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A review by telthor
The Tetris Effect: The Game that Hypnotized the World by Dan Ackerman
3.0
Ehhhhh. It's a 2.5 stars, and I'm being generous with a third star because I like the topic.
It's a fine review of the history of a video game. Sure. But the way it's written and edited is bizarre. It doesn't know if its audience is millennials interested in the game, or the first generations that played the game and want the backstory. It repeats itself a lot--perhaps assuming I was reading the book out of order? Why else would it do that? It has to relate a lot back to the Internet or smartphones or Candy Crush--"microtransactions weren't a thing like they are now." yeah, got it, no need to waste time on that, sir. The weird gray boxes that show up periodically are like snippets of trivia ripped from Wikipedia, with zero bearing on the chapter around them, making them feel like last second additions to spice up the otherwise unfortunately dull writing style. Except when he gets to flex his narrative skills in the Russian Heist sequence toward the end, which is actually pretty neat to read.
The history itself is interesting. Seeing Russia from that angle is worthwhile, especially regarding the creator, and I know all about Nintendo's backstabbery and goodness from other history books. So it's well worth your time there.
But it meanders too much, tries to cover too much, repeats itself, dates itself, and generally gets lost in the swampy details of the licensing agreements, which could have been more cleanly described.
It's a fine review of the history of a video game. Sure. But the way it's written and edited is bizarre. It doesn't know if its audience is millennials interested in the game, or the first generations that played the game and want the backstory. It repeats itself a lot--perhaps assuming I was reading the book out of order? Why else would it do that? It has to relate a lot back to the Internet or smartphones or Candy Crush--"microtransactions weren't a thing like they are now." yeah, got it, no need to waste time on that, sir. The weird gray boxes that show up periodically are like snippets of trivia ripped from Wikipedia, with zero bearing on the chapter around them, making them feel like last second additions to spice up the otherwise unfortunately dull writing style. Except when he gets to flex his narrative skills in the Russian Heist sequence toward the end, which is actually pretty neat to read.
The history itself is interesting. Seeing Russia from that angle is worthwhile, especially regarding the creator, and I know all about Nintendo's backstabbery and goodness from other history books. So it's well worth your time there.
But it meanders too much, tries to cover too much, repeats itself, dates itself, and generally gets lost in the swampy details of the licensing agreements, which could have been more cleanly described.