Later this week, I’ll also be at Games+Learning+Society with Alex and Kishonna, presenting a Well Played of my own on State of Decay. I’ve been such a strong advocate for the game through two releases (and DLC), but here I’ll finally be able to draw the various themes and lines of inquiry I’ve […]
One of the things that my daughter and I have done since she was old enough to pick in a high chair at the table with me and wield a kid sized knife is cook together. When she was little more than a toddler “cooking” looked a lot like mushing […]
Nine strangers sit in a circle, myself included, as my partner walks around. He’s waiting to see who we vote for. Because at least two of the people in the circle are Werewolves, and have been eating villagers left and right. The village had already failed to identify the Werewolves […]
This year at the Games+Learning+Society conference, I’ll be presenting with my friend and colleague Cody for the Well Played series. Our presentation, titled “Just Give me the Controller: Scaffolded Learning, World Building, and the Witness,” will focus on how the game The Witness is able to create an environment that […]
In response to a 2014 essay in First Person Scholar by Miguel Penabella, Jim Gee said, “For me, what makes a video game good is a loving marriage between game mechanics and content,” a simple statement that feels like a summary of much of the ludic theory we work with […]
Episode 133: On Toxic Activism with Gil Almogi: Ignore the Trolls and Focus on the Systems (Right click and save as to download, or find us on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or TuneIn). This week we talk with freelance games writer Gil Almogi (@gilmeansjoy) about games, social media, and the work of activism. Gil […]
In the recent weeks and months I have found myself asking the question over and over again, “Why would you shoot an unarmed or restrained person when they were not a threat?” and the answer has bounced back and forth between hatred and fear. Or perhaps more accurately the hatred […]
Not long ago, I wrote about looking at some of the studies on how men see women (and vice versa, and how we see our own genders) from a game design angle. Studying what eye trackers reveal about how we look at bodies can tell us a lot about media, […]
Recently Jessica Lachenal at The Mary Sue wrote a post about what The Mary Sue means to her. She was preceded by many contributors and readers doing the same, and they talked about topics ranging from (finally) getting paid for one’s work to the importance of positive fan reaction. It […]
In December of 2013, I’d just started dating my partner. I was also working a dead-end job in an attempt to lessen the debt I was digging myself into by going to college. That job sent me to Terre Haute for a good portion of my winter break, where I […]
CW for sexual violence in this post, and some of the content may be considered NSFW. Earlier this week, Compulsion Games’ released a preview version of We Happy Few, the nightmarish dystopian game set in a drug-fueled alternate-reality 1960s England. As this game speaks to everything I love—weird visual styles, […]
The Hunt for Red Panda ($2.99) is a new mobile game from Zagrava Games. The Hunt For Red Panda goes well beyond your typical hidden object game. We want to instill in players the idea that paintings need to be appreciated and preserved for future generations — and to teach them […]
This exploration of feminist games studies is a continuation—begin with part one here. Alisha: I think if we want to talk about the need for feminist games studies, we also have to take a minute to consider—briefly—the history of games studies, and maybe also the points at which feminist research […]
I’m never quite sure who decides which games should get sequels, and why. But, if you had told me three years ago that NieR: Gestalt and Replicant was going to get a sequel, my initial comment would have been someone else played that game? NieR: Gestalt and Replicant (Square Enix) […]
As most readers are no doubt aware, Pokemon Go has swept the world. Despite having a terrible interface, completely unreliable servers, no tutorial or manual, and limited creativity in gameplay, many, many people still find the game absolutely enjoyable. I myself have spent hours and hours every day since I […]
Episode 132: Fade to White: Colorblind Racism in Games (Right click and save as to download, or find us on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or TuneIn). This week we talk about what role race and racism play in representation and characterization in video games. Our conversation gets deep, we talk about the foundations of […]