If you have ever wondered why some bad games sell and good games don’t (or what happens when good people buy bad games or is that bad people buying good games?) than you need look no farther than Mark H. Walker’s ‘Games That Sell!’

Mark’s newest book tracks the life cycle of commercial and critically acclaimed games from pre-production to retail release and examines the numerous variables that factor into making a game successful. He is a seasoned professional – having written more than 40 books about computer gaming along with hundreds of computer gaming-related articles - who has honed his writing skills to perfection and his narrative flows smoothly inviting the reader to feel as though they are a privileged insider rather than an outsider looking in.

Chapters are devoted to the obvious choices such as Marketing, Public Relations and Game Genres and also the not so obvious choices such as Ambience, Range of Appeal and Documentation and Strategy Guides. Successful games such as Diablo II, Rollercoaster Tycoon and The Sims are studied for clues as to what made them popular whereas other similar games have failed.

But by far some of the most interesting sections of the book are the considered opinions from industry insiders (including yours truly) and the last chapter, ‘Fans Speak Out’ which is a compilation of responses from a spectrum of survey questions asked of readers of various webzines including Just Adventure.

Adventure gamers will especially enjoy the chapter explaining why many games are not better written and how, as gamers mature and demand more depth, this attitude is evolving for the positive. A very important factor in this swing towards better written games is that it is predicted that by the year 2006, 46% of all gamers will be in the 36 and older age group.

But possibly the most telling, and in some ways scary, chapter of all is ‘Harry Potter: The Movie Sells the Game,’ a spot-on dissection that details why the casual/mainstream gamers will eventually determine the marketplace possibly – as far as niche genres like adventure or war games are concerned – for the worse.

So if you don’t know the difference between sell-in and sell-through, or if you think that the ‘golden nugget’ is only a casino, then you need to put this book at the top of your ‘must-read’ list. Even if you are an industry ‘insider,’ ‘Games That Sell’ is still that most important thing of all and what Mark informs us is the most important factor in any game – it is fun.

Mark H. Walker is a veteran interactive entertainment journalist who has written over 40 books – including the recently published ‘Games That Sell’ - and designs games including his just released board game Lock 'n Load. He is also the author of the online game column ‘The Game Guy’ which appears monthly on Just Adventure.