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September 08, 2003
Lucky Wander Boy
I read a lot. Mostly game/dev/tech magazines and non-fiction books (eg, game dev, web dev, business strategy, digital culture, etc). I tend to get most of my fiction from games and movies. That said, I recently read "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0452283949/">Lucky Wander Boy</a>" by D.B. Weiss (it was the only "small" book I had to take on the <a href="http://www.igda.org/blogs/realitypanic/archives/000041.html">flight to London</a>).
Lucky Wander Boy tells a fictional story about a guy who loves classic arcade games, and how he becomes completely obsessed with one of them. Chaos and fun ensues. Of course, the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0452283949/#amzn-reviews">description at Amazon</a> is much more detailed.
Anyway, no big insights derived other than it was a good read, and the author did some fun game-like mods to the narrative structure at the end of the story...
And, on the topic of wandering, I've actually moved to a new house over this past week, hence the lack of blog activity. Aside from all the work of moving a family load of accumulated stuff, I am running on measly dial-up until my DSL service is switched on. Ah, the suffering!
Posted by della at September 8, 2003 11:38 PM
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Comments
Given your position I would think you would have more insight into the book. I'll give you some:
A non-gamer would have a hard time "getting" alot of it.
ALong with the narrator, I downloaded old game emulators and played them. A new experience in reading a novel.
Demonstrates nerds' general propensity for obsessing on something diversionary, the game and the encyclopedia, instead of what was really is bothering him.
The end with the Japanese game maker was a homage to Mishima's quartet.
Nice, but no new insights, into startup hyping.
Life does not have any replayability.
Finally, the game, "Lucky Wander Boy" seems like a crappy game.
Posted by: John at September 12, 2003 11:45 PM
Like I said, no insights - as in, it was all pretty obvious to me ;)
But you're right, I think a non-gamer would have a tough time following all the embedded meanings, etc...
Posted by: Jason Della Rocca at September 15, 2003 10:30 AM
This book is flat out AWESOME!!
kind of "Palahniuk-esque" (if you will)
but the whole comparing Pac-Man to Darwinism thing? How can you beat that??!!!!
best line of all time
"Life is an extension of high school"
If you are a geek,I highly recommend this book.
Posted by: Myke at October 31, 2003 04:52 PM