YOU ARE HERE: How games have become domesticated

In their dawn, games used to live in the wild. The savage beasts that they were didn’t care if you managed to collect all the 50 secret gems or if you didn’t realize that fruit basket in the living room was part of a puzzle. These beasts left you to roam without an inkling of direction.

Try to remember the last time you were lost in a game. When you had to wander aimlessly, trying to find something – even if you were still unsure of what you needed to find. In fact, when was the last time you discovered something in a game? Something cool that was not already stated in your objective list? When was the last time you found something that truly surprised you, like a secret dungeon or an item whose existences wasn’t already hinted by the vacant spot in your inventory?

Well, how far back did you have to go? I passed through a couple of Animal Crossings along the way, but was only able to find the “Era of Discovery” – when the blurb “Discover Planet X” on the back of a game box made sense – back in the days of the original Zelda and Metroid. Games during which we were asked to discover what we were supposed to be doing in the first place.

Why some game developers shouldn't like games

Why can’t we gamers accept that someone who doesn’t love games with the fervent passion we do can make them? I’m proud to say one of my favorite games of all time—Katamari Damacy—comes from the mind of someone who doesn’t

A plot analysis of the Modern Warfare trilogy: Part 1 – Illusions of grandeur

Heavy spoilers for all the Modern Warfare games hide beyond this. Proceed with caution! Call of Duty games have come to represent everything ”hardcore” gamers loathe about the industry. It is the lifeblood of the biggest publishing monolith, Activision, and

Love Interest: Sakazaki Yuuya, the Parody

Mattie Brice picks a date from a visual novel and breaks down how they represent culture’s expression of sexuality. Today she talks about her time with Sakazaki Yuuya from MIST[PSI]PRESS’s Hatoful Boyfriend. Spoilers ahoy!   Sometimes it takes a parody

Being like a teenager in Uncharted 2, exploring adulthood in Uncharted 3

Adulthood is difficult to define – sure, there’s the legal definition, which relies on an arbitrary number of years to designate being ‘of age’, but everything is a little hazy beyond that number. With good reason: what it means to

After pressing start: How tutorials became inefficient

Ever since game controllers became hand-crippling monstrosities developers have had trouble starting their games. Super Mario Brothers could teach us how to play in exactly three seconds: there’s a goomba walking towards you, and you have to press one of

Building Worlds: Signs in Borderlands

[Building Worlds is a series where Dan Cox examines one facet in a video game and shows you how, from that one angle, an entire society is reflected.] I walked right past it the first time. I didn’t think anything

What do bosses do?

The first boss I remember fighting was Doctor Robotnik at the end of Sonic 2‘s first level. I couldn’t beat him; I was six, and I hadn’t played a lot of video games that required twitch skills; I’d mostly played

Everything old is new: Diablo 3 beta impressions

I have to admit, I expected something with more panache. With access to Diablo 3’s vaunted beta I expected something daring, something world-shaking. What I got was, well, Starcraft 2: a game of incremental improvements. This is not to say

Soundscapes – Guide to speakers and headphones

What kind of a sound setup do you have when playing games? No matter what you have there are some easy tweaks which could make everything sound significantly better. If you’re so inclined there are then some more elaborate things