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Extra Lives
- Why Video Games Matter
- Narrated by: Tom Bissell
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
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Publisher's summary
Tom Bissell is a prizewinning writer who published three widely acclaimed books before the age of 34. He is also an obsessive gamer who has spent untold hours in front of his various video game consoles, playing titles such as Far Cry 2, Left 4 Dead, BioShock, and Oblivion for, literally, days. If you are reading this copy, the same thing can probably be said of you, or of someone you know.
Until recently, Bissell was somewhat reluctant to admit to his passion for games. In this, he is not alone. Millions of adults spend hours every week playing video games, and the industry itself now reliably outearns Hollywood. But the wider culture seems to regard video games as, at best, well-designed if mindless entertainment.
Extra Lives is an impassioned defense of this assailed and misunderstood art form. Bissell argues that we are in a golden age of gaming - but he also believes games could be even better. He offers a fascinating and often hilarious critique of the ways video games dazzle and, just as often, frustrate. Along the way, we get firsthand portraits of some of the best minds (Jonathan Blow, Clint Hocking, Cliff Bleszinski, Peter Molyneux) at work in video game design today, as well as a shattering and deeply moving final chapter that describes, in searing detail, Bissell’s descent into the world of Grand Theft Auto IV, a game whose themes mirror his own increasingly self-destructive compulsions.
Blending memoir, criticism, and first-rate reportage, Extra Lives is like no other work on the subject ever published. Whether you love video games, loathe video games, or are merely curious about why they are becoming the dominant popular art form of our time, Extra Lives is required listening.
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From a veteran culture writer and modern movie expert, a celebration and analysis of the movies of 1999 - arguably the most groundbreaking year in American cinematic history.
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Like talking about movies with a friend
- By Shawn Inmon on 05-30-19
By: Brian Raftery
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- Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
- By: Robert McKee
- Narrated by: Robert McKee
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Abridged
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Robert McKee's screenwriting workshops have earned him an international reputation for inspiring novices, refining works in progress, and putting major screenwriting careers back on track. Quincy Jones, Diane Keaton, Gloria Steinem, Julia Roberts, John Cleese, and David Bowie are just a few of his celebrity alumni. Writers, producers, development executives, and agents all flock to his lecture series, praising it as a mesmerizing and intense learning experience.
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Only 5 Chapters
- By Stephen Buck on 02-15-11
By: Robert McKee
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The Horror of It All
- One Moviegoer’s Love Affair with Masked Maniacs, Frightened Virgins, and the Living Dead…
- By: Adam Rockoff
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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The Horror of It All is a memoir from the front lines of the industry that dissects (and occasionally defends) the hugely popular phenomenon of scary movies. Author Adam Rockoff traces the highs and lows of the horror genre through the lens of his own obsessive fandom, born in the aisles of his local video store and nurtured with a steady diet of cable trash.
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Great book, if you were a teen in the 80's
- By Lila Fowler on 10-02-15
By: Adam Rockoff
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Doctor Who
- A History
- By: Alan Kistler
- Narrated by: Alan Kistler
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Premiering the day after the JFK assassination, Doctor Who humbly launched one of the entertainment world's first super-brands. We begin with a look at TV programming of the day and the original pitch documents before delving into the Daleks, which almost didn't make the cut but inspired many monsters to follow. After three years, First Doctor William Hartnell left, prompting the BBC to recast their hit rather than end it, giving us the first "regeneration" and making TV history.
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Not a Good Reference, a Good Springboard
- By SAMA on 12-16-13
By: Alan Kistler
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The Stephen King Companion
- Four Decades of Fear from the Master of Horror
- By: George Beahm
- Narrated by: Fleet Cooper, Claire Christie
- Length: 24 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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The Stephen King Companion is an authoritative look at horror author King's personal life and professional career, from Carrie to The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. King expert George Beahm, who has published extensively about Maine's main author, is your seasoned guide to the imaginative world of Stephen King, covering his varied and prodigious output: juvenalia, short fiction, limited edition books, best-selling novels, and film adaptations.
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A Kingopedia: Books, Movies, Bio and Art
- By tru britty on 02-28-16
By: George Beahm
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Age of Cage
- Four Decades of Hollywood Through One Singular Career
- By: Keith Phipps
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Nicolas Cage is many things, but love him, or laugh at him, there's no denying two things: You've seen one of his many films, and you certainly know his name. But who is he, really, and why has his career endured for over 40 years, with more than a hundred films, and birthed a million memes? Age of Cage is a smart, beguiling book about the films of Nicolas Cage and the actor himself, as well as a sharp-eyed examination of the changes that have taken place in Hollywood over the course of his career.
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Excellent filmography of a successful career
- By Pamela Plimpton on 04-04-22
By: Keith Phipps
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Space Odyssey
- Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece
- By: Michael Benson
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 17 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Regarded as a masterpiece today, 2001: A Space Odyssey received mixed reviews. Despite the success of Dr. Strangelove, director Stanley Kubrick wasn't yet recognized as a great filmmaker, and 2001 was radically innovative, with little dialogue and no strong central character. Author Michael Benson explains how 2001 was made, telling the story primarily through the two people most responsible for the film, Kubrick and science fiction legend Arthur C. Clarke. Benson interviewed Clarke many times, and has also spoken at length with Kubrick's widow, Christiane.
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A Book Wholly Equal to its Subject
- By Reggie on 04-17-19
By: Michael Benson
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Save the Cat!
- The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need
- By: Blake Snyder
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Here's what started the phenomenon: This book has been a best seller for over 15 years and has been used by screenwriters around the world! Blake Snyder tells all in this fast, funny, and candid look inside the movie business. Save the Cat is just one of many ironclad rules for making your ideas more marketable and your script more satisfying.
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Don't waste your time
- By Amazon Customer on 02-05-20
By: Blake Snyder
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Rebel
- My Life Outside the Lines
- By: Nick Nolte
- Narrated by: Nick Nolte, Christian Baskous
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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In a career spanning five decades, Nick Nolte has endured the rites of Hollywood celebrity. Rising from obscurity to leading roles and Oscar nominations, he has been both celebrated and vilified in the media; survived marriages, divorces, and a string of romances; was named the "Sexiest Man Alive" by People magazine; and suffered public humiliation over his drug and alcohol issues, including a drug-fueled trip down a "long road of nothingness" that ended in arrest.
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Great read! No fooling.
- By Action Joe on 05-31-18
By: Nick Nolte
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Infinity Born
- By: Douglas E. Richards
- Narrated by: Corey Gagne
- Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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When DARPA's billion-dollar program to create artificial superintelligence is sabotaged, US operative Cameron Carr is tasked with finding the culprit. He's been on high-stakes missions before, but this time the stakes are nothing less than the future of humanity. Because the race to evolve a superintelligent computer is on, and power players around the world will stop at nothing to get there first.
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Excellent ScoFi Mystery Thriller...
- By shelley on 08-14-17
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Slayers & Vampires
- The Complete Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Buffy & Angel
- By: Mark A. Altman, Edward Gross
- Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin, Julie McKay
- Length: 18 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Two decades after its groundbreaking debut, millions of fans worldwide remain enthralled with the incredible exploits of Joss Whedon's Buffy Summers as well as Angel. Now, go behind the scenes of these legendary series that ushered in the new Golden Age of Television, with the candid recollections of writers, creators, executives, programmers, critics, and cast members. Together they unveil the oftentimes shocking true story of how a failed motion picture became an acclaimed cult television series.
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Too much Joss schmoozing, too little new info
- By Onalee on 02-05-21
By: Mark A. Altman, and others
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The Secret Life of the American Musical
- How Broadway Shows Are Built
- By: Jack Viertel
- Narrated by: David Pittu
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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For almost a century, Americans have been losing their hearts and losing their minds in an insatiable love affair with the American musical. It often begins in actors and reaches its passionate zenith when it comes time for love, marriage, and children, who will start the cycle all over again. Americans love musicals. Americans invented musicals. Americans perfected musicals. But what, exactly, is a musical?
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Great review lacked music
- By joseph f mcgovern on 10-14-18
By: Jack Viertel
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Orson Welles's Last Movie
- The Making of The Other Side of the Wind
- By: Josh Karp
- Narrated by: Keith Szarabajka
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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In the summer of 1970, legendary but self-destructive director Orson Welles returned to Hollywood from years of self-imposed exile in Europe and decided it was time to make a comeback movie. It was about a legendary self-destructive director who returns to Hollywood from years of self-imposed exile in Europe. Welles swore it wasn't autobiographical.
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Engaging and human portrait of Welles
- By TrevorTrujillo on 06-20-20
By: Josh Karp
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What listeners say about Extra Lives
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Geoffrey
- 06-28-10
Interesting, even for a novice...
With the exception of a handful of hours at Goldeneye and Super Mario Galaxy, I haven't played video games since the days of the SNES. Sometime last year, I saw what kids these days were playing and was quite frankly was scared. Not because of the super violence in them. But because the apparent limitless entertainment possibilities of them seemed to threaten my business - movies - with obsoleteness. I've been looking for a book about video game aesthetics and with this I finally found it. The narration is personal and casual - making me wish that more authors did their own narration instead of hiring "professionals".
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Aaron
- 07-09-10
Gamer or Not, Must Listen
Extra Lives is an incredibly interesting account of the authors personal experience with video games. It's not quite what I expected, but it was incredibly enjoyable.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Shields Family
- 08-22-19
Average but Interesting
This book was an okay book. I found the subject matter rather interesting and enjoyed Tom's vivid depictions of the sensations he felt during various moments of game play. The scope of games he reviewed were somewhat limiting but he warned the reader of this fact in the prologue and mentioned it a few times during the story.
One of my greatest displeasures in reading this was Tom's usage of superfluous words to describe things. I consider myself quite well read and commanding a higher than average vocabulary but some words he used either were so wrongly pronounced that I could not ascertain the actual word or he simply made up words using common root combinations. This would have been less jarring had he not used a string of colorful words followed by an f bomb... This just seemed as though he was trying to appear more scholarly than he actually is to appeal to some internal facet of his personality that he would otherwise be unable to reach.
Despite this, I did enjoy the book and believe it is a solid attempt and merging two genres that are usually considered mutually exclusive (namely... Art and Video Games).
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- Jeff & Janet
- 05-22-15
A Sobering Confession by a Deep Gamer
Although I am a Mmo player and don't play FPS or MA games this was a fascinating journey down the rabbit hole
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- Greg Ressler
- 08-04-22
Dated exploration of what the author got out of games
It’s got a talented narrator, the author goes through games that he’s played and what he’s gotten out of them.
It’s surprising how dated in just about 10 years this book has gotten, I had to remind myself multiple times that this was an older book written before better recent examples have come out.
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Overall
- Roy
- 07-02-10
Ever Wonder about Video Games?
First, I am not a gamer. Second, I try to find books that inform me about subjects unfamiliar. This book will inform and excite those seeking to understand the attraction of games. It will inform people with family members and friends who spend hours, in the dark, competing with others on-line.
The book combines gaming history, psychology of gamers, programming, and the development of gaming as an art form.
The book is wonderfully written and read by Tom Bissel. It will keep the interest of anyone who listens.
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5 people found this helpful
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- texm
- 07-22-18
Exactly what I was looking for
Was very refreshing to read a book so critical but clearly passionate about video games at the same time. The style is a mix, and I have seen reviews that say the personal essay sections seem navel gaze-y, but for me it was hugely refreshing to see a book that got into discussions I have Been trying to find more of in books.
If you ever feel frustrated by video games and their lack of innovation at times (especially in AAA titles), this book does a great job of focusing on not only looking at those flaws, but developers who openly talk about design in certain chapters (Jonathan blow and Peter molyneux are highlights). The author’s personal relationships with games helps ground us in why he goes on this journey in the book.
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- Proteus013
- 08-29-19
Meh.
The author makes some strong points about gaming, it's social impact, and it's place as a form of art. Comes off more like an essay and really falls off in the last third when talking about his use of cocaine and binge gaming. In the end you get the feeling that games are a huge negative which is starkly in contrast to how the book is in the first half. Is the author playing devil's advocate or did he abandon the original premise?
The guy has some excellent views on the matter, but as a book? May want to pass this one up.
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- Robert Lacasse
- 09-03-19
Was not as expected based on the title
I agree that the subject matter of this book was interesting, but the point of the book was “ why video games matter “ and the author never really wrote about this topic in this book. The author talked about specific games and some criticisms he had on those games, but he did not explain why those games, or games in general, matter; if he did I just didn’t understand the way he chose to explain it. Overall I learned some interesting things about video games but I wish the advertised subject matter was more talked about in this book.
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- Robert
- 07-04-12
Love from a Gamer
Tom Bissell is engaging and fascinating as he guides you through both the gaming industry in general and his personal experience with gaming. As a gamer who enjoys stories in games, this book was everything I was hoping for and more.
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