Gaming the System: Oppression & Play

For teachers dealing with topics like racism, sexism, and classism, one of the hardest things to do is to get across the systematic, structural nature of oppression. I teach college classes, and most of my students have stewed for the

/ 14 Comments

Gaming the System: Oppression & Play

For teachers dealing with topics like racism, sexism, and classism, one of the hardest things to do is to get across the systematic, structural nature of oppression. I teach college classes, and most of my students have stewed for the

/ 14 Comments

The depiction of religion in games is awful for non-religious and religious alike

There are rockets crisscrossing over the Gaza Strip between Israel and Palestine again. Among other things, it reminds us again that everywhere, not just in Gaza, the mix of religions, and even non-religion, is dense and complicated. But every time

/ 18 Comments

The depiction of religion in games is awful for non-religious and religious alike

There are rockets crisscrossing over the Gaza Strip between Israel and Palestine again. Among other things, it reminds us again that everywhere, not just in Gaza, the mix of religions, and even non-religion, is dense and complicated. But every time

/ 18 Comments

Labyrinth of Someone Else's Memory: Mother

This article will make the most sense if you have already played Mother. No great effort was made to conceal spoilers or excessively summarize in-game events. The version played was the retranslation of the GBA port, available here. Mother is

/ 2 Comments

Labyrinth of Someone Else's Memory: Mother

This article will make the most sense if you have already played Mother. No great effort was made to conceal spoilers or excessively summarize in-game events. The version played was the retranslation of the GBA port, available here. Mother is

/ 2 Comments

Lost for words: new relationships and Journey

I’m in a bar with the girl I like. I want her to like me back. I’ve decided the best way to do this is by talking about video games. I’m talking about Journey and struggling to find the words:

/ 7 Comments

Lost for words: new relationships and Journey

I’m in a bar with the girl I like. I want her to like me back. I’ve decided the best way to do this is by talking about video games. I’m talking about Journey and struggling to find the words:

/ 7 Comments

Call of Duty 6: Modern Warfare 2: ass2ass.gif

The first moment in the game (beyond the publisher’s, developer’s, graphics card’s, 3rd party software’s and the game itself’s splash screens) is a disclaimer about controversial content, something like   WARNING: THIS GAME CONTAINS A MISSION THAT MAY BE CONSIDERED

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Call of Duty 6: Modern Warfare 2: ass2ass.gif

The first moment in the game (beyond the publisher’s, developer’s, graphics card’s, 3rd party software’s and the game itself’s splash screens) is a disclaimer about controversial content, something like   WARNING: THIS GAME CONTAINS A MISSION THAT MAY BE CONSIDERED

/ Comments Off on Call of Duty 6: Modern Warfare 2: ass2ass.gif

No Exit: How Games Can Change Us

Rule 1: Get a group of three or more people. I was sitting in the second row, listening to Eric Zimmerman talk at IndieCade. I had arrived late as a result of drinking too much the night before and ended

/ 3 Comments

No Exit: How Games Can Change Us

Rule 1: Get a group of three or more people. I was sitting in the second row, listening to Eric Zimmerman talk at IndieCade. I had arrived late as a result of drinking too much the night before and ended

/ 3 Comments

How our perception of space in games changes depending on our maps

The first thing I loved about games was exploration. I remember the layout of The Legend of Zelda’s Hyrule better than that of my elementary school. I spent considerable time trying to reconcile it with the map of Zelda 2

/ 8 Comments

How our perception of space in games changes depending on our maps

The first thing I loved about games was exploration. I remember the layout of The Legend of Zelda’s Hyrule better than that of my elementary school. I spent considerable time trying to reconcile it with the map of Zelda 2

/ 8 Comments

Play is excavation: the search for game poetry

  In 2004, a little-known Nevadan writer published the first book of video game poetry. The collection – sporting the lengthy title Blue Wizard is About to Die: Prose, Poems, and Emoto-Versatronic Expressionist Pieces about Video Games (1980-2003) – contained

/ 7 Comments

Play is excavation: the search for game poetry

  In 2004, a little-known Nevadan writer published the first book of video game poetry. The collection – sporting the lengthy title Blue Wizard is About to Die: Prose, Poems, and Emoto-Versatronic Expressionist Pieces about Video Games (1980-2003) – contained

/ 7 Comments

Sometimes games want you to think they're critiquing violence, but instead they legitimize it

There is a cost for everything. Video games, I worry, carry this unknowing. We agree to things that would be utterly horrific in the actual fictions of a game. I want to distinguish between the anti-violence, anti-“manshooter” rhetoric that most

/ 19 Comments

Sometimes games want you to think they're critiquing violence, but instead they legitimize it

There is a cost for everything. Video games, I worry, carry this unknowing. We agree to things that would be utterly horrific in the actual fictions of a game. I want to distinguish between the anti-violence, anti-“manshooter” rhetoric that most

/ 19 Comments

Planting Seeds: A mobile game that supports Kenyan women

The first iteration of Seeds to hit the iTunes store doesn’t look like a game at all. Its name is Microlending, and true to its name it enables U.S. smartphone users to make one-to-one financial loans to Kenyan businesswomen in

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Planting Seeds: A mobile game that supports Kenyan women

The first iteration of Seeds to hit the iTunes store doesn’t look like a game at all. Its name is Microlending, and true to its name it enables U.S. smartphone users to make one-to-one financial loans to Kenyan businesswomen in

/ Comments Off on Planting Seeds: A mobile game that supports Kenyan women