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 […]
Yearly Archives: 2014
249 posts
So its no secret that the Lego games are a big deal in my house. Some of them have even been purchased multiple times so that mama can play them on her handhelds while also playing them cooperatively on the full sized consoles with Pea. We have played Lego games […]
Please fine NYMG’s official Twitch Stream at twitch.tv/nymg This evening (Saturday Feb 22) from 4-6pm [edit, actually from 12:30-2:30] Alex will be Twitch streaming Hearthstone. Please join in and check it out! This past week has been filled with a lot of gaming. No, not Lego Movie (because I beat […]
Episode 72: Lady Legs and Tentacle Monsters: What Will You Do for a Game? (“Save As” to download or head over to iTunes to subscribe) The episode where we talk about the things that we are willing to put up with (or not) in order to play games. A fun and thought […]
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 […]
In my recent Power Hour review on Broken Age, I wrote about the part of the narrative that interested me the most: the particularly obvious contrast between the main female character, Vella, and the other female characters. My initial play brought up several questions about the treatment of gender in […]
Trigger Warning: This post quotes some racist, sexist, homophobic and inappropriate language and behavior, and discusses general trolling in online games. “WHAT THE HELL you got raped” “Looking for a female healer and dps for a holy lesbian orgy” “fag” “if you liked sailor moon you also like anal penetration… […]
Nothing makes me realize the power of nostalgia like thinking about the Coleco handheld sports games of my childhood (1976). In my mind there can never be a better game than the little football game that consumed so much of my time. While the graphic consisted of little blips of […]
Trigger Warning: the game about to be described (The Day the Laughter Stopped) and the content of this article discusses and addresses rape and sexual assault An interactive fiction game – although in truth it more closely resembles an interactive narrative/fiction experience than what I’d personally define as a game […]
Looking for a game that can make you a better person? That’s one of the goals behind the upcoming game Nevermind, a biofeedback enhanced adventure horror game. The game works to teach players to manage stress and anxiety by monitoring the player’s heart rate. If the biofeedback indicates the player […]
Might & Magic X: Legacy is the much-anticipated tenth installment of the Might & Magic series. Fans of the game have had to wait more than a decade since the last title, so it had a bit of buzz surrounding its release on January 23rd. Because most fans of the […]
I spent the entire weekend playing games. That is, the entire weekend after Samantha (forcibly) made me drink Fireball Whiskey on Friday night and I spent the next two days on the couch with a headache. This isn’t an official power hour review or anything, but I just cannot think […]
This is a question that I have gotten asked a million times in the two decades that I have been teaching. I have heard this question from teachers, students, and folks in the games community/industry. And it’s a question that folks have struggled with for a long time before i […]
This past weekend during the Super Bowl thousands took to Twitter to address their concerns over representation in advertisements during the various commercial breaks that are arguably as watched as the game itself. Each tweet called out various offenses that a number of companies were guilty of – lack of […]
Episode 71: The Unconventional Dwarf: An Interview with Tof Ecklund and Rhiannon Reyes (“Save As” to download or head over to iTunes to subscribe) The episode where we talk to Tof and Rhiannon about their new book on creating non-traditional/non-standard characters in Role Playing Games and anything else that we can think […]
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 […]