Episode 148: It’s All Fun and Games: On Childhood, Play, and Video Games (Right click and save as to download, or find us on iTunes, BlogTalk Radio, Stitcher, Google Play, or TuneIn). This week are joined by early childhood education specialist Heather Bernt (@ece_nerd) of the Cause An Effect podcast and Lauren Woolbright, Assistant Professor of […]
Miscellany
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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 […]
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, […]
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: […]
Recently I was updating my CV, because I’d been putting it off, of course, while things piled up, and when I was done I marveled at how much space was dedicated to collaborative items. If I was in the sciences, that wouldn’t be anything out of the norm, but it’s […]
(This piece contains a content warning for anti-semitic commentary present in some of the links and images) Anyone tuned into the YouTube community who hasn’t been living under a rock in the last two weeks is aware of the current controversy surrounding Disney and YouTube pulling their support for popular […]
A few weeks ago, episode 145, Sometimes You Have to Kill Things: On Games and Self-Care focused on self care and games. Basically the folks chose the games that they play when everything else seemed to be slightly unbearable. The games to “soothe the soul,” as it were. I wasn’t on that podcast […]
When we were offered the chance to do a review of Klonk Games’ 3rd puzzle platform, Shift Happens (Xbox One/PS4/PC), I jumped at the chance because I thought that it would not only be a fun game to play with the kids, but also a fun game to play with […]