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Gamer Nation: The Rise of Modern Gaming and the Compulsion to Play Again
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About Gamer Nation: The Rise Of Modern Gaming And The
Product Description A tech-industry insider takes a critical look at the effect games are having on our short- and long-term happiness and assesses the cultural prospects of a society increasingly obsessed with gaming.The American "game economy" has become an enormous enterprise, devouring roughly one-ninth of America's entire economic output. This overview of arguably the most influential segment of the entertainment industry examines the perspectives of gaming enthusiasts, addicts, designers, arcade owners, psychologists, philosophers, and more. Weighing the positive and negative aspects of games, the author considers their effect not only upon the players but upon culture and society. What trade-offs are being made when people play games for twenty-plus hours a week?The author puts particular emphasis on Candy Crush, whose enormous popularity has left all other games far behind. Since 2013 it has been installed over a billion times and its simplicity has disrupted previous game-design assumptions, proving new games don't have to be sophisticated and graphically immersive.He also offers insights from interviews with experts on the mechanics of manipulation. Sophisticated psychological tools are used to design games that are compelling, irresistible, and possibly addicting. In a few case, obsessive game-playing has been the cause of death.Whether you enjoy games as a harmless pastime or are suspicious of their effects on the quality of your family's life, you'll want to read this wide-ranching exploration of the growing game phenomenon. Review “In this delightfully readable book.... Geissinger suggests we take a step back from the virtual, breaking the spell of games, in order to lead a more balanced and happier life.” —Dr. Julie M. Albright, digital sociologist, University of Southern California, and author, Left to Their Own Devices About the Author Eric Geissinger is the author of Virtual Billions: The Genius, the Drug Lord, and the Ivy League Twins behind the Rise of Bitcoin. He has worked as a technical writer for Silicon Valley software companies for seventeen years. His short fiction and poetry have appeared in several literary journals. He lives in the Finger Lakes region of New York with his wife and two daughters. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. From Chapter Nine - Flooding the Colosseum The facts speak for themselves: Americans are spending more money on games than ever before and far more time watching, playing, and talking about them. The game economy, broadly speaking, is growing four times as fast as the rest of the economy and shows no sign of slowing down—its growth rate is rapidly increasing, not levelling off. At some point a limit will be reached: our economy and our time will achieve maximum gaming saturation. Where is that point, when will that time arrive, and what are the costs of getting to the end of that particular road? I don’t think it’s as far away as we think. Games have achieved unprecedented economic and coercive power. The origin of their power lies deep in our biological roots—we did not all grow up making music or writing poetry, but we did all grow up creating and playing games. Despite the size and growth of games in our economic and cultural life, little attention has been paid to the dangers they pose for our short- and long-term health as a nation. Taken along with the entertainment sector (writ large) and the four trillion dollar healthcare sector, at least half of our national economy is consumed with entertaining us or keeping us healthy—both worthy goals but requiring a vast quantity of resources. Where is this taking us? Are we destined to become a nation of gamers, and is this a productive and worthy result? Having Too Much Fun to Work The growth of gaming is an underreported topic with very few critics paying attention to what’s going on, but there are a couple of important exceptions. Recently, people have woken up to the fact tha
