This book demonstrates that current controversies and conflicts surrounding the meanings and effects of videogames are not going away; they are essential properties of the game's unique and paradoxical aesthetic form: a form critical to human creativity, knowledge, and sustenance of the species.

Games are not cooperative -- Games are not designer intentions -- Games are not references (of the conventional sort) -- Games are not narratives -- Games are not beliefs -- Games are not gameplay -- Games are not toys -- Games are not simulations: part one -- Games are not simulations: part two -- Games are not commodities -- Games are not what you think -- Games are art (because games are not art).