Real Games: What's Legitimate and What's Not in Contemporary Videogames

by Mia Consalvo, Christopher A. Paul

How we talk about games as real or not-real, and how that shapes what games are made and who is invited to play them. In videogame criticism, the worst insult might be "That's not a real game!" For example, "That's not a real game, it's on Facebook!" and "That's not a real game, it's a walking simulator!" But how do people judge what is a real game and what is not--what features establish a game's gameness? In this engaging book, Mia Consalvo and Christopher Paul examine the debates about the realness or not-realness of videogames and find that these discussions shape what games get made and who is invited to play them.

Consalvo and Paul look at three main areas often viewed as determining a game's legitimacy: the game's pedigree (its developer), the content of the game itself, and the game's payment structure. They find, among other things, that even developers with a track record are viewed with suspicion if their games are on suspect platforms. They investigate game elements that are potentially troublesome for a game's gameness, including genres, visual aesthetics, platform, and perceived difficulty. And they explore payment models, particularly free-to-play--held by some to be a marker of illegitimacy. Finally, they examine the debate around such so-called walking simulators as Dear Esther and Gone Home. And finally, they consider what purpose is served by labeling certain games "real."

Genres: Game Design, Nonfiction, Gaming, Games

224 pages, Hardcover

Published October 1, 2019

About the author

Mia Consalvo is Professor and Canada Research Chair in Game Studies and Design in the Department of Communication Studies at Concordia University in Montreal. She is the author of Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Video Games and Atari to Zelda: Japan's Videogames in Global Contexts, both published by the MIT Press.

Reviews

[Jukka Särkijärvi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nicely brief and approachable yet academic rundown of the recent discourse in the field of video gaming about who's a "real gamer" or making "real games". The events described are hardly new to anyone who's been paying a modicum of attention since nothing blows up quite like videogames on Twitter, but Real Games does a splendid job of drawing together different events and digging into what was said and how.

Among key examples are Farmville, frequently decried as "not a game" by those self-identifying as gamers, as it was free to play and didn't have exciting gameplay or spiffy graphics (Personally, I just thought it was just immensely tedious. A game, sure, but not a good one.); World of Warcraft, whose publisher Blizzard can do no wrong and gets let off the hook by "gamers" because they make big, impressive games that are mostly fun to play, except when they announced a mobile game because that was beyond the pale (and also when it turned out they had a persistent sexual abuse problem in the company, but that came out after Real Games); and Flappy Bird, which earned its creator so much crap for not having made a "real game" (and, let's face it, not being white), that he pulled it from the app store despite making bank.

In an ironic coincidence, World of Warcraft's latest expansion, Shadowlands, features a world quest that's a Flappy Bird minigame.

Real Games is a good, hard look at (gamer)gatekeeping, how it shapes the discourse, and who is targeted. Though I'd seen most of it before and have the thousand-yard stare to prove it, I appreciate this book for bringing it all together into one title that I can cite instead of trawling the Twitter histories of hideous men.

[Nate Stevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you spend much time thinking critically (perhaps sociologically) about games, and how they're covered, much of the content in this book won't be new to you - especially if you cast a wary eye at people who police the "realness" of various games. But even though I'd considered many of the points in this book, it does a fabulous job of synthesizing them into a really approachable and logical structure that I've been thinking about a lot since closing the cover. There's something more here than just the sum of its parts though, painting the outlines of the exclusionary culture envisioning itself as a meritocracy that we call 'gaming'... It's definitely the kind of thing that will stick in your mind with every Steam review you ever see going forward.

This was my first Playful Thinking series book - it would not surprise me if synthesizing a bunch of thoughts you've had about the industry down to a brilliant and incisive point is exactly the goal of all of these books. For that, it was fabulous!

[Colin Post · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book presents a thoughtful, important critique on we value and validate certain video games — namely, ‘important’ big budget games from major studios — and dismiss the casual games (and gamers) that constitute a significant portion of the gaming community. The authors focus on mobile/social platform games, though they mention other types of indie games in the intro and conclusion. I wish those games had made up more of a focus of the book, especially the vibrant communities that make and play games on places like itch.io - but perhaps that’s a place for others to add to the argument presented here!

[Stephane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent overview of the debates that are going on in videogames, both from the developper side of things as well as the "gamer". There are some very interesting ideas, thoughts and call to actions within and is well worth the read.

[Javier Ponce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very approachable reading on what is a "real" game that flirts a lot with Juul's classification of games, borderline games, and not games, but from the perspective of "platform". Mobile games, web games, online games, and more that are usually overlooked when talking about games.

[Jonathan Cassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and definitely valuable if you're interested in interrogating how games are accorded "value," or "substance" in our contemporary discussion of videogames.