Episode 114: No One Benefits From Exclusion: A Conversation with Lauren Warren (Right click and save as to download, or find us on iTunes, Stitcher, or TuneIn). This episode, we sat down with Lauren Warren of Black Girl Nerds to talk first-person shooters, transferable skills, and Lauren’s Diversity in Gaming project (here’s […]
Monthly Archives: October 2015
29 posts
Last week a good bit of our mama and me gaming revolved around Minecraft Story Mode…until Pea watched her first episode of StampyCat playing Super Mario Maker. Oddly lots of our gaming choices revolve around StampyCat. Doesn’t every 7 year old want to play what Stampy plays? But this time […]
Not long ago, I started playing State of Decay again. I know, I know, but at this point, it’s become a comfort object for me, something to help me relax during a busy week. I started a new Breakdown game and fiddled a little with Lifeline again, and looking at […]
Today’s Power Hour review is really a review of a game within a game. I love LEGO Dimensions, but as I’ve written before, it’s pretty expensive. I’ve been mostly skeptical about the Level Packs, which come with both LEGO builds and a new level, but also come at a pretty […]
My parents came out to visit last weekend, and while they were here, my mom and I played through the first few hours of Until Dawn together. As we played, I was reminded of the fact that, growing up (and still), I often bonded with my mom over horror movies, […]
The Dwarf Run is a very interesting game because its very existence represents a desire in the gaming community for a return to early point and click adventure games. When I was growing up, Realmz was my absolute favorite game. Realmz is a fantasy adventure RPG only developed for the […]
This week I played The Beginner’s Guide, the latest effort from Davey Wreden, creator of the much-lauded The Stanley Parable. The Beginner’s Guide, much like that game, is a short experience, built in Source, and as The Stanley Parable is a commentary on agency and game design, The Beginner’s Guide […]
Our work at NYMG has always been in service of making games better for everyone. This includes the community that loves games, the industry that makes them, and the academics that talk about them incessantly (myself included). Some people don’t like the way we go about this. In particular, some […]
I have a pile of shame of epic proportions and with the recent release of new collectible games and Nintendo offerings this pile of shame has been extended to include my daughter. One night this week at bedtime she informed me that when she came home from school the next […]
(No direct spoilers here for episode five, but instead just general discussion of narrative structure and larger considerations of the game as a whole.) Since the release of the first episode, my experience with Life Is Strange has been a series of ups and downs, but as the story has come […]
I worry that have been falling out of love with video games. The drive I used to have to finish this quest line, explore that new area, or be the first to beat that new game has been waning. I’m not gaming less, by any means, but my gaming has […]
I’ve been thinking about cheating and games a lot lately. It’s not surprising. At least half the time, when I give my elevator pitch, whoever I’m talking too equates what I study, gaming community support sites and the information gamers share there, with cheating. Responses like “You mean those ways […]
We are pleased to announce the debut of the first installment of the Invisibility Blues series, along with its new home here on NYMG. In this first episode, we look at character creation in a variety of games, focusing on selectable features, game lore, and the potential impacts of limitations. […]
Episode 113: Scared Shitless and Loving It: What to Play, Watch, and Read This Halloween (Right click and save as to download, or find us on iTunes, Stitcher, or TuneIn). The episode where we talk about all of our favorite scary books, games, and movies that we’re using to put us in the […]
Alisha and I are heading to a conference this weekend to talk about our work on Invisibility Blues (and maybe a little something else). It’s exciting. It’s fun. It’s great that people see the value in the work that we are doing and think that we can help them in […]
Recently, I played through Kiva Bay’s game 12hrs, a game in which players are thrust into the role of a homeless woman trying to survive the night. Suffice to say, 12hrs is a harrowing experience in general, but unusually so here because I initially played as part of a group. […]