Why It's OK to Be a Gamer

“A delightful challenge to those who dismiss video games as a waste of time. While this book concedes that gaming poses risks, it also offers a compelling argument for compensatory rewards. Even more importantly, it suggests that we should be highly suspicious of our own inclination to judge harshly when other people do things just for fun.” – Nicholas D. Smith, Lewis & Clark College “Malanowski and Baima’s book deserves to become the go-to work for thinking about the ethics of video gaming from a virtue ethical perspective well-grounded in contemporary psychology. With a prose style just as clear as it is charming and funny, the authors challenge us and help us to think holistically about how the life of a gamer can be a flourishing life. If you’re a gamer, or just an intelligent person interested in or even concerned about video games and society, this book should be on your shelf.” –Tobias Flattery, Wake Forest University “Like gaming, philosophy often revolves around complex systems and jargon (not to mention a defensive tribalism for one’s preferred system) that can make it inhospitable to newcomers. Not so with Sarah Malanowski and Nicholas Baima’s new book. For noobs and seasoned vets alike, Why It’s Okay to Be a Gamer combines the very old (ancient philosophy) and the very new (contemporary psychology and videogames) into a delightful package that extols the virtues of both.” –Andrew T. Kissel, Old Dominion University, USA