Box Brown

A depressing but lively look at how toy corporations have been grooming children for the past century to make them brand-loyal consumers whose nostalgia will keep them worshiping at corporate IP altars their whole lives.

The irony of course is that as Box Brown points out how nostalgia has made us marketing prisoners I spend most of the book going, "Ooh, I remember those!" as he discusses various toys and story franchises. And with his last few books about Tetris, Andre the Giant, and Andy Kaufman, Brown is no stranger to exploiting pop culture nostalgia for his own book sales.

Brown cites the Netflix "Toys That Made Us" documentary series several times. If you haven't had a chance, that show is as fun and enlightening as this.… (mehr)

Stuck between a 2/2.5 and a 3 because I enjoyed a lot of aspects of it, particularly the beginning and end which spoke more to what draws people to games and gaming in a psychological and philosophical sense. By contrast the middle section felt like a largely unbroken series of nearly identical businessmen sitting in board rooms, getting on and off planes, and arguing about contracts and the legal rights to Tetris. I get that this is actually what happened in terms of plot, but it also feels like all there is to take in visually as well. I found the graphic style pretty engaging for the most part, but I wish the bookend commentary on games and the battles over the distribution rights to Tetris were more connected thematically.… (mehr)