Submission + - Gaming Without a Safety Blanket
Hugh Pickens writes: "IGN has an interesting interview with Tom Bissell, author of the recently published "Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter" in which Bissell uses his experience in investigative journalism and as a war correspondent to describe his years playing games. Bissell talks about the difficulties in describing gameplay to non-gamers. "A lot of casual games sort of submerge their storytelling to an almost subliminal level while upping the gameplay sophistication. They're hard to write about," says Bissell. "Writing about pure gameplay is tough. I like to write about games that have some narrative underpinning because that's what I'm personally interested in, but that's not to deny that there's a whole other realm of games, a completely viable, great, sophisticated, fun to play game experiences." Bissell adds that it's easier for many to find meaning in the more traditional delivery systems of entertainment and compares writing about games to the difficulty in describing rock & roll to an older generation and Bissell's background as a war correspondent and traveling to regions of conflict has translated into the games that he likes that are violent and in deeply foreign places. "All of my real life interests are the same interests I have in games, they bleed over completely.""
