning, noticing you, white head lividly veiny, eyes flat and empty and purgatorial. There the brief cutscene ends.”

The reason he does this is to demonstrate (most likely to video game laymen) how games like Resident Evil shaped storytelling and gameplay in the industry, as well as the emotions and reactions games can illicit from players, much like other mediums. The inherent problem with this is that most people KNOW WHAT A VIDEO GAME IS SUPPOSED TO DO! Don’t waste time boring me with your Resident Evil walkthrough! If I’m picking up this book, chances are I’m at least familiar with the game. Even if I’m not, dragging me through little minute details about the gameplay aren’t going to tell me anything I need to know. Give me the basics, tell me how and why they matter, and move on.

What’s more, Bissell’s writing style is at times saturated with needlessly complex wordplay…

“…I still managed to write, but the times I am able to do so for more than three sustained hours have the temporal periodicity of comets with near-Earth trajectories..I hoped that my inability to concentrate on writing and reading was the result of a charred and overworked thalamus…”

Photo from randomhouse.com

This is the way he talks to his readers. I think it’s supposed to be witty, but comes off positively cybernetic. It’s not difficult to follow, per se. But after several pages I found myself saying: “Dude, stop talking like C-3P0 for five minutes. Talk to me like a HUMAN BEING.” I’m not familiar with Bissell’s other published works, so I’m not sure if this is consistently his style. But it doesn’t fit a mainstream book at all. Because dare I say, people who aren’t wordsmiths or writers like Bissell are going to have a hard time following along.

One mildly interesting aspect of the book is Bissell’s reminiscence of his experiences with cocaine, which happened to coincide with the release of Grand Theft Auto IV. After you push through his explanations of what cocaine is, and it’s history as a drug (I’m not even kidding), the story is mildly entertaining. But it only lasts a few pages, and is lost in whatever soulless rant he’s on about GTA IV. The one thing about this book that might have been used as a hook for readers, was glossed over in favor of something that reads like a boring blog post.

So why do video games matter to Tom Bissell? Truth be told, I stopped caring less than half way into this book. The main presentation ends with some mildly creepy words from Bissell about how he and Niko (the main character in GTA IV) had “been through a lot together” and how he “felt for him.” He follows that up with a pair of interviews I couldn’t have cared less about.

Tom Bissell obviously had good intentions with this book. Unfortunately, his message was lost in poor execution and boring writing. He comes off as the stereotypical anti-social, creepy gamer that non-gamers usually avoid like the plague. That might be the element of this book that’s most detrimental to its cause. Do video games matter? In my opinion, yes they do. But this book isn’t going to tell you why. If you want the answer, my advice to you is to meet up with your buddies, toss in a game, and have a good time. But you should probably stay away from the cocaine. I’m just sayin’…

RATING: 1/10

Front page photo by Eric Stuckart.