The subtitle to Tom Bissell's book is so ambitiously vague that
it at first appears like something of a moot point when approaching the
cultural history of computer gaming. The lengthy issue of Why Video Games Matter could possibly be segmented and approached
in a veritable spiral of niches and areas of study - culture, technology, art, to
begin with - without ever having to propose to your reader: This is why videogames matter. Such ambitions
therefore seem admirably grand for such a modestly sized book. And yet when
first starting the book it instantly becomes clear that such ambitions - or at
least perceived ambitions - were never really intended.
