My First Fan Letter (That Isn't From My Mom)

It is 6:00 p.m. Saturday night and I just finished reading your fascinating book. I hope I have the honor of being the first person to buy your book. You have a wonderful way with words, I truly did not want to put the book down. I thought you might enjoy hearing specific things that I liked so I even jotted down page numbers as I read to be sure and refer to them again.

I’m not a gamer, and neither is [my husband] but [my son-in-law] and a few other people we know are and I’ve heard them talk about it. But your chapter one where you made Roger and Justine playing Forever World was excellent. I, as a layman, finally really understood what they are doing and how they are sucked in. I know that [my son-in-law] plays a lot and sometimes it has been a problem for [my daughter], but I remember asking [my son-in-law] about the game and her would tell me what level he was on and one time I asked how many levels there were and he said he was at the last one, so I thought oh good now he’s done. I didn’t realize really until your book that they keep creating new levels and stuff and that you will never actually finish a game.

I also didn’t realize that a few deaths have happened while people were playing, but I’m glad you put that into perspective – that only because it’s pretty rare does it make the news.

Chapter 3 helped me understand a bit more about the industry. I, too have heard students glamorize about what a cool job it would be to make video games.

Wow chapter four was an eye-opener about how all of this could evolve and affect us in so many areas such as education, politics, law and crime. I read an article awhile back on the front page of the [Seattle] Times about people selling virtual money – for those of us that are not gamers it seems so bazaar. But [my son-in-law] was aware of it and said that [the game he plays] will banish any player who does that!

I liked your very down-to-earth advice in chapter 5, about the calendar and setting up some together time – that’s really practical for all couples.

Wendy, you have made the vast knowledge that you obviously have, so easy for novices like me to understand. But I truly enjoyed also the interesting tales.

I’m very happy that you and [your husband] were able to work out the difficulties and that you also truly did make lemonade out of lemons by writing such an interesting book of your experiences.



- B.J.


(Wendy Kays' first book, Game Widow, publishes September 1st, 2008. Sneak preview copies are available at GameWidow.org, and can be pre-ordered at any bookseller online or off.)