Video Games

This is the Nightmaremode.net Basic Archive

Though it currently lacks images, this is the latest content backup from Nightmaremode.net. This site contains all the words from the old (now offline) site and most of the metadata. I’ll work on getting the images and other features working

/ Comments Off on This is the Nightmaremode.net Basic Archive

This is the Nightmaremode.net Basic Archive

Though it currently lacks images, this is the latest content backup from Nightmaremode.net. This site contains all the words from the old (now offline) site and most of the metadata. I’ll work on getting the images and other features working

/ Comments Off on This is the Nightmaremode.net Basic Archive

Player-Character Dynamics, Identity, and Sexuality in Video Games

The relationship between the creator, the product, and the audience, are all important contexts to consider during media analysis, especially with games. This is because the audience is an active participant in the media. So if you are creating a

/ 18 Comments

Player-Character Dynamics, Identity, and Sexuality in Video Games

The relationship between the creator, the product, and the audience, are all important contexts to consider during media analysis, especially with games. This is because the audience is an active participant in the media. So if you are creating a

/ 18 Comments

The challenge of the virtual value code

One of the benefits of being an artist is to be able to communicate your values to the audience. So let’s talk about the challenge of transmitting values through games. How to make a player act according to the moral code held by its protagonist voluntarily? Or the reaction: how do I, the player, can make my moral code to be enforced by the mechanics available to the protagonist?

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The challenge of the virtual value code

One of the benefits of being an artist is to be able to communicate your values to the audience. So let’s talk about the challenge of transmitting values through games. How to make a player act according to the moral code held by its protagonist voluntarily? Or the reaction: how do I, the player, can make my moral code to be enforced by the mechanics available to the protagonist?

/ 3 Comments

Pretend friends, anxiety & real connections

I pause briefly at the inn to get all my equipment back but nothing slows me down after that. I skip through the scenes at the town gates, sprint along the seaside trail and into the stockade. Button through dialogue,

/ 6 Comments

Pretend friends, anxiety & real connections

I pause briefly at the inn to get all my equipment back but nothing slows me down after that. I skip through the scenes at the town gates, sprint along the seaside trail and into the stockade. Button through dialogue,

/ 6 Comments

Dwarf Fortress as Spectator Sport

When the Museum of Modern Art announced it was going to be adding 14 videogames to its collection, I was startled to find Dwarf Fortress on that list.  This is not because I don’t like Dwarf Fortress, or think it’s

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Dwarf Fortress as Spectator Sport

When the Museum of Modern Art announced it was going to be adding 14 videogames to its collection, I was startled to find Dwarf Fortress on that list.  This is not because I don’t like Dwarf Fortress, or think it’s

/ 7 Comments

Esther and Stanley and Fate

Often we talk about narrative logic when we talk about stories. Does a thing hang together, make sense? Does it have plot holes? How shall we plug them? How can we make it all correct? The metaphor suggests an orderly

/ 4 Comments

Esther and Stanley and Fate

Often we talk about narrative logic when we talk about stories. Does a thing hang together, make sense? Does it have plot holes? How shall we plug them? How can we make it all correct? The metaphor suggests an orderly

/ 4 Comments

Looking past the structure

Here’s a common scenario: you have to save your loved one but the game keeps asking you to enter that sewer level collect some kind of completely unnecessary item. Or maybe you want to escape your average zombie-infested Police HQ, but has to deal with chess keys first. The task structure thrown upon you matters and should not be ignored.

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Looking past the structure

Here’s a common scenario: you have to save your loved one but the game keeps asking you to enter that sewer level collect some kind of completely unnecessary item. Or maybe you want to escape your average zombie-infested Police HQ, but has to deal with chess keys first. The task structure thrown upon you matters and should not be ignored.

/ 7 Comments

Would You Kindly

I thought his eyes were blue. But he reminded me they were the color of shit. Sitting at the corner of my bed, I watched him dress. It was December, and we had argued again. It’s an argument that I

/ 79 Comments

Would You Kindly

I thought his eyes were blue. But he reminded me they were the color of shit. Sitting at the corner of my bed, I watched him dress. It was December, and we had argued again. It’s an argument that I

/ 79 Comments

The wonderful accessibility of Dear Esther

It’s the final year of college, and I’m writing a book on videogames. It’s one of the loneliest projects of my life. I don’t just mean the regular cycle of locking myself in my room to play a game and

/ 13 Comments

The wonderful accessibility of Dear Esther

It’s the final year of college, and I’m writing a book on videogames. It’s one of the loneliest projects of my life. I don’t just mean the regular cycle of locking myself in my room to play a game and

/ 13 Comments

How Portal portrays science

Portal presents a world that indulges in the idea of science. The facility of Aperture is a place of endless testing and research, where every placement and movement is calculated and pre-determined. It’s walls are endlessly white, it’s environments are

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How Portal portrays science

Portal presents a world that indulges in the idea of science. The facility of Aperture is a place of endless testing and research, where every placement and movement is calculated and pre-determined. It’s walls are endlessly white, it’s environments are

/ 10 Comments