Pay No Attention to the Gamer Behind the Curtain

Bissell, Tom. “The Grammar of Fun.” The New Yorker. Condé Nast Digital,
Nov 2008. Web. 16 Feb. 2010.

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In Tom Bissell’s The Grammar of Fun, the reader is given an inside look at the inner workings of a videogame company as well as a profile of one of the most recognizable figures in modern gaming. In November 2008 Bissell was given the opportunity to spend time in the office of Epic Games prior to the release of their highly anticipated sequel to Gears of War. The original game had been both a critical and commercial success for the team at Epic, selling over five million copies. Bissell captures the commercial success in the beginning of the article. On standing in Epic’s parking lot, he writes, “Ten feet away was a red Hummer H3. Nearby was a Lotus Elise, and next to it a pumpkin-orange Porsche.” The atmosphere at Epic is unlike what one would expect from a multi-million dollar company, what Bissell calls, “…a kind of low-key egalitarianism.” None of the corporate staples such as assigned parking spaces or fancy corner offices are present. Near the center of this unorthodox business is the main creative director for Epic games, Cliff Bleszinski, or CliffyB, as he is affectionately known in the realms of gamers and videogame journalists. Bleszinski is one of the few recognizable figures in the world of game design and Bissell takes his readers back to Bleszinski’s early life to reveal how he became a game designer. Bleszinski was what his mother called a “unique child…the most difficult, but he was difficult because he was the most inquisitive.” Had it not been for the death of his father at age 15, Bleszinski may have taken another path in life. Bleszinski says, “If he (his father) hadn’t passed, he probably would have made me go to Northeastern and become an engineer.” In the following years Bleszinski developed the skills to make rudimentary video games and submitted them to videogame companies. As a teen Bleszinski’s talent was recognized by Tim Sweeney, Epic’s C.E.O. Sweeney hired Bleszinski to review games and suggest improvements. It was this early job experience that gave Bleszinski the creative know-how to push the design of Gears of War and its successor to have an almost universal appeal among gamers.

Tom Bissell goes where few writers have gone. While movies and other entertainment media have their pop-culture figures, those that create videogames are to a large degree behind the scenes. Bissell addresses this point, writing, “Despite the rapid growth of the video-game industry—last year, sales were higher than either box-office receipts or DVD sales—designers are largely invisible within the wider culture.” As videogames are gaining a larger presence in American culture, it would only make sense that a game designer, such as Cliff Bleszinski, would eventually become a public figure. Also by focusing on Bleszinski, one of gaming’s most visible and talented designers, Bissell helps even non-gamers appreciate the level of care that good game design requires. An example of this care is found in Bleszinski’s concern that the story he was telling in Gears of War may have been overshadowed by the action-filled gameplay. Bleszinski says, “There’s a sublevel to Gears that so many people missed out on because it’s such a big testosterone-filled chainsaw-fest. Marcus Fenix goes back to his childhood home in the game.” Bissell also displays the shift of how videogames had been designed in the past and how game design is approached today, by contrasting 1983’s Super Mario Bros. with 2006’s Gears of War. In Super Mario Bros. gamers were presented with a surreal world and had to rely on nonsensical gameplay mechanics (such using mushrooms to get larger, breaking bricks with the character’s head) to progress. By contrast Gears of War presented gamers with a narrative told through a fully realized world and engaging gameplay. In The Grammar of Fun, Bissell gives readers the opportunity to become familiar with the environments and people behind videogames. By giving his readers a better understanding of a form of technology that is slowly becoming more engrained in America’s culture, Bissell removed some of the mystic that surrounds videogame development. In writing seriously about game development Bissell has documented the evolution of (to use a highly subjective term) fun.