The first chapter of How to Talk About Videogames by Ian Bogust is titled “The Squalid Grace of Flappy Bird”. His first sentence gets right to the point, drawing the reader in, when he says, “Why playing stupid games staves off existential despair”. This statement is so bold and has nothing before it that it almost shocks the reader into continuing to read. It is a statement that hooks the reader and makes him/her want to know why someone would write this. It gives insight into what Bogust is attempting to get to the bottom of, why do we play stupid games.
Later in the chapter, Bogust dives deep into the makeup of Flappy Bird. He discusses the physical design of the game, meaning what it actually looks like as you play. This gives the reader a visual to picture the game in their head and help them understand just what Bogust is referring to. Bugust also talks about the tone of the game. He believes that the game has no feeling and is indifferent to the outside world. It doesn’t care how good you are or what you’re doing, it will be hard no matter what.
Bogust uses several games in addition to Flappy Bird in order to provide other examples of “stupid games”. He uses games like Tetris, Pac-Man, Bejeweled, and others. All of these games he believes are addictive games. Games that will make you say just one more and you end up playing for another hour. The goal of this chapter is to try to understand why games are addictive and why we still play games that make us mad.