Week 11: "You" and Me in the Wonderful World of Gameing

You, a novel by the game designer Austin Grossman, tells the story of Russell as he gets a job at Black Arts games not only for a paycheck but also to find about the death of a friend of his. It revolves around the gaming industry as told from someone who worked on multiple games himself and knows what he's talking about unlike others who have written the same thing. 

Was he more successful than others?

I don't particularly think so. As someone who has read others exploring video games as a setting for a story, I can't say this one stands out to me particularly well. It's probably a combination of things. I didn't particularly like Russell as a character. He seems like a jerk who thought himself to be high and mighty to many of the people he meets despite the fact he grows to like them. Even then he doesn't stand out much from the standard main character just coming off as annoying.

I think the biggest problem I have with books trying to use games as a setting is that video games are a visual medium. They are shown to us not with just words but moving pictures that we can control and progress at our own pace. We control how fast we get to one point or another. We control the main character. Its all something we can watch and not read admiring the creativity of others instead of coming up with the little details from our own imaginations.

In this case, I'm not sure I'll find any story about video games very interesting when I can just go play a game myself.

There is one video game story I do admit has been very successful and I enjoyed what little I've seen and read of the series is .hack//Sign. The series has had many incarnations of manga, anime, and games. It understands the idea of being inside a game and the world outside of it from the view of players.

I think I good reason I find this series better is not only because i found the story more compelling but the fact I enjoyed having to watch something instead of reading it. I had pictures to look at in the manga, animations to watch in the anime, and I got to play the game itself. Its this that I feel makes it have a step up over other novels trying to accomplish the same thing. Even with a few visuals could have all the difference.