Convention season is upon us and though what are arguably two of the most popular and publicized pop culture conventions in the United States – San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) and Anime Expo – are still a few months away, now is the time when I start to see a […]
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As women, we are taught from a young age to fear the unknown. It is our responsibility to avoid dark alleys, short skirts, abusive men, or any other abnormal and risky behavior. Today people are too savvy about political correctness to say some of these things out loud; ie. you […]
If I hadn’t discovered roleplaying, I wouldn’t have known what it was that set my ever-restless soul afire. I considered myself a serious writer at the delicate age of seven and, having come to this realization at such an early age, I carefully consumed and documented the world much like […]
It’s early in the morning and I have yet to have coffee, but I promise I’m not crazy. I know that I have never been a fan of gamification (and I can promise that this isn’t a post about gamification itself, though we’ve done that a lot in the past) […]
I’ve been doing a lot of research in the past months into representation in video games, particularly gender representation, with a few forays into racial representation. As a woman who prefers to play as a woman whenever possible, this is an issue close to my heart, and it’s one that […]
100 episodes and four and a half years and last weekend was a damned near perfect way to commemorate it. We all got together and played video games and just chatted and then followed that up with an awesome conversation about video games, tech, and feminism with Brianna Wu of Giant […]
I recently finished playing through Killbrite Studio’s Among the Sleep (2014), and after falling through a wormhole of online reviews, blog posts, and comment sections regarding people’s reviews and interpretations of the game, I have been thinking quite a lot about the representation of children, children-heroes, and children-victims in video games. […]
Alison Tieman, face of The Honey Badger Brigade and noted Men’s Rights Activist, was banned along with her #GamerGate-affiliated booth from the Calgary Expo. She subsequently released a seemingly heartfelt video discussing the incident. If you need details, there is a fabulous write up of the story with relevant background that […]
There are a few things I noticed in the Final Fantasy XV Duscae demo that have made me a bit concerned for the highly anticipated upcoming addition to the Final Fantasy series. The automatic camera angles are jarring and have a nasty habit of changing right when you’re trying to […]
Consider a few of the common components that comprise a narrative: complex characters, conflict, setting, resolution, dialogue, etc. Is dialogue a necessary element? Is a silent protagonist capable of weaving a powerful story that captivates and inspires? I find that videogames are comparable to picture books because they’re both visual mediums that can be visually read or interpreted. In […]
Not long ago, Sam and I wrote about the monetary burden of performing critical work, and that and related issues have been a hot topic lately, with many discussions about gaming, cost, and access going down on social media. In the interest of continuing that discussion, and as part of […]
Episode 100 (Part the Second): From Diversity to Dialogue Trees: A Conversation with Brianna Wu (Right click and save as to download, or hit us up on iTunes or Stitcher) So it wasn’t all parties and mayhem in our celebration of our 100th podcast episode; we also sat down for a very […]
Episode 100 (Part the First): Come Play With Us; Or, “You Had One Job!” (Right click and save as to download, or hit us up on iTunes or Stitcher) What a milestone: 100 episodes! And to celebrate, not one but two episodes, not at all alike in dignity: in the […]
I’ve been waiting for Act 2 of Broken Age for over a year, and it’s finally here! Broken Age, Double Fine’s point-and-click adventure, was released in two parts, and, as I wrote about last year, the end Act 1 sort of broke my brain. Act 1 really impressed me because […]
Last week I wrote about diversity in State of Decay, but I focused on only a very concrete, measurable aspect of diversity, raw numbers, when I broke down the ratios of white characters versus PoC in Undead Labs’ game. As I said in that piece, though, the numbers don’t tell the […]
Perhaps you’ve already decided this is going to be a piece ripping apart the so-called “dudebro.” That’s fair. I’m occasionally brash. I often believe my opponents are delusional, and I have no problem stating so in an argument. There is a long list of behaviors and beliefs I consider irrational […]