Well, I’m just ecstatic. The first review of Video Game Play and Addiction is in, courtesy of Adam Thierer, senior fellow of the Progress and Freedom Foundation.

I’m very happy that the book is receiving positive feedback.

The book began as the focus of my fellowship graduation paper. I had been growing tired of the nearly universal negative media reports on gaming, and it just felt like a natural thing on which I could study and report. Later, when several others said, “Well, why don’t you write a book?” – I did.

In working with games, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, music, and family, the book helps tie several things together for me. I think it would be an understatement to say I feel relieved with the book being published, even though the hard work of getting the book into the public sphere has really only just begun.

I hope that the book helps parents, kids, and just about anyone who thinks about games to consider what gaming means to themselves as individuals and as families. The text is about how people are different, how games are different, and how they may or may not fit. It is about learning, it is about play, and it is about community. All of these function together towards knowing what is healthy play and what is problematic.

Here’s a sample of the text.

Many huge amounts of thanks go out to everyone who has helped me, both directly and indirectly, in this adventure of putting a book together. You are wonderful.