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

/ 3 Comments

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

/ 3 Comments

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

/ 6 Comments

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

/ 6 Comments

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.

/ 10 Comments

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.

/ 10 Comments

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

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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

/ 3 Comments

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

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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

/ One Comment

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

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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

/ 29 Comments

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

/ 19 Comments

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

/ 19 Comments

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

/ One Comment

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

/ One Comment

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

/ Comments Off on Gluttonous Punchlines in Table For One

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

/ Comments Off on Gluttonous Punchlines in Table For One

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

/ Comments Off on The High Road to Relaxation: Finding Catharsis in Spider-Man’s Commute

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

/ Comments Off on The High Road to Relaxation: Finding Catharsis in Spider-Man’s Commute