Death by Video Game: Danger, Pleasure, and Obsession on the Virtual Frontline

Despite buying more than my share of books on Amazon, this is the first review I’ve written, as I just have to give the author props and recommend it highly to all. As a lifelong gamer (I'm 35, and started by messing around on the Intellivision as a tot) and voracious reader, I found this to be near perfection. Far more than the title and summary suggest, it provides the most up-to-date information and research on the multitude of ways in which games not only appeal to us but meet our most basic psychological needs, and their various applications. The writing style is excellent and easy to read, and the author is very even-handed in his approach to the controversial issues. As an added bonus for me, there was even a little bit on a game not yet released which I’m avidly anticipating, No Man’s Sky. I read a lot of the stuff out there on gaming and would rate this as the best of the bunch, a must for any gamer.

Delves into what is typically overlooked when it comes to gaming and the potential negative impact it has on those who become too obsessed. A great read for those who are into gaming.

Very good look at Video games especially the history of games. Touches on the psychology of gaming and the effect they have had on various people's lives.

As expected. No issues.

Why do humans play video games? Viewed from a remove, they can seem like little more than merit-less time-wasters. This can be true even for those embedded in the culture, such as British journalist Simon Parkin, whose first book, 'Death by Video Game', explores this question at length and from a variety of engrossing angles. “In humanity’s ongoing project of survival and propagation, video games seemingly contribute little,” he notes in the introduction. Yet there are compelling depths to the virtual worlds that we can explore with keyboard, mouse, controller and smartphone screen. Indeed, as the title suggests, a spate of young gamers have been so smitten by these worlds in recent years that they have been found dead at the keyboard after extended periods of play. “But we’re not going to linger with the corp­ses,” Parkin writes. “The more pressing question is what compelled these young people to emigrate from reality into their virtual dimensions beyond the natural limits of their wellbeing?” It’s a good question, and 'Death by Video Game' splits the answer into a dozen chapters, with ­titles such as 'Belonging', 'Empathy', 'Healing' and 'Chronoslip', the last being a term coined to describe the common experience of losing track of time after becoming immersed in a game. Parkin’s journalistic approach to the topic sees him uncovering an array of untold stories wherein humans choose to interface with games, to their benefit or detriment. Importantly, however, he does not remain an impassive observer throughout the narrative: the author occasionally interjects with personal stories, such as how he and his university friends regularly took part in marathon late-night sessions of the 1997 Nintendo 64 game GoldenEye 007, or how he came home one evening to find his wife still sitting on the floor and playing Animal Crossing in the exact same position as when he left hours earlier. “She turned her head stiffly, eyes hooded, as if awakening from a coma,” he writes. “ ‘Whoa,’ she said. ‘I am cold and hungry.’ ” The best of these personal interjections is saved for chapter eight, Hiding Place, which tells two stories of people using games to escape troubling personal circumstances: first, a man whose wife suffers a painful complication in her pregnancy, so the pair escapes into the cold, grim world of Skyrim as a temporary coping mechanism; and an Iraqi teenager who becomes one of the world’s top Battlefield 3 players, which is ironic as it’s an American-centric war shooter title primarily aimed at Western audiences. In the midst of these two affecting stories, Parkin offers: “I remember when, as a teenager, my parents first separated. I too found routine and direction in a video game (mine was Final Fantasy VII) when the framework of my life seemed to be collapsing.” Passages such as this point to the remarkable strength of Parkin’s style, which is energised by empathy alongside his ability to craft an engaging human story. After all, at the heart of every video game is human endeavour and all its successes and failures; the code is dreamed up by human brains and typed by human fingers, all for the enjoyment of other humans. The question of why many millions of us choose to engage in this behaviour is deceptively complex, and in 'Death by Video Game' Parkin skilfully analyses it in an accessible yet deeply considered manner. This fine book is a must-read for those who play games as well as those who seek to understand the attraction that this form of play holds for others — such as parents bemused by their child’s immersion in the popular world of Minecraft, perhaps. Review first published in The Weekend Australian, October 3 2015: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/death-by-video-game-gamelife-dwell-on-virtual-obsessions/story-fn9n8gph-1227552513870

A lot of it felt very forced. Certain chapters back up the premise but much of it felt like it was lightly shoehorned in to give it more pages. The theme of "video games let you be in control why other media is passive" is overused in every chapter and became fairly annoying rather than informative. Did not do a great job of exploring the premise of examining those who have actually died due to obsession with virtual worlds. Wouldn't recommend to fellow games industry folks.

This is a fantastic insight into the mindsets of gamers and how video games have become such an important part of so many lives, mine included. If you're a gamer who wants to understand yourself better, then read this book. If you're not a gamer but know some who rather bamboozle you, read this book. :-)

This is a really, really good book. It is full of well-written and thoughtful ideas about video games in general and specific video games. There were many games mentioned in this book that I had never heard of, or that I never knew the background details about. I encourage any self-respecting video game player to read this book. Excellent, and I would love to read a sequel.

Loved this book! Tied in nicely with the podcast "Rabbits"... which was why I ordered it in the first place.

This is the best book on videogames out there - a thoughtful and mature exploration of the effects that games can have on us, good and bad. It doesn't just focus on the effects of obsessiveness on individual players (although there are some fascinating stories about that, including an amazing chapter on Bigfoot hunters in Grand Theft Auto). Instead, it opens up into a much wider critique, encompassing things like the reasons why people turn to games as a vehicle for exploring a particular emotion or life event; the chapter on "That Dragon, Cancer", a game created by the parents of a terminally ill child, is the most moving thing I've read for some time. Importantly, it's written in a way which is comprehensible to people who don't know much about games, without being patronising or slow to those who do. It's the kind of book that can and should be read by anyone interested in art and literature generally and it does an excellent job of explaining why this artform is at least as worthy of attention as the others. I'll be recommending it to everyone.

There have been multiple cases of people dying during very long computer game binges. Sitting for long periods of time is bad for you which when combined with prolonged stress from the tension and peril of the game make for a potentially lethal combination. This book is a attempt to understand what appeal games have that could cause a person to get hooked so intensely. The appeal of the high score, the act of improving yourself, getting better results maybe better than anybody else in the entire world . Wherever it's the high score in Donkey Kong or leveling up in World of Warcraft, it takes time and can turn into a addiction but once at the top the game can become stagnant and then the grim realisation of the time spent to get there starts to sink in. The joy of discovery, of journeying to new exotic places is almost universal, but there is also the need to arrive and once there discover a place we can call our own and a place in which we belong. Violence in computer games has long been a controversial subject, is it the cause or symptom of violent society (or both)?, Is it an artistic statement or just offensive for the sake for it (or both?). "Game violence is always an act of play, not of sincerity. The worry is, then, those who cannot tell the difference." Games can show us another person's point of view, titles such a Depression quest offer insight into what it's like to be depressed. They can also be power fantasies for one side, games such as "Quest for Saddam" was modified by the Taliban to make Americans and George Bush the baddies instead and re-released as "Night of Bush Capturing "! The real world can be a unpleasant place sometimes, games can be a way to forget about the world around you and concentrate on simplified versions of the real world where you some degree of control. Games can be a form of self expression, a way of ruminating about the world, games such as "That Dragon, Cancer" was inspired the creator's experience of been a parent of a child with cancer. Games unlike films are interactive, they allow people to walk with you, to see what you saw or feel what you felt. Survival in a hostile environment has it's own appeal, even something deliberately boring such as "Desert Bus" where you drive a bus along a straight road for eight hours and have to constantly correct the bus veering to the right can be an interesting challenge. Games provide clear rules and criteria for success and failure, struggle always leads to success, effort is repaid in kind In their ordered system we catch a glimpse of a kind of prevailing justice, which unfortunately our own world with its petty and major injustices is often unable to match. Games give us a safe environment where we can understand more about ourselves and the world around us through the act of play. The jury is still out as to if they improve or imperil the world but amazing potential is there. My criticism of this book would be that it could be a bit more detailed and ultimately it did not tell me anything I did not know already but it's still a good read on the subject

I purchased this book last year, as I was writing a thesis on how Virtual Reality and Technology influence societies behavior and ethos. This book was an interesting, at times dark insight into the reality that we live in today with gaming. This book really helped me with my research on human behavior and consequences of technology on the human life. I didn't read the entire book as there were sections of the book that had no interest to me for my thesis. However saying that the book was insightful and I did learn a lot so im sure the bits I didn't read are interesting, just not for my thesis :) I do recommend this book to anybody that is interested in future technologies such as VR but especially people who are really into gaming, mainly online gaming!

This is a great book, I would recommend it for any gamer. It is also a good book for understanding the general culture surrounding mainstream video games today and why so many people are 'obsessed' with video games. It combines Parkin's own insight and narrative with a fluidly interspersed anecdotes.