It was 6 years ago when I ran into a big, crude-talking, anthro-pomorphized penis shaped gun (in)appropriately named Johnson in Shadow of the Damned and I thought that video games had reached an all time low with offensive sidekick/weapons in video games…until now. I have to admit that I was […]
Monthly Archives: March 2017
15 posts
Many games, particularly smaller indie games, present limited experience, and these limitations can manifest in myriad ways. Firewatch takes place over a single summer. Depression Quest is all text, with text options denied as its driving mechanic. Reigns is a series of yes/no decisions. Some games, though, ask you to […]
One of the things I enjoy most about writing for Not Your Mama’s Gamer is the sense of anticipation I get when a new game I feel particularly passionate about is released. There are always games to write about, of course, but something about knowing that a game I’ve been […]
For me I think it all started with Civilization: Beyond Earth and by it I mean that colonialism saturation point with games. To be honest most games are tales of white saviors and colonialism, but that particular iteration of Civilization was one that I had been anxiously awaiting since it was […]
Last week, I was at an academic conference, presenting on a game I and a colleague created for classroom use. It’s a big conference, and I got to listen to a lot of very smart scholars hold forth on all the things I’m interested in, from first-year writing to games […]
This post is the first in a monthly series where I play, review, and share some reactions to the top 30 board games as determined by Board Game Geek. Board games should not be beyond the reach of serious critical inquiry. Board games crush video games in the Kickstarter arena, […]
Last Saturday, March 11th, my roommate, Nico, and I took part in the Gaming for Good 24 hour livestream. This time, we were raising money for the American Civil Liberties Union, and we met our initial goal (We’re still taking donations till March 31st, however, if you still want to […]
I sit at my dining room table, surrounded by hand-drawn maps and coloured pencils. My laptop is open to Discord, where my friends pester me with questions. They send me detailed descriptions of character history, ask about dragons and gods, allies and enemies. I have books open to carefully calculated […]
Our streams start in less than 7 hours and we all stoked to be playing games for such a great cause! As always we will be hosting one stream per shift on the NYMG Twitch channel, but you can check in to as many as you like using the handy […]
Several weeks ago, I examined Nina Lykke’s Feminist Studies: A Guide to Intersectional Theory, Methodology and Writing in order to consider the ways intersectional methodologies might be used within the field of feminist game studies. I talked about the idea that intersectional methodologies allow for a multiplicity of feminist methods […]
As I’ve talked about before, I’m currently on a board game kick. Of course, considering the 20% per year growth projected over the next ten years, I’m certainly not the only one on a board game kick. Will board games ever surpass video games in popularity and sales? I’m not […]
Video games give us the opportunity to explore some dark social and political ideas in a relatively safe space and to learn a bit about ourselves in the process. Are we willing to kill Nazis, sacrifice children, or leave loved ones behind to discover secrets about ourselves (even if we […]
Last month, I wrote about Reigns, the Tinder-influenced game of decisions, in which players take on the role of a monarch and lead a nation through a dynasty of successive rulers. Since then, I’ve been thinking a lot about the game, about what the interconnected internal structures mean, and what […]
Episode 147: On Streams and Things: A Chat With Girl Tribe Gaming’s Jen (@MotoOnXbox) (Right click and save as to download, or find us on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or TuneIn). In this week’s episode we talk with Jen (@MotoOnXbox) co-founder and podcast host at Girl Tribe Gaming and streamer on Beam What We’re Playing: […]
I walk nervously into my local game shop. I usually go in alone, and as a woman, I typically feel out of place. There are about twenty men in the adjacent room playing Magic and only a few stragglers browsing the impressive board game collection. Today it isn’t my gender […]