Video games: The Addiction
Tom Bissell was an acclaimed young writer when he started playing Grand Theft Auto. For the last three years he has been sleep deprived, cocaine fueled, and barely able to write a word—and he has no regrets.
Tom Bissell
Loch Ness Memoir
A trip to Scotland and an investigation of enduring belief.
“I remember reading about the deathbed confession, and how strangely sad it made me, even though I had not, at that point, believed in the monster for years. How much sadder, I wondered, would it make those who still believed in the existence of a monster in Loch Ness?”
My Holy Land Vacation
A bus tour through Israel with a conservative radio host and 450 of his biggest fans.
You Are Now Entering the Demented Kingdom of William T. Vollmann
A profile of author William T. Vollmann.
A Polar Turn of Mind
Finding peace and quiet in the high Canadian Arctic.
Previously: The Longform Guide to Silence.
Poison Tree
An open letter on Grand Theft Auto 5 and aging out of the Rockstar Games franchise.
The Secret Mainstream
The life and films of Werner Herzog.
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Shooter
Why people play violent video games.
Kickoff: 'Madden NFL' and the Future of Video Game Sports
How the game gets made.
The Last Lion
A visit with the novelist Jim Harrison.
Beyond Angry Birds
On the shift from the “triple-A video-game production cycle — the expensive development process, in other words, by which games like Halo, Grand Theft Auto, Uncharted, and BioShock are unleashed upon the world” towards the simpler pleasures of gaming on the iPad.
A Comet's Tale
An investigation into The End.
Press X for Beer Bottle
On LA Noire and the gaming paradoxes presented by pairing nuanced storytelling with a player’s free will.
A Simple Medium
On Chuck Lorre, creator of the #1 (Two and a Half Men) and #2 comedy on American television, former cruise ship guitarist, composer of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme song, and recently antagonist of Charlie Sheen.
After the Fall
A trip to interview former South Vietnamese premiere Ky on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the reunification of Vietnam ends with government surveillance, partying, and confusion.
