In her book Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World, Jane McGonigal argues that people are playing more and more games because they provide a welcome change from reality. Games are more engaging, more fun, and even in many ways more sociable […]
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In the opening cinematic of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, the titular character Claire “Lightning” Farron stands atop a clock tower, the glow of a fantastical city below her. She dramatically removes the sunglasses off her face, announcing her return not only to the fictional world that has progressed 500 […]
I’ve been playing a lot of Diablo III lately, and not just out of guilt from pre-ordering it when it first came out and never really getting into it. For many reasons that I won’t bore you with here, I chose to explore it as one of three primary case […]
In the first part of this study of Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead, I questioned whether the Bechdel Test was the best benchmark for judging whether or not a piece of media had something to offer in terms of good female characterization. Is the Bechdel Test enough, or does even […]
Warning: discussion of sexualized youth ahead. With the announcement of a US/EU version of Monster Monpiece, a Japanese Vita game featuring both a card game RPG and the vigorous screen-rubbing of virtual girls, some controversy has risen over the game’s cut content. As part of the localization, some of the […]
A video released the other day for the upcoming The Last of Us DLC gave an encouraging glimpse into something that I have come to realize is sorely lacking from video games: female friendships. In the clip Riley (who I was excited to see is a person of color), who […]
With last generation systems being so readily available at great prices this year they made great Christmas gifts and now new owners of these older systems are wondering which games are a solid bet. So this is where I give a totally objective list of 10 great games on each […]
At last: the game I’ve waited for all year, or at least, the beginning of it: the debut episode of The Walking Dead’s second season, All That Remains, starring the young and vulnerable Clementine. For me, this episode’s release was an Event (capital E), and so I hope you’ll forgive […]
Trigger warning: This post discusses and uses cut scenes of (attempted or threatened) rape and violence toward women. It also has some minor plot spoilers for Contrast and Dead Rising 3, but these spoilers take place in the beginnings of both games. I have been a console early adopter for […]
As an avid gamer who is strapped for time, I find that the holidays are turning into my “binge gaming” sessions because of the time off from work. Unfortunately for me, Thanksgiving is held at my parents’ house every year and therefore instead of binge gaming I have had to […]
Today I am working from home like I have for most of the semester because I am on sabbatical and finally have some time to spend some dedicated research time (theoretically anyway), but today I am sitting at the desk in my home office rather than lounging around reading, sitting […]
We opened the week with Alex’s description of 3 Games Studies programs at 3 universities. This is, of course, a mere sampling, but a good place to start. Alisha’s post on (Mis)Representations of Women brought us back to the discussion that we had about MGS’s new scantily clad, mute, female […]
If you’ve been around for more than a month or so you already know my dirty little secret…I’m an early adopter. I buy consoles at launch. I can’t help it. I argue with folks on the podcast about how I’m not going to pre-order something, not going to buy it […]
Last week, Telltale Games finally confirmed what many of us have suspected–or hoped–since we wrapped Season One of The Walking Dead: Season Two will follow Clementine in a post-Lee apocalypse. There’s been no confirmation yet on the timeline for the new episodes, so we may pick up with Clem anywhere […]
For the next phase of my research on game covers, I initially planned to look at this year’s releases, but found myself instead falling through an Internet black hole and browsing the listings for the next generation releases. After I was done calculating all the money I would need to […]
Power Hour Reviews are a new NYMG feature in which we spend one intense hour playing newly released games in order to get a sense not only of the game’s mechanics and characterization, but its narrative as well. Let us spend our time first, so that you don’t have to waste […]