It’s book review time.
For how massive the gaming industry is, it is rare to see a biographical book get written about a specific game franchise or company, and presumably even rarer for that book to be based on a developer like Running With Scissors or a game like Postal. But like Postal itself, authors Brock Wilbur and Nathan Rabin did the unlikely and set forward to make that biography anyway.
If you are coming into this book expecting a gushing timeline written by a long time fanboy, set your expectations aside now. As an adult, Wilbur doesn’t seem to particularly like the Postal series to which he says “it is jackassery. It is beneath me.” He doesn’t agree with the politics or nature of RWS CEO Vince Desi, who he refers to as “an aging shark with a habitual cough,” and he confuses RWS VP Mike Jaret of being Desi’s assistant/driver. He does later make up for this confusion by talking about how hot Mike J is and he isn’t wrong.
The book is roughly split evenly between the games and movie, with 35% dedicated to Postal 1, 10% dedicated to Postal 2, and 35% to the Postal movie, along with miscellaneous details and the last 10% dedicated to notes. Desi talks about his history of making games for children including Sesame Street titles, and how he moved on to starting Running With Scissors and creating Postal. It also discusses iconic(?) scenes from the games including the infamous marching band.
There is a fair amount of recounting the story and gameplay of Postal, Postal 2 (plus its expansions) and a bit on Postal 3, mixed with stories about how the game was an influence in Wilbur’s life like making his sheltered childhood friend physically ill by showing him the violence in Postal. I don’t think much of the book will be surprising to fans of the games; from Vince Desi’s outspoken and unapologetic statements to the lawsuit from the Postal Service, the origins of ‘goin postal’ and the company’s pro-gamergate stance and history dealing with games journalists lowering their review scores for political reasons. Allegedly.
Still for fans of the series it is nice to see all of these familiar and not-so-familiar details put in one place in chronological order. The middle third of the book is dedicated to the Postal film, and this is where the authors do the impossible; they actually made me feel empathy for Uwe Boll. Nathan Rabin does an excellent job talking about the making of and release of the Postal movie, as well as Uwe Boll’s ultimate retirement from filmmaking and the relatable feeling of spending decades in an industry only to realize that you have no place in it anymore.
There are some humorous critiques and insights into the film itself, widely regarded as one of Boll’s more intelligent films. In the movie Boll recreates the Postal Dude with the acting chops of Zack Ward, creating a man who spent his life thinking that if he only lived by the rules and kept his head down that he would be afforded a relatively simple life. It is a film that aims to offend everyone indiscriminately and in 2007 was willing to kick off with a 9/11 joke where the airplane hijackers are arguing about the exact number of virgins they will receive in the afterlife.
I recommend Postal by Brock Wilbur and Nathan Rabin to any fan of the Postal series. If you are someone who has heard of the series and are curious about its history and timeline, you will also enjoy reading the twisted tale of a game that set the news on fire in the 90’s and still manages a dedicated presence to this day.
If MMO Fallout had a rating system for books I would give this a 5/5: Must Read. You can find the book on various stores, but I recommend buying direct from Boss Fight Books since you can get the paperback plus the ebook version for $18. You can also find the Postal series (including the movie) on Steam.
I bought my copy of Postal for this review.
MMO Fallout 