Fun Inc. is a little light reading

There’s a new book out about gaming, Fun Inc., by Tom Chatfield. It seems to be getting some traction in the press. From The Guardian across the pond:

“Chatfield’s open-minded approach allows games to be a window to human experience. Did you know, for example, that the amount of time a jump lasts in a game is remarkably consistent across a whole range of titles? A game jump is “around double the duration of the time that an ordinary human can lift themselves off the ground for”. Or that, in online games which could theoretically award millions of (imaginary) gold pieces and mystic swords to every player, “the most successful… emerged as those that imposed brutal regimes of scarcity on their players”? What does it say about us that, given a potential electronic heaven where all our wishes could be granted, we have opted to create starkly unequal worlds, where there’ll never be enough mystic swords for everyone?”

Chatfield is also mentioned in a Financial Times article about gold farmers. It all is a bit more high-minded than I care for, but all you games-as-art people might enjoy it. I will continue to work on my real life jumping so I can jump as high as my WoW character. Of course, Ashton Kutcher will still be able to outjump me….stay tuned for that later today.