Author Archives: guestcontributor
Someone to watch over me: social spectatorship in games
New parents spend a lot of their free time exhausted, wondering if they will ever sleep again. Following my daughter’s birth, I started playing Oblivion. I began the game by myself, but my wife Anna eventually came to watch me
Someone to watch over me: social spectatorship in games
New parents spend a lot of their free time exhausted, wondering if they will ever sleep again. Following my daughter’s birth, I started playing Oblivion. I began the game by myself, but my wife Anna eventually came to watch me
Martial Artists: How Fighting Games Can Look As Good As They Play
Fighting games are a genre with complex structure, fierce competition, and devoted player bases worldwide. Despite rising popularity, fighting games aren’t appreciated for their aesthetics. Instead, their mechanics take focus, and define what makes them different—but this is a mistake. Visual
Martial Artists: How Fighting Games Can Look As Good As They Play
Fighting games are a genre with complex structure, fierce competition, and devoted player bases worldwide. Despite rising popularity, fighting games aren’t appreciated for their aesthetics. Instead, their mechanics take focus, and define what makes them different—but this is a mistake. Visual
Contact: A Lesson In Free Will
What makes the video game medium truly great is the way in which it is able to make the audience a part of that story. To watch something happen is an entirely different experience from being involved in it happening.
Contact: A Lesson In Free Will
What makes the video game medium truly great is the way in which it is able to make the audience a part of that story. To watch something happen is an entirely different experience from being involved in it happening.
I Am The Virus: Prototype As A Trans Narrative
Prototype is a game about a monster. It’s a game about science run amok. It’s a game about a nightmarish virus that wipes out most of New York City. And I can’t help but feel that it’s also a game
I Am The Virus: Prototype As A Trans Narrative
Prototype is a game about a monster. It’s a game about science run amok. It’s a game about a nightmarish virus that wipes out most of New York City. And I can’t help but feel that it’s also a game
Amnesia, Fear, and the Reversal of Power
My save in Amnesia: The Dark Descent sits stalled at just shy of an hour, ripe with potential but damning in brevity. The fact that I haven’t yet “pulled it together” long enough to make progress says a lot about
Amnesia, Fear, and the Reversal of Power
My save in Amnesia: The Dark Descent sits stalled at just shy of an hour, ripe with potential but damning in brevity. The fact that I haven’t yet “pulled it together” long enough to make progress says a lot about
Magic Needs To Be Mysterious and Unpredictable In Games
Most of the great writers of fantasy know that magic works best when left unexplained, when it is allowed to be mysterious and unpredictable. There is, after all, little point in writing a story featuring magic if you then make
Magic Needs To Be Mysterious and Unpredictable In Games
Most of the great writers of fantasy know that magic works best when left unexplained, when it is allowed to be mysterious and unpredictable. There is, after all, little point in writing a story featuring magic if you then make
Displacement in Final Fantasy VII
The world of Final Fantasy VII stands out as a remarkably bleak interpretation of the future. Released in 1997, it came long after the cold war, long before 9/11, while the economy was still booming and while environmentalism presented a
Displacement in Final Fantasy VII
The world of Final Fantasy VII stands out as a remarkably bleak interpretation of the future. Released in 1997, it came long after the cold war, long before 9/11, while the economy was still booming and while environmentalism presented a
Confessions of a Skooma Eater
“Sheggorath, you are the Skooma Cat, for what is crazier than a cat on skooma?” -Words of Clan Mother Ahnissi Khazura will now tell you about the moon sugar and its more potent derivative, skooma. For skooma is why
Confessions of a Skooma Eater
“Sheggorath, you are the Skooma Cat, for what is crazier than a cat on skooma?” -Words of Clan Mother Ahnissi Khazura will now tell you about the moon sugar and its more potent derivative, skooma. For skooma is why
Gluttonous Punchlines in Table For One
Telling jokes in video games is difficult. Ron Gilbert – writer of Monkey Island, DeathSpank, and the upcoming The Cave – has spoken about the trouble with comedic timing in games. One of his key points is that due to
Gluttonous Punchlines in Table For One
Telling jokes in video games is difficult. Ron Gilbert – writer of Monkey Island, DeathSpank, and the upcoming The Cave – has spoken about the trouble with comedic timing in games. One of his key points is that due to
The High Road to Relaxation: Finding Catharsis in Spider-Man’s Commute
Dweeby and unassuming, Peter Parker is as accommodating a character as you could ask for: a young, employed adult coping with the piling problems coupled to such statuses. He can’t help but wear every conceivable Ordinary Guy quality on his
The High Road to Relaxation: Finding Catharsis in Spider-Man’s Commute
Dweeby and unassuming, Peter Parker is as accommodating a character as you could ask for: a young, employed adult coping with the piling problems coupled to such statuses. He can’t help but wear every conceivable Ordinary Guy quality on his