This Gaming Life: Travels in Three Cities

by Jim Rossignol

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So begins this story of personal redemption through the unlikely medium of electronic games. Quake, World of Warcraft, Eve Online, and other online games not only offered author Jim Rossignol an excellent escape from the tedium of office life. They also provided him with a diverse global community and a job—as a games journalist. Part personal history, part travel narrative, part philosophical reflection on the meaning of play, This Gaming Life describes Rossignol’s encounters in three cities: London, Seoul, and Reykjavik. From his days as a Quake genius in London’s increasingly corporate gaming culture; to Korea, where gaming is a high-stakes televised national sport; to Iceland, the home of his ultimate obsession, the idiosyncratic and beguiling Eve Online, Rossignol introduces us to a vivid and largely undocumented world of gaming lives. Torn between unabashed optimism about the future of games and lingering doubts about whether they are just a waste of time, This Gaming Life also raises important questions about this new and vital cultural form. Should we celebrate the “serious” educational, social, and cultural value of games, as academics and journalists are beginning to do? Or do these high-minded justifications simply perpetuate the stereotype of games as a lesser form of fun? In this beautifully written, richly detailed, and inspiring book, Rossignol brings these abstract questions to life, immersing us in a vibrant landscape of gaming experiences.… (more)

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Some interesting ideas but a bit unfocused. (

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tronella | Jun 6, 2020 |

This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

Despite being interested in gaming and in travel literature, I found this book to be very tough to read. The author has a style that seems to veer from hyper cheerleading to dry analysis with little to bridge the gap. I appreciated the enthusiasm but was put off by the stale and sometimes caricatured images of gamers and other cultures the author used. (

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alexezell | Aug 30, 2012 |

This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

Got this book through Early Reviewers over two years ago. Jim Rossignol is a games journalist who uses some of his physical travels as a narrative framework to reflect on his virtual explorations. I picked out the book on the Early Reviewers list because of my interest in media geographies, but also as a media studies grad student who hasn't read very much about digital gaming and has a slight aversion to gaming culture. Rossignol doesn't really follow through on the conceit "Travels in Three Cities," especially in the second section, on Seoul, which is poorly researched and based on a lot of vaguely digital Orientalist observations -- and half of the section has nothing to do with Seoul or East Asian gaming cultures at all. Also, in championing gaming, Rossignol is way too celebratory of all the ways in which gamers can and could unconsciously help corporations and researchers discover things about human behavior (along the lines of crowdsourcing). There are media scholars who would see this as exploiting gamers' unpaid digital labor, and I'd tend to agree with them. And finally, Rossignol's writing is kind of repetitive (though maybe the parts where he restates the same points in a single paragraph got edited out in the final edition) and there are long stretches of geeky navel-gazing that failed to hold my attention as a non-gamer. Still, some parts are engaging and I learned a little. (

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teaandfire | Dec 7, 2010 |

This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

Interesting concept, but the writing is a little bit dry. Didn't hold my attention - it took me several tries to get through the whole book. All in all, it was somewhat enjoyable, but I don't know that I'll be re-reading it any time soon. (

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nevermore17 | Sep 7, 2010 |

This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

The title of this book, This Gaming Life: Travels in Three Cities, is both apt and deceiving. While there is some traveling going on, and there are three specific cities spoken of, mostly this book is about video games and their culture. While I was expecting a more travel based narrative, Rossignol's commentary and experiences in the gaming world turned out to be quite interesting.

The essays within this book represent the author's own ambivalence feeling about the gaming. Not about the value of video games, because Rossignol is quite sure that video games are valuable, but as to what form that value is meant to take. One the one hand, he feels that games serve a vital purpose of being entertaining, and that the dispelling of boredom alone is valuable enough. On the other hand, he equally excited about the ways that games can be more.

In terms of physical travel, he takes us to two cities (beyond his home in London, which is the third city). In Seoul, South Korea, we are introduced a unique bubble of gaming culture, in which social interaction takes the place of vivid graphics in terms of importance. In Reykjavik, Iceland, he attends a conference for a game called EVE Online, in which a complex form or freedom and free reign is built into the design itself, so that in many ways users are the co-creators of the game.

Whether he was talking about the cities he's visiting or the gaming culture he loves, Rossignol kept me interested. While I would definitely recommend this book to those interested in games and gamming, I would hesitate to suggest it to those interested in a traveling experience, as I think they would be put off by the mixed focus of the book. (

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andreablythe | Feb 25, 2010 |

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So begins this story of personal redemption through the unlikely medium of electronic games. Quake, World of Warcraft, Eve Online, and other online games not only offered author Jim Rossignol an excellent escape from the tedium of office life. They also provided him with a diverse global community and a job—as a games journalist. Part personal history, part travel narrative, part philosophical reflection on the meaning of play, This Gaming Life describes Rossignol’s encounters in three cities: London, Seoul, and Reykjavik. From his days as a Quake genius in London’s increasingly corporate gaming culture; to Korea, where gaming is a high-stakes televised national sport; to Iceland, the home of his ultimate obsession, the idiosyncratic and beguiling Eve Online, Rossignol introduces us to a vivid and largely undocumented world of gaming lives. Torn between unabashed optimism about the future of games and lingering doubts about whether they are just a waste of time, This Gaming Life also raises important questions about this new and vital cultural form. Should we celebrate the “serious” educational, social, and cultural value of games, as academics and journalists are beginning to do? Or do these high-minded justifications simply perpetuate the stereotype of games as a lesser form of fun? In this beautifully written, richly detailed, and inspiring book, Rossignol brings these abstract questions to life, immersing us in a vibrant landscape of gaming experiences.

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"In May 2000 I was fired from my job as a reporter on a finance newsletter because of an obsession with a videogame. It was the best thing that ever happened to me." ...

So begins this story of personal redemption through the unlikely medium of electronic games. Quake, World of Warcraft, Eve Online and other online games not only offered author Jim Rossignol an excellent escape from the tedium of office life, they also provided him with a diverse global community and a job—as a gaming journalist. Part personal history, part travel narrative, part philosophical reflection on the meaning of games, This Gaming Life describes Rossignol's encounters with gamers in three unique gaming cities: London, Seoul, and Reyjkavik. From his days as a Quake genius in London's increasingly corporate gaming culture, to his encounters with Korea's high stakes, televised professional gaming culture to his adventures in Iceland, the national home of his ultimate obsession, the idiosyncratic and beguiling Eve Online, Rossignol introduces us to a still emerging and largely undocumented world of gaming lives. Torn between unabashed enthusiasm and optimism about the future of gaming and lingering doubts about whether games are just a waste of time, This Gaming Life also raises important questions about this new and vital cultural form. Should we celebrate the "serious" educational, social, and cultural value games, as academics and journalists are beginning to do? Or do these high-minded justifications simply perpetuate the stereotype of games as a lesser form of fun? Could it be that the true value of games lies in their ability to stave off boredom? In this beautifully written, richly detailed, and inspiring book, Rossignol brings these abstract questions to life, immersing us in a vibrant landscape of gaming experiences.
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