An informed, well-balanced report on the video game industry’s passions and pitfalls.
The inside scoop on the cutthroat competitiveness that saturates the world of video game creation and production.
After examining the integration of art and science in video games in his debut, Blood, Sweat, and Pixels (2017), Schreier directs his focus toward the volatility of the businesses through which they are created and sold. The author recognizes that such an industry doesn’t generate $150 billion in global revenue without its share of defeats and melodrama (as evidenced in the elaborate, rocky-road profile of lifelong gaming designer Warren Spector), but it’s often at the expense of the industry’s underappreciated designers. Schreier questions why such a lucrative business model fails to provide more stable employment for its content creators, as abruptly terminated employees scramble for replacement opportunities or drop out of the industry altogether. Through firsthand interviews with veteran game designers, Schreier presents varying perspectives on how the industry’s instability consistently leaves developers and designers stranded. The author scrutinizes the consistent challenges caused by studio shutdowns, which directly affect how and where designers live. He also charts the tempestuous histories of early platform games like Disney’s heroic adventure series “Epic Mickey” as well as more interactive, online role-playing games such as the dystopian “feast of sights and sounds” BioShock series, from now-defunct Boston-based Irrational Games. Schreier fair-mindedly counters his industry criticism with success stories of game designers who turned their initial misfortune into opportunities for collaborative endeavors and independent entrepreneurialism. Both seasoned gamers and neophytes will learn a great amount of history, insight, and insider detail about an ever evolving business that, to Schreier, continues to put out sophisticated products “created in the shadow of corporate ruthlessness.” The author offers further perspective via the epilogue. “As I wrote this book between 2018 and 2021,” he writes, “more than a dozen video game studios shut down.”
An informed, well-balanced report on the video game industry’s passions and pitfalls.Pub Date: May 11, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5387-3549-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
A satisfyingly heartfelt tribute to a thoroughly remarkable man.
Investigative reporter Franklin recounts the life of the free-spirited millionaire entrepreneur who used his fabulous wealth in the fight to save nature.
One constant in the epic life of North Face founder Doug Tompkins (1943-2015) was his enduring love of the outdoors. The son of a successful antiques dealer, he grew up in the countryside of Millbrook, New York (Timothy Leary was a neighbor), where he cultivated his love of the natural world. His contrarian ways eventually led to his expulsion from high school just weeks before graduation. Tompkins headed West, where he baled hay in Montana, raced Olympic skiers in the Rockies, and took up rock climbing in California. He also “hitchhiked by airplane throughout South America.” Tompkins ended up in San Francisco, where, by the mid-1960s, the skiing and climbing supplies business he started with the help of Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard suddenly began to boom. He was a charismatic businessman, and every one of his ventures after that—from his wife’s Plain Jane dress company to his own Esprit clothing brand—was successful. But his Midas touch never changed his passion for travel and adventure—e.g., flying his Cessna, sometimes with his family, but often, to the detriment of his marriage, solo. In the early 1990s, Tompkins bought property in southern Chile and fell in love with its pristine beauty. His outrage over the resource extraction–based nature of the Chilean government’s policies fueled his desire to protect the land. In the years that followed, he became an outspoken, sometimes reviled conservationist dedicated to using his fortune to transform thousands of acres of Patagonia into national parks. The great strengths of this timely, well-researched book lie not just in the author’s detailed characterization of Tompkins’ complex personality, but also in the celebration of his singularly dynamic crusade to save the environment.
A satisfyingly heartfelt tribute to a thoroughly remarkable man.Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-296412-0
Page Count: 336
Publisher: HarperOne
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
More uncommonly sensible investment guidance from a master of the game. Drawing on his experience at Fidelity's Magellan Fund, a high- profile vehicle he quit at age 46 in 1990 after a spectacularly successful 13-year tenure as managing director, Lynch (One Up on Wall Street, 1988) makes a strong case for common stocks over bonds, CDs, or other forms of debt. In breezy, anecdotal fashion, the author also encourages individuals to go it alone in the market rather than to bank on money managers whose performance seldom justifies their generous compensation. With the caveat that there's as much art as science to picking issues with upside potential, Lynch commends legwork and observation. ``Spending more time at the mall,'' he argues, invariably is a better way to unearth appreciation candidates than relying on technical, timing, or other costly divining services prized by professionals. The author provides detailed briefings on how he researches industries, special situations, and mutual funds. Particularly instructive are his candid discussions of where he went wrong as well as right in his search for undervalued securities. Throughout the genial text, Lynch offers wry, on-target advisories under the rubric of ``Peter's Principles.'' Commenting on the profits that have accrued to those acquiring shares in enterprises privatized by the British government, he notes: ``Whatever the Queen is selling, buy it.'' In praise of corporate parsimony, the author suggests that, ``all else being equal, invest in the company with the fewest photos in the annual report.'' Another bull's-eye for a consummate pro, with appeal for market veterans and rookies alike. (Charts and tabular material— not seen.)
Pub Date: March 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-671-75915-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1993
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