Consider a few of the common components that comprise a narrative: complex characters, conflict, setting, resolution, dialogue, etc. Is dialogue a necessary element? Is a silent protagonist capable of weaving a powerful story that captivates and inspires? I find that videogames are comparable to picture books because they’re both visual mediums that can be visually read or interpreted. In […]
Yearly Archives: 2015
379 posts
Not long ago, Sam and I wrote about the monetary burden of performing critical work, and that and related issues have been a hot topic lately, with many discussions about gaming, cost, and access going down on social media. In the interest of continuing that discussion, and as part of […]
Episode 100 (Part the Second): From Diversity to Dialogue Trees: A Conversation with Brianna Wu (Right click and save as to download, or hit us up on iTunes or Stitcher) So it wasn’t all parties and mayhem in our celebration of our 100th podcast episode; we also sat down for a very […]
Episode 100 (Part the First): Come Play With Us; Or, “You Had One Job!” (Right click and save as to download, or hit us up on iTunes or Stitcher) What a milestone: 100 episodes! And to celebrate, not one but two episodes, not at all alike in dignity: in the […]
I’ve been waiting for Act 2 of Broken Age for over a year, and it’s finally here! Broken Age, Double Fine’s point-and-click adventure, was released in two parts, and, as I wrote about last year, the end Act 1 sort of broke my brain. Act 1 really impressed me because […]
Last week I wrote about diversity in State of Decay, but I focused on only a very concrete, measurable aspect of diversity, raw numbers, when I broke down the ratios of white characters versus PoC in Undead Labs’ game. As I said in that piece, though, the numbers don’t tell the […]
Would you like to win your own copy of Undead Labs’ State of Decay YOSE, the game that Alisha has been evangelizing for the last few weeks? Here’s your chance! Follow us on Twitter, tweet about the giveaway, or (for the most entries) rate and review us on iTunes or […]
Joseph Garrett is a Minecraft playing star. His alter ego, a mischievous orange and white feline named Stampy Cat, has over 5.6 million subscribers (at the time of this posting) on his family oriented YouTube channel. The seasoned YouTuber caters to his younger audience by utilizing humorous sound effects and […]
Perhaps you’ve already decided this is going to be a piece ripping apart the so-called “dudebro.” That’s fair. I’m occasionally brash. I often believe my opponents are delusional, and I have no problem stating so in an argument. There is a long list of behaviors and beliefs I consider irrational […]
After a short and troubled lifespan, OUYA is reportedly seeking a buyer in the wake of massive debt. According to a memo from CEO Julie Uhrman leaked to Fortune, the company was unable to renegotiate repayment to investors like TriplePoint Capital, from which they seem to have secured funding of more than […]
Imagine a mechanical world that rotates and changes at the push of a button. Monstrous creatures, toe-like in appearance, float up and down the corridors of an old house. You cringe as you hear them spew nonsensical words in odd frenzied voices. They want to transform you into one of […]
A recent study out of Germany, “Sexist Games =Sexist Gamers? A Longitudinal Study on the Relationship Between Video Game Use and Sexist Attitudes,” attempts to assess whether playing sexist video games contribute to sexist attitudes in real world situations. Since its release, members of the gaming community have argued as […]
The very first time I tried my hand at streaming I was hit on. I had just returned from GameStop with my just-purchased gaming headset – I had never really seen the need for one before as I rarely game online – and was a bit giddy to get started […]
Back in 2013, Maddie Myers wrote about what it costs to be a “real” gamer, and when she referenced it recently, we couldn’t help but look around at our own costs of the work we do for this unfunded, volunteer-only site. The harsh reality of games criticism—or, as Myers puts […]
Two of Marvel’s Avengers, Chris Evans and Jeremy Renner, have come under backlash for sexist comments against their female teammate, Scarlett Johansson’s character, Black Widow. In a video interview with Digital Spy, Renner called Black Widow a “slut” and Evans followed up with, “I was going to say something along […]
I’m not one to believe that gaming is a metaphor for life, but sometimes there are some truly uncanny moments and I had one of those this week. Recently my 6 year old started playing Pokemon Y on her own 3DS (she “played” X with me on mine when it […]