Bissell was born in 1974, which puts him on the cusp of gaming’s generational divide. That transitional position affords him a perspective not unlike — if you’ll indulge the grandiose analogy — that of Tocqueville or McLuhan, figures who stood on the bridges of two great ages, welcoming the horizon while also mourning what the world was leaving behind. NYT, Sunday Book Review, June 9, 2010I was more than willing, though, to fall hard for a smart writer’s plea for the meaning in video games. But Mr. Bissell hasn’t packed the right kinds of intellectual ammunition to make his kill….The book scurries around like Mario, the industrious plumber in Super Mario Brothers, hopping over low brick walls. Very often it’s as dull as someone telling you his dreams. NYT, Books of the Times, June 22, 2010

Bissell was born in 1974, which puts him on the cusp of gaming’s generational divide. That transitional position affords him a perspective not unlike — if you’ll indulge the grandiose analogy — that of Tocqueville or McLuhan, figures who stood on the bridges of two great ages, welcoming the horizon while also mourning what the world was leaving behind. NYT, Sunday Book Review, June 9, 2010

I was more than willing, though, to fall hard for a smart writer’s plea for the meaning in video games. But Mr. Bissell hasn’t packed the right kinds of intellectual ammunition to make his kill….The book scurries around like Mario, the industrious plumber in Super Mario Brothers, hopping over low brick walls. Very often it’s as dull as someone telling you his dreams. NYT, Books of the Times, June 22, 2010