Episode 149: Now You See Me: On Streaming Games and Representation (Right click and save as to download, or find us on iTunes, BlogTalk Radio, Stitcher, Google Play, or TuneIn). This week in the podcast that was cursed (aka the cursedcast) we talk about streaming, streamers, and representation as an part of our ongoing series […]
Yearly Archives: 2017
143 posts
Trigger Warning: Mentions of Rape, Sexual Assault During my last year of college, I took a film course while getting my English minor. The course itself was pretty fun: an in depth analysis of “bad” film and what made it so bad. The instructor, however, was horrible. While I have […]
I am exactly three weeks away from the end of my Spring semester. Each year I, like most academics, come up with a rigid summer schedule. I’m going to do all the things; I’m going to read all the books; I’m going to play all the games; I’m going to […]
Last night I completed my first playthrough of Mass Effect: Andromeda. This post isn’t particularly about that, my thoughts on that game still need some processing, but as I watched the end credits roll after a difficult but satisfying end-boss encounter, I found myself reflecting on the other game that’s […]
It is no small secret that television isn’t really my thing. I watch a couple of choice (my choice and likely no one else’s) shows and that’s about it. I subscribe to HBO Now for the duration of the Game of Thrones season, I wait anxiously for new Marvel series […]
We got an e-mail last week about good games with troubling elements — so, basically, all games. But the question was: how do we choose the right way to handle games with problems? We have to play the games to understand them, and we want to support devs who are […]
A few months ago, I wrote a couple posts connecting feminist science fiction and feminist SF criticism to the field of feminist game studies as a way of thinking through the ways feminist game studies might draw from the practices enacted in the field of feminist science fiction in order […]
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 […]
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, […]
Last Saturday, March 11th, my roommate, Nico, and I took part in the Gaming for Good 24 hour livestream. This time, we were raising money for the American Civil Liberties Union, and we met our initial goal (We’re still taking donations till March 31st, however, if you still want to […]
I sit at my dining room table, surrounded by hand-drawn maps and coloured pencils. My laptop is open to Discord, where my friends pester me with questions. They send me detailed descriptions of character history, ask about dragons and gods, allies and enemies. I have books open to carefully calculated […]