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Stay Awhile and Listen
- How Two Blizzards Unleashed Diablo and Forged a Video-Game Empire, Book 1
- Narrated by: Mike Rylander
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Release date: 05-25-16
- Language: English
- Publisher: Novel Audio
- Whispersync for Voice-ready
Regular price: $19.95
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When his satirical musings in a college newspaper got him discharged from the Air Force, it became clear to Walt Williams that his destiny in life was to be a writer - he just never thought he'd end up writing video games, let alone working on some of the most successful franchises in the industry - Bioshock, Civilization, Borderlands, and Mafia, among others. Williams pulls back the curtain on an astonishingly profitable industry that has put its stamp on pop culture and yet is little known to those outside its walls.
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- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 24
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Video games have seemingly taken over our lives. Whereas gamers once constituted a small and largely male subculture, today 67 percent of American households play video games. The average gamer is now 34 years old and spends eight hours each week playing - and there is a 40 percent chance this person is a woman. In Bit by Bit, Andrew Ervin sets out to understand the explosive popularity of video games.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Not bad at all
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The State of Play
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- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 28
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Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 27
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 25
The State of Play is a call to consider the high stakes of video game culture and how our digital and real lives collide. Here, video games are not hobbies or pure recreation; they are vehicles for art, sex, and race and class politics. The 16 contributors are entrenched - they are the video game creators themselves, media critics, and Internet celebrities. They share one thing: They are all players at heart, handpicked to form a superstar roster by Daniel Goldberg and Linus Larsson.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A mixed bag
- By Bryan on 03-09-16
Publisher's Summary
Two companies. Two opposing cultures. One multi-billion-dollar video game empire.
Stay Awhile and Listen: How Two Blizzards Unleashed Diablo and Forged a Video Game Empire invites listeners to discover the origin of Blizzard North, a studio built by gamers, for gamers, and Blizzard Entertainment, a convergence of designers driven to rule their industry.
Composed from exhaustive research and hundreds of personal interviews, the Stay Awhile and Listen series divulges the fated meeting that brought the two Blizzards together, the clashes that tore them apart, and their transformation from grassroots democracy to corporate empire. At the center of it all - Diablo, a hack-and-slash adventure through the darkest recesses of Hell that changed online gaming forever.
What members say
Average Customer Ratings
Overall
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4 out of 5 stars
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5 Stars43
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3 Stars11
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4 out of 5 stars
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5 Stars39
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4 Stars16
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3 Stars19
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2 Stars3
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4.5 out of 5 stars
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5 Stars47
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4 Stars22
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3 Stars13
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Sam Windham
- 04-17-18
Narration kills this book. I wouldn't recommend it
The narration is quite bad. The voices he choose to use... are more or less making fun of the material he is reading. I wouldn't not reccomend this to anyone...
Otherwise, the information is decent, a little more topical. But, it does give some in-depth information on the beginning of blizzard. I would rate the story a 3.5 or maybe 4, but again hard to follow with the narration.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Matthew Comer
- 09-06-17
Interesting look into the history of Blizzard
I really enjoyed this look into Blizzard's past and the original of Diablo and Warcraft.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Lynda Berninger
- 08-19-17
Great listening!
Loved it, how my favorite PC game came about. can't get enough of the WOW information.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- CunningStunt
- 06-14-16
Unique and interesting
I thoroughly enjoyed the tales of the Blizzard founders in their prime. the Narration at first seemed a bit silly but by the end I discovered I rather enjoyed it's quirkiness.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- M. Nevins
- CA
- 08-27-18
Great listen for long time Blizzard fans
The book is really cool and interesting if you're a fan of old blizzard games and I'm looking forward to part 2. The narrator felt borderline insulting with how he represented some of the people's voices, besides that he does a good job.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- NP
- 04-29-18
Fun, informative
People don’t seem to like the narrator but it was totally fine. Only gripe I have is small in that he refers to id software as I-D software, groan.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Erik
- 03-23-18
Gamer geeks will appreciate this!
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
I'd recommend this to anyone who's really into gaming history, especially Blizzard games.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Stay Awhile and Listen?
I liked the "Side Quests" and quotes. Though, I could be mistaken, but several seem to have been pulled from Blizzard's Retrospective video a while back.
What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?
I really do appreciate the author's effort to distinguish the voices, but they're REALLY cheesy, and started to annoy me. His gamer geek impressions sound like a cross between Keanu Reeves in Bill & Ted, and Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons. His attempt at a Japanese accent is like George Takei meets Ben Stein... if they had strokes.
Any additional comments?
I'd have liked more insight from the 'Blizzard South' team - most of the quotes were from the 'North' people.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 08-18-17
so many voices...
the narrators imitation voices ruin the book for me.
otherwise its not horrible. not grwat either
1 of 3 people found this review helpful