In this series we’ll be looking at some principles of game design, particularly as they relate to analysis and criticism. Genre is a useful concept for consumers and producers of media- identifying and classifying various texts as being part of a certain genre creates a set expectations. Of course, genre […]
Games and Rhetoric
173 posts
WARNING: This post may be a little bit spoilery for the Destiny storyline, but it’s definitely worth the read 😉 Unless you’ve been under a NYMG you know by now that Alex and I have been playing a lot of Destiny (Bungie 2014)…and I do mean a lot. I won’t […]
Games bring people together. This is something that many of our ilk (gamers) seem to have forgotten. When I was a kid in the 70s we came together over handheld games with little blips playing various kinds of sportsball games. We came together to show each other what we could […]
I feel like all of our blog posts lately have started with something along the lines of “in the wake of recent conversations”. Nonetheless, here I go: in the wake of recent conversations, I’ve been thinking again about what seems to be an eternal debate among gamers and in game […]
At a faculty picnic last week I was asked if I was a gamer by a very well-meaning (but completely out of the loop) fellow faculty member. I almost laughed- it’s been a pretty rough few weeks in gaming culture and I know this faculty member didn’t have any idea […]
Feminist work in game studies is sort of like playing golf. You hit 20 bad shots to every good shot, but that good shot is what keeps you coming back. You finally squared your hips correctly, didn’t take your eye of the ball, the WHAM! It goes soaring across the […]
Lemme start this blog all feminist-style with a story. I got some feedback on my work recently that made me question what I’m doing with my dissertation. My diss work is on a theory I made up called procedural ethics (PE). PE, essentially, asks game scholars to start at the […]
Now for all of you youngin’s who don’t know what Tuesday Cafe was let me start with a little story. As a new-ish grad student and a budding technorhetorician I entered Connections MOO on a Tuesday evening for the first time almost 20 years ago. The place was full of […]
Let me start by saying that I have not entirely been following the so-dubbed Spaklegate fiasco closely. Mostly what I’ve seen are hurt reactions by people who cared about what things like sparkleponies was doing for people, particularly for graduate students. It made us feel comfortable, and it let incoming […]
In the first part of this study of Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead, I questioned whether the Bechdel Test was the best benchmark for judging whether or not a piece of media had something to offer in terms of good female characterization. Is the Bechdel Test enough, or does even […]
Trigger warning: This post has brief descriptions and video depictions of violence, torture, and sexual assault. This week brought us closer to the release of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and the mute, female sniper named Quiet. It also brought the announcement that the ESRB has coded the game […]
In my continuing look at game covers, I thought I’d explore the best-rated games of 2013 according to Metacritic’s compiled review scores. So far, I’ve looked at top-selling games instead of best-rated, or I’ve looked at a particular selection, as when exploring Xbox indies, and the results have been surprisingly […]
Possible triggers: sexual violence and assault. Game developer Brianna Wu of Giant Spacekat recently wrote a an essay that started as an examination of a game-of-the-year podcast and became a critique of gaming podcasts in general, an essay demonstrating how the dominant paradigm in gaming journalism — typically straight, white, […]
This week gamers all over had a good giggle when news outlets started reporting that the Tea Party Facebook group had posted an image from Bioshock Infinite that had actually been making fun of the Tea Party’s philosophical foundations. The group quickly found themselves with no lack of folks informing […]
Come the apocalypse, I want a good pair of boots, a comfy pair of cargo pants (not too baggy, not too tight), and something that covers my torso pretty completely (weight dependent on weather conditions). You know, failing full body armor or a suit made from sixteen rolls of duct […]
I wanted to spend some time this morning talking about Anita Sarkeesian’s latest Tropes vs. Women video, “Ms. Male Character.” If you’ve listened to the podcast since I joined, you might know I’m not always Sarkeesian’s biggest fan. I support the work she does, but not always the way it’s […]