why video games matter

I recently read Tom Bissell's Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter. It was very entertaining for someone like me, though Bissell should have added "To Me" to the end of his subtitle.

Through a series of sometimes uncomfortably personal essays, Bissell relates to the reader why videogames are such a big part of his life - and, I suppose, anyone's life. He divides each chapter by examining a different game which he feels exemplifies one aspect of games at their best. There is a sprinkling of pretty candid interviews with big names within the industry, like Cliff Bleszinki and Jonathon Blow. The book is undeniably interesting, and an easy recommendation for any videogame fan. However, while Bissell's writing is not at fault, I feel the thesis question he began with is.

The biggest problem with the book, and with many aging video gamers today, is that many gamers are looking for justification for their hobby. "Are videogames art?" "Why do videogames matter?" These are questions that may be interesting to some, and they may even be answerable - but do they matter? Does it matter if videogames matter? Does it matter if they are "art?"

Bissell struggles with this problem. He clearly loves videogames, but not without reservations and guilt borne out of a sort of misguided need to compare games to 'higher' narrative experiences such as books and films. He finally concludes that though video games do matter, issues like encountering “appalling” dialogue, despite hearing actors give line readings of “autistic miscalculation,” despite despairing over the sense that gamers and game designers have embraced “an unnecessary hostility between the greatness of a game and the sophistication of things such as narrative, dialogue, dramatic motivation and characterization," are why "[video games] do not matter more."

I feel that Bissell is missing the point. Videogames matter because video games move, enthrall, enrage, and impress millions of people every year. Video games are in their infancy. Despite being new (especially when compared to books and movies, even though I don't think that is a fair or wise thing to do), videogames have progressed in leaps and bounds since the days of Tennis for Two.

As the sometimes crass Gus Mastrapa eloquently writes, "Art can never be Videogames." Mastrapa argues that it doesn't matter if the general public accepts videogames as 'art.' Gamers are not looking for their approval, we just want them to see what we see in them. Says Mastrapa, "Those of use who love this silly stuff just want others to fell the thrill of discovery, the satisfaction of a win, the senses of fear and wonder and boredom and delicious tedium that videogames can instill. We want non-gamers to get that games aren't just games -- they're an amalgam of a half-dozen different modern forms of communication leveraged to create magic, to transport and tell stories and to stimulate the mind, heart and guts."

I couldn't agree more.

While Bissell's work is a fantastic book that any videogame fan should treat themselves to, anyone who chooses to do so should do it with an open mind, and remember that we need no justification for engaging ourselves in something we love.