Zynga is a particularly interesting company to study because they pioneered a new type of gaming company. Founded in 2007, Zynga led the social game revolution that continues to take in astonishing profits. As of 2013, Zynga has three of the top five games on Facebook and has 265 million […]
Miscellany
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Let me tell you a little story of how a video game made me tell my little girl a lie. Pea and I are nearing the end of the main quest line of Ni No Kuni. And in true RPG fashion we are about 60 hours in. Going in to […]
Episode 53: Lara Croft: Whimpering Idiot or Feminist Icon? (“Save As” to download or head over to iTunes to subscribe) The episode in which we talk about Tomb Raider! It’s a long episode and the first half is us talking about what we’ve been playing (a lot apparently) and the news. In […]
So yeah, this post is going to be about voice. Voice has always been a huge issue with me. Not necessarily with how a voice sounds, but with the absence of voice and what that absence of voice actually means. It’s because of this that The Little Mermaid is one […]
(For those of you who did not read my last blog, this is part of my dissertation which focuses on a visual analysis of video game company policy. Obvs what I put forth in my diss is more nuanced and situated in academicy stuff, but this is more fun.) […]
When the news of Roger Ebert’s passing spread through the Internet, social media sites blew up with people thanking him for inspiring passion in movies, for being a true and honest movie reviewer, and for being a trusted voice in the world of film. Even President Obama had something to […]
This is a visualization based on word frequency. It has not been adjusted in any way. For my diss, I am using a two-pronged approach for analyzing gaming industry company policy. The first is a hermenuetic analysis and the second is a visual analysis. Using various methods of data visualization […]
Episode 52: The Proof in the Pudding: Doing the Academic Gamer Thing (“Save As” to download or head over to iTunes to subscribe) The episode in which we talk a bit about our presentations that were delivered at the 4Cs conference in Las Vegas last week and share our presentations with you. […]
I’ve kind of fallen behind in a lot of things in recent weeks and one of them has definitely been my posts on what it’s like to game with children. Not as in having children, but physically with a child. As we wait for the new Lego City Wii U […]
I spend a lot of time listening to other gaming podcasts and a bit less time watching video podcasts about games. A lot of the folks that I watch and listen to have a lot in common with me older gamers (Gamers with Jobs), female gamers (Ladies of Leet), gamers […]
In case you missed part 1 of Games and Feminist Research Methodology, I’ll give you a brief overview of what I’m up to. My literature review is set up in a way to put fields into conversation that really aren’t in conversation. I make the argument that the research done […]
This post is brought on by two facts this week: 1) video games can be powerful rhetorical tools and 2) I lost someone who means the world to me this week. So if it gets a bit rambly bear with me. I had been playing through Freebird Games‘ Indie RPG, […]
As a woman who plays games I find myself constantly wishing that more games had playable female characters in them. This wish does not stop me from playing the games I love, but when they start to embrace the playable female character I get really excited. This recently occurred when […]
It’s difficult to find provocative topics to write about each week when I am drowning in dissertation work. Right now I’m working on my literature review, which though often a throwaway chapter, is crucial to my argument. The lack of overlap between important fields, and the ways I suggest we […]
Episode 51: Don’t Psychoanalyze Me: A Romantic Valentine’s Day Episode (“Save As” to download or head over to iTunes to subscribe) The episode in which we talk about all of the usual stuff and some deeply twisted stuff under the guise of talking about our three favorite relationships in video games. Links […]
Nicole’s post on video games and art has brought up something for me that is a bit of a sore spot. And that would be Jonathan Blow’s latest whack-a-doodle (yes, that is the technical term) rant on Twitter about “art” games (defined seemingly as those made by him) vs. AAA […]