Steven Johnson: "Imagine an alternate world identical

Steven Johnson: "Imagine an alternate world identical APR 26 2005

Steven Johnson: "Imagine an alternate world identical to ours save one techno-historical change: videogames were invented and popularized before books". "Reading books chronically under-stimulates the senses. Unlike the longstanding tradition of gameplaying -- which engages the child in a vivid, three-dimensional world filled with moving images and musical soundscapes, navigated and controlled with complex muscular movements -- books are simply a barren string of words on the page."

There are 16 reader comments

Winter43 26 2005 4:43PM

This is a silly argument. It's not an either-or proposition. Basketball engages children in vivid, three-dimensional worlds too, so what?

Josh04 26 2005 5:04PM

Agreed--I'm looking forward to the book, but this is a pretty silly thought-experiment. (Of course, it is excerpted out of context, etc.)

Plus, video games are stultifying. The benefits video games have in this thought-experiment don't really exist. Killing people in GTA does not equal full mental engagement.

Stefan Jones09 26 2005 5:09PM

If video games came first, we'd never get books. Or much of anything else.

Tim54 26 2005 5:54PM

If video games came first, it's possible they'd serve a completely different need, or, rather, they'd serve the need that books did when they were first invented.

The interesting part of this exercise isn't imagining existing video games in place of books. It's imagining what video games would have looked like if they had originally been developed for the purpose of education and information dissemination instead of pure entertainment.

storyville36 26 2005 7:36PM

if video games came before books, then people would go ga-ga over the user's manual.

okeimakei34 26 2005 8:34PM

For people to learn how to use electricity,then program,and later make an videogame,they needed books.
But if that had happened,i´m sure right now books would be the hit of the summer.Imagine the wait for a new Dan's Brown book!

Jean-Philippe Morin43 26 2005 8:43PM

"Reading books chronically under-stimulates the senses" And that guy writes a book? That's what we call a performative contradiction.
"Books are simply a barren string of words on the page." that's before you begin to read. When you read your IMAGINATION is active. Rencent video games are so realistic that they leave nothing to the imagination.
"Why would anyone want to embark on an adventure utterly choreographed by another person? "
Duh, the same reason humanity enjoyed stories for thousands of years and will continue to. The whole point IS "simply sit back and have the story dictated to you". The guy never enjoyed a movie?? From which planet does he comes from?
And he wants something with complex muscular movements, he should do SPORTS, not sit on his butt playing video games. This is a load of rubbish, sorry.

Roland10 26 2005 9:10PM

I think some people are taking this as a straight "video games are better than books" argument, when it's actually intended to make people think twice about their automatic "video games are bad because they're not books" assumptions.

jkottke32 26 2005 9:32PM

Yes, please:

- read the link

- know what "thought experiment" and "imagine" mean

before commenting on this. Thanks.

Fred Blasdel52 26 2005 9:52PM

The Da Vinci code is a awful shitty book, but as a massively overproduced video game, it could work. Sort of.

Steven Johnson09 26 200511:09PM

I would add one request to Jason's: understand what "satire" is. In fact, I've just added the following clarification to the post:

WARNING: What follows is Satire. I do not personally believe what is written below. It is an imagined rendition of what some pompous, self-satisfied gamer would say about books had he never actually sat down and read one. It's designed to make you realize how selective and short-sighted most of the criticism about gaming is. So if it seems selective and short-sighted in its description of books, that's precisely the point.

Jean-Philippe Morin13 26 200511:13PM

Ah! Sorry, I read too fast. You can disregard and delete my previous comment (and this one too).

Karan34 27 2005 4:34AM

amazing, the number of people who react too fast :P

As a long time gamer and avid book lover, I often wonder why there is so much contrast between the two in the minds of what I like to call the traditionalists. Well pointed out, Steven, I'll keep an eye out for this book.