Significant Zero, Walt Williams
Significant Zero, Walt Williams
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Significant Zero
Heroes, Villains, and the Fight for Art and Soul in Video Games

Author: Walt Williams

Narrator: Kevin T. Collins

Unabridged: 9 hr 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 09/19/2017


Synopsis

When his satirical musings in a college newspaper got him discharged from the Air Force, it became clear to Walt Williams that his destiny in life was to be a writer—he just never thought he'd end up writing video games, let alone working on some of the most successful franchises in the industry—Bioshock, Civilization, Borderlands, and Mafia, among others.

Williams pulls back the curtain on an astonishingly profitable industry that has put its stamp on pop culture and yet is little known to those outside its walls. In his reflective yet comically-observant voice, Williams walks you through his unlikely and at times inglorious rise within one of the world's top gaming companies, exposing an industry abundant in brain power and out-sized egos, but struggling to stay innovative. Significant Zero also provides clear-eyed criticism of the industry's addiction to violence and explains how the role of the narrative designer—the poor soul responsible for harmonizing gameplay with storylines—is crucial for expanding the scope of video games into more immersive and emotional experiences.

About Walt Williams

Walt Williams is originally from Louisiana and attended Baylor University in Texas on an Air Force scholarship, fully prepared to become a military chaplain. Quickly realizing the regimented, religious life was not for him, he moved to New York to pursue a writing career and took a job at 2K Games, one of the largest video game publishers in the world. Although he'd intended the job to be only a temporary bill-paying situation, Walt quickly fell in love with the potential of interactive storytelling, and has been working in the industry ever since. Over the past ten years he rose from entry-level game analyst to senior writer, walking the line between publisher and developer, helping bring life to such beloved franchises as Bioshock, Civilization, Borderlands, Mafia, The Darkness, and the acclaimed, genre-bending Spec Ops: The Line.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Kalin

A deeply personal account that dives into some unexpectedly dark waters. I wish the author had given more examples illustrating his design philosophy (the book's subtitle); often, "the fight for art and soul" sounds like a distant ideal, easily lost in the harrowing struggle against the multiple pre......more

Goodreads review by Jason

First, a disclaimer. I worked with Walt at 2K Games, and while I'm not in this book, I am thanked in the afterwords (an honor I appreciate, even if I'm not sure how worthy I am of it). With that out of the way, let me say that even if I didn't know Walt, I would recommend this book. I've worked in v......more

Goodreads review by C.T.

SIGNIFICANT ZERO is the story by Walt Williams of what it's like to be a professional game designer on some of the more important AAA games of the past decade. He was involved in Bioshock, Oblivion, Mafia II, Mafia III (briefly), and the extremely awesome Spec Ops: The Line. The book ends with his r......more

Goodreads review by Quintin

Significant Zero offers us a behind-the-screen perspective of the video game industry through the eyes of Walt Williams. This novel is well written with fast snappy dialogue and self-deprecating wit. We are introduced to an array of outlandish characters that work in the crazy world of video games.......more

Goodreads review by Caleb

(Click the image below to watch the video review) I want to talk about why you should feel bad buying a videogame. Okay, not really, that may be an unfortunate side effect. So, I just finished a really great book called Significant Zero: Heroes, Villains, and the fight for Art and Soul in Video G......more