Lost in a good game
why we play video games and what they can do for us

'Etchells writes eloquently ... A heartfelt defence of a demonised pastime' The Times 'Once in an age, a piece of culture comes along that feels like it was specifically created for you, the beats and words and ideas are there because it is your life the creator is describing. Lost In A Good Game is exactly that. It will touch your heart and mind. And even if Bowser, Chun-li or Q-Bert weren't crucial parts of your youth, this is a flawless victory for everyone' Adam Rutherford When Pete Etchells was 14, his father died from motor neurone disease. In order to cope, he immersed himself in a virtual world - first as an escape, but later to try to understand what had happened. Etchells is now a researcher into the psychological effects of video games, and was co-author on a recent paper explaining why WHO plans to classify ‘game addiction’ as a danger to public health are based on bad science and (he thinks) are a bad idea. In this, his first book, he journeys through the history and development of video games - from Turing’s chess machine to mass multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft- via scientific study, to investigate the highs and lows of playing and get to the bottom of our relationship with games - why we do it, and what they really mean to us. At the same time, Lost in a Good Game is a very unusual memoir of a writer coming to terms with his grief via virtual worlds, as he tries to work out what area of popular culture we should classify games (a relatively new technology) under.

Intro -- Title Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Prologue -- 1: Dragons and demons -- 2: A brief history of early video games -- 3: Why do we play video games? -- 4: Control and imagination -- 5: A brief interlude -- 6: Are violent video games bad for us? -- 7: Moral panics -- 8: Are video games addictive? -- 9: Screen time -- 10: Immersion and virtual reality -- 11: Wayfaring and wayfinding -- 12: Digital spectator sports -- 13: Loss -- Acknowledgements -- Bibliography -- About the Author -- Copyright.