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terryble_pigeons's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
informative
inspiring
relaxing
fast-paced
4.25
kyledhebert's review against another edition
3.0
Yeah, this book is theoretically about games and the people who make them, but, like the best writing, it is really Ellison's journey that makes this book magical and immensely readable.
veeraptor's review
4.0
I annotated the shit out of Embed with Games, occasional Paste contributor Cara Ellison’s recently-released compendium of her travels living with game developers. I underlined quotes I found insightful and scrawled responses in the margins. I destroyed this book because I wanted to find the running thread that connected each of the interviews, or to connect with one of them on some deeper level as a struggling creative.
Read the rest of my review over at Paste Magazine.
Read the rest of my review over at Paste Magazine.
mazloum's review
5.0
Being a fan of Cara's writing, and having followed the Embed With project as it happened, it was a bit of a no brainer for me to buy this book. Cara's anecdotes as she roams the world, meeting important, often-unheard voices in the world of gaming is delightful and eye opening. We definitely no longer live in a world where AAA, multi-million dollar games rule the world. Indie games, released through various means, have carved out quite a bit more than a niche in people's psyches. Just look at games like Undertale or Her Story, and you'll realize that we're lucky to be experiencing this growing world.
And if that is the case, then Cara's efforts to bring the stories of the people who create and shape this burgeoning world to those who might not be aware of them are more important and worth appreciating than ever.
And if that is the case, then Cara's efforts to bring the stories of the people who create and shape this burgeoning world to those who might not be aware of them are more important and worth appreciating than ever.
shallowdepths's review
5.0
It feels a bit weird reading this in book form. Links are still underlined but no longer lead anywhere. At times it makes the writing feel splattered with name-dropping without much purpose. The stories feel removed from their online natural habitat.
But it's still great. The Nina Freeman section is a particular favourite of mine. And yes, I want more people to have heard of Katharine Neil (especially in Australia). While naturally there are limits on what one person could do in a year, it's both more intimate and more global than most video game discussion, and that means a lot to me.
But it's still great. The Nina Freeman section is a particular favourite of mine. And yes, I want more people to have heard of Katharine Neil (especially in Australia). While naturally there are limits on what one person could do in a year, it's both more intimate and more global than most video game discussion, and that means a lot to me.
nickfourtimes's review
5.0
1) "There are two sleeping monsters to kill before I leave the craggy beaten shores of Great Britain: one I love, and one I hate. The nearest convenient colossus is an hour away by train, looming in the darkness like a knobbled old fuckwit, grinding up all the talented people like Sarlacc. London."
2) "I am on the balcony with Increpare, whose game Slave of God is one of the most profound games I've ever played. The air is on frost edge. London is too bright to show us stars in the sky, but the balcony overlooks an old Victorian factory, and over to the right, the lights of Canary Wharf are almost a good enough substitute for constellations.
I remember the first time I looked out over Canary Wharf's jagged lines pocked with white; it reminds me of M83 and being stiflingly heartbroken. I do not like this city very much, I think, but I love that these people can exist in it. I love that they are making things. London tries so hard to prevent it. But people are making things."
3) "But days pass through this big creaking house that would never pass through a room in London; days in Berkeley are long and taste like buttered popcorn and soda water and sound like wind chimes and Joanna Newsom humming. At night, the sounds of Liz [Ryerson]'s next-door housemate squeaking in ecstasy mid-coitus are heard over the toilet flushing. Though I probably haven't been alone for more than an hour in three months, part of me loves the idea that each room in this house has some sort of noise emanating from it. Sometimes it's the sound of Liz's collection of Doom mods, sometimes it's the sharp low sound of Eartha Kitt's voice from next door. Sometimes we play Liz's music.
When the house moves, we move."
4) [Ojiro Fumoto] "I thought hard about what I really wanted to do. If I could do anything in the world what would I do? I didn't want to become the greatest thing in the world. I wanted to become a game developer."
5) "I always think of games as a document of closeness, of responses. I think this book is the closest I will ever get to telling you, the reader: for me games are about closeness.
I got closer to games in 2014 than I have ever been. I looked games in the heart, and it was terrible and wonderful, and I couldn't give less of a shit about what kind of journalism it was supposed to be. It was the kind of journalism where you look at the consequences and costs of existing in a space, and you think fuck it. We have all given something to pull the future closer to us, some more than others, but we will all be remembered if we keep writing it down and sharing it.
If I were an investigative journalist, perhaps I would conclude with my findings. I think my findings are this: Never shut up. It brings us together."
2) "I am on the balcony with Increpare, whose game Slave of God is one of the most profound games I've ever played. The air is on frost edge. London is too bright to show us stars in the sky, but the balcony overlooks an old Victorian factory, and over to the right, the lights of Canary Wharf are almost a good enough substitute for constellations.
I remember the first time I looked out over Canary Wharf's jagged lines pocked with white; it reminds me of M83 and being stiflingly heartbroken. I do not like this city very much, I think, but I love that these people can exist in it. I love that they are making things. London tries so hard to prevent it. But people are making things."
3) "But days pass through this big creaking house that would never pass through a room in London; days in Berkeley are long and taste like buttered popcorn and soda water and sound like wind chimes and Joanna Newsom humming. At night, the sounds of Liz [Ryerson]'s next-door housemate squeaking in ecstasy mid-coitus are heard over the toilet flushing. Though I probably haven't been alone for more than an hour in three months, part of me loves the idea that each room in this house has some sort of noise emanating from it. Sometimes it's the sound of Liz's collection of Doom mods, sometimes it's the sharp low sound of Eartha Kitt's voice from next door. Sometimes we play Liz's music.
When the house moves, we move."
4) [Ojiro Fumoto] "I thought hard about what I really wanted to do. If I could do anything in the world what would I do? I didn't want to become the greatest thing in the world. I wanted to become a game developer."
5) "I always think of games as a document of closeness, of responses. I think this book is the closest I will ever get to telling you, the reader: for me games are about closeness.
I got closer to games in 2014 than I have ever been. I looked games in the heart, and it was terrible and wonderful, and I couldn't give less of a shit about what kind of journalism it was supposed to be. It was the kind of journalism where you look at the consequences and costs of existing in a space, and you think fuck it. We have all given something to pull the future closer to us, some more than others, but we will all be remembered if we keep writing it down and sharing it.
If I were an investigative journalist, perhaps I would conclude with my findings. I think my findings are this: Never shut up. It brings us together."
dkmode's review
5.0
I have many other things to do right now. My laundry basket is piled higher than it's ever been, I have job applications that have been sitting open in a graveyard of browser tabs for days. I'd rather be finishing Undertale than write this.
But Cara Ellison ends her year-long Embed With Games project with the simple moral of "Never shut up", and I just know that if I do any one of those things, I will shut up, at best squeaking out some vague words of praise on Twitter and being done with it. So this is my attempt to not shut up; to give up a little bit of myself for an author who has given up so much of herself in her pursuit of cataloging and dissecting an exciting time in an evolving medium.
To say that this is all that Ellison does is disingenuous. Yes, Embed With Games is, of course, about games and the people that make them. Under examination are the people within the cracks, the ones who are not getting the attention they probably deserve. It's an acknowledgement that the games industry is simultaneously world-spanningly huge and incestuously small. It's a refutation of the canon that says that games only ever come from the United States and Japan. It's Ellison looking at the videogame equivalent of Hunter S. Thompson's crest of a wave and seeing it break forwards rather than fall back.
These are all vital things, especially as a chronicle of emerging independent games communities in places like Singapore and Australia.
But perhaps more important is how she really examines the ways in which her subjects put themselves into their artistic work. By looking at such a diverse group of people, the project drills down into how past experiences, personality, and environment all factor into the process of artistic creation. This is where the true value of the book comes from; you won't find a deeper look at the many facets of the creative process just about anywhere else.
Ellison's writing style is the crux of this. She's an incredibly literary wordsmith, adept at dropping in little location details and metaphors that lend the journey vibrancy. I read in an interview with her that she's always been a person who valued the rhythm of words, which is pretty on-point. Amidst all of this is a willingness to bear her soul, to allow herself to become the gonzo protagonist of this crazy tour, that makes her extremely personable. Imagine if HST was more willing to explore emotional states besides smugness and anger and you have the right idea. I suspect that this is partly what allows her the transparency granted by her subjects.
I don't really know what else to say about Embed With Games. My creative juices are running out of steam at this point, and it's hard to review a writer that is so obviously beyond your own level. This is likely why I have always shied away from formally reviewing any sort of writing. So here's the last word - you should buy this thing, devour it, and keep it in your bookshelf to refer back to.
Sorry, here's the actual last word - thank you, Cara Ellison, for giving me something to not shut up about.
But Cara Ellison ends her year-long Embed With Games project with the simple moral of "Never shut up", and I just know that if I do any one of those things, I will shut up, at best squeaking out some vague words of praise on Twitter and being done with it. So this is my attempt to not shut up; to give up a little bit of myself for an author who has given up so much of herself in her pursuit of cataloging and dissecting an exciting time in an evolving medium.
To say that this is all that Ellison does is disingenuous. Yes, Embed With Games is, of course, about games and the people that make them. Under examination are the people within the cracks, the ones who are not getting the attention they probably deserve. It's an acknowledgement that the games industry is simultaneously world-spanningly huge and incestuously small. It's a refutation of the canon that says that games only ever come from the United States and Japan. It's Ellison looking at the videogame equivalent of Hunter S. Thompson's crest of a wave and seeing it break forwards rather than fall back.
These are all vital things, especially as a chronicle of emerging independent games communities in places like Singapore and Australia.
But perhaps more important is how she really examines the ways in which her subjects put themselves into their artistic work. By looking at such a diverse group of people, the project drills down into how past experiences, personality, and environment all factor into the process of artistic creation. This is where the true value of the book comes from; you won't find a deeper look at the many facets of the creative process just about anywhere else.
Ellison's writing style is the crux of this. She's an incredibly literary wordsmith, adept at dropping in little location details and metaphors that lend the journey vibrancy. I read in an interview with her that she's always been a person who valued the rhythm of words, which is pretty on-point. Amidst all of this is a willingness to bear her soul, to allow herself to become the gonzo protagonist of this crazy tour, that makes her extremely personable. Imagine if HST was more willing to explore emotional states besides smugness and anger and you have the right idea. I suspect that this is partly what allows her the transparency granted by her subjects.
I don't really know what else to say about Embed With Games. My creative juices are running out of steam at this point, and it's hard to review a writer that is so obviously beyond your own level. This is likely why I have always shied away from formally reviewing any sort of writing. So here's the last word - you should buy this thing, devour it, and keep it in your bookshelf to refer back to.
Sorry, here's the actual last word - thank you, Cara Ellison, for giving me something to not shut up about.
hanbaga's review
5.0
Ellison's exhausting couch-surfing romp with what she figured were some of the coolest global indie game developers was extremely compelling. She chose her subjects well: most of the people she talks about have gone on to achieve even more success in the eight years since. She spends her time hanging, talking, drinking, playing, and reckoning.
The type of late 20-s drunken, desperate energy she exudes is something I'm quite familiar with. I wish my experience resulted in anything like the interesting words written down by Cara Ellison. She exposes herself in every way: good, bad, and ugly, and it feels like a gift to receive. (I believe the introduction uses this exact language) Now that I'm well into my 30s it reads like misguided grasping at straws twenty-something existential reckoning but I've done it and I ain't hating. In fact, I love it more because of this. The lack of measure and refinement gives it a punk vibe that I love, although video games by their very nature are so capitalistic that I don't know if it is even possible to be a "punk" in that space.
This book elicits a lot of feelings because it is raw and honest and imperfect, kind of like Ellison herself. It's probably the coolest book about video games I've read.
The type of late 20-s drunken, desperate energy she exudes is something I'm quite familiar with. I wish my experience resulted in anything like the interesting words written down by Cara Ellison. She exposes herself in every way: good, bad, and ugly, and it feels like a gift to receive. (I believe the introduction uses this exact language) Now that I'm well into my 30s it reads like misguided grasping at straws twenty-something existential reckoning but I've done it and I ain't hating. In fact, I love it more because of this. The lack of measure and refinement gives it a punk vibe that I love, although video games by their very nature are so capitalistic that I don't know if it is even possible to be a "punk" in that space.
This book elicits a lot of feelings because it is raw and honest and imperfect, kind of like Ellison herself. It's probably the coolest book about video games I've read.
frumpleton's review
5.0
A varied and fascinating travelogue that profiles mostly indie game developers (and a few AAA) from around the world. Their perspectives, in addition to Cara's own voice, give credence to video games as not just a hobby, or art, or a form of entertainment, but a way to enrich and find meaning in one's life. This collection of travel essays is the most intimate and incisive writing I've read about gaming and revealing about what drives people to develop video games.
I love Cara Ellison's thoughts on each city she visits too, her essay from Australia was especially amusing (she even went to Brisbane and visited Southbank's fake beach, our best landmark!) and her jetlag resonates throughout the work. I sympathise especially with that aspect of travel, this undertaking must've been exhausting as hell. Well worth the read.
I love Cara Ellison's thoughts on each city she visits too, her essay from Australia was especially amusing (she even went to Brisbane and visited Southbank's fake beach, our best landmark!) and her jetlag resonates throughout the work. I sympathise especially with that aspect of travel, this undertaking must've been exhausting as hell. Well worth the read.