As is always the case, there were a few standouts: my favorites were Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s essay on grief and Disco Elysium, Jamil Jan Kochai’s essay on seeing himself in Call of Duty, and Eleanor Henderson’s essay on being the mother of two indoorsy gamer kids. Unfortunately I found pretty much everything else intensely forgettable. There are essays that are so specific as to become universal, and then there are these, which are lovely and well-written personal stories that did not really affect me.

I really enjoyed this collection of essays! 

As with any collection, there were some absolute knockouts (those by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Vanessa Villareal, Larissa Pham and Hanif Abdurraqib) and some misses. 

What really moved me is that this collection has moved past the desire to justify video games and toward the expression of connecting with art in this new medium. 

There was a lot of discussion of grief, joy, loneliness and connection. All important and worthwhile things to discuss. 

This is the exact book I have been looking for all this time, and I am so happy to have found it. I predict I will be returning to it frequently.