Get the new episode! (Right click and save as to download, or hit us up on iTunes or Stitcher) This week, we talked games and mental illness with Philippe A. Ménard, a scriptwriter at Ubisoft Montreal, among other things, who recently held forth on anxiety and depression in gamers at […]
Alisha Karabinus
185 posts
If you’re looking for a terrible, terrifying experience, the kind of thing that will really cap off your Monday, don’t think cinematics, creepy atmosphere, and shadows. Instead, try this horrifying experience The Writer Will Do Something by Matthew S. Burns, a Twine game set in a panicked meeting of game developers […]
Life Is Strange is shaping up to be one of the most innovative games around right now, but the innovation is so invisible and well crafted that you might not even see it. Dontnod’s sophomore effort is taking the dramatic episodic adventure to all new levels with the second installment, “Out of […]
Earlier today, Twitter user Erika Imperial (@icequeenerika) posted a screenshot of Pillars of Eternity, calling creators Obsidian Entertainment out for the inclusion of a Kickstarter-backer’s paid message, a message about the “horror” of discovering a lover was in fact transgender. Erika pulled in noted critic Katherine Cross, and the screenshot […]
This is not your usual NYMG post. I’ve been talking about the Good Game Autoblocker a lot lately. Everyone has; it’s a hot point right now, with talk of blocks as censorship, as people shutting off lines of discourse. I talk about it, I defend it, but I don’t use […]
Interested in writing news stories about gaming and geek culture? We’re looking for a few good writers as we move into a new era — a redesigned site, a stronger focus on presentation, and greater engagement with the industry and community — and we need strong additions to the team […]
Welcome to the newly redesigned Not Your Mama’s Gamer! All the content from the original site is here, but we’ve updated not only the look and feel of the site, but added a number of new features that should help readers more easily navigate content. Over the next few days, […]
Last week, as Offworld was launching, we created a partial list of sites, podcasts, and resources that feature women and/or gamers of color, or that explore cultural issues of interest to those groups. We’ve since updated the list, through our own efforts and some help from friends and fans, and have […]
I don’t know how I end up playing horror games for the site, but here we are again, this time with OSome Studio’s White Night. Then again, I’ll play almost anything with an intriguing art style and I’m a huge fan of noir, so the minute I caught a glimpse […]
Stealth mode is to games what the brokeback pose is to comics. It’s the Rob Liefeld of game design, mysteries wrapped in enigmas wrapped in how in the hell are you even doing that come on now. I’m a croucher. I admit it. Especially in a game I’m just learning, […]
Social media hubs around GamerGate — both sides — have been in rare form this week, with much discussion ignited anew. It’s not surprising, really; a lot’s happened lately, with controversies around Reddit and GamerGate-related subs, GDC and PAX East and the relaunch of Offworld. Yesterday, however, things took a […]
Yesterday, we talked about today’s relaunch of Offworld as a site dedicated to women and minorities in gaming, but we didn’t talk much about why that’s a good thing, or rather, a necessary thing. Since the announcement of the new site, I’ve been watching social media discussions around the move, […]
What exactly marks a good writer? I don’t know that there’s a real answer, even with two creative writing degrees under my belt. I can break down a story and analyze the elements, the way everything fits together, the way it might weigh in on various scales of quality, both […]
Some stories lend themselves well to the episodic format, stories with high drama or emotion, stories that are easily offered in chapters, stories that require, or at least hope for, a little reflection after a segment is completed. Me, I’ve never much associated the Resident Evil franchise with development of […]
Recently, one of the other women on the NYMGamer team shared a link to a Kickstarter for “Girlcraft,” a proposal for a Minecraft knockoff branded for girls. Same ideas, just pink and purple and full of fairies and rainbows. My heart sank as I read the description, but it didn’t […]
As a young child, I played games with both my mother and father in different ways. I remember playing Ms. Pac-Man with my mother; there was a machine in one of the restaurants where she worked, and we huddled over it many an afternoon, taking turns navigating the mazes and […]