Balancing in the Middle
For a while there was a trend of providing a moral choice to players: The choice between Good and Evil. My understanding is that this idea probably started with Ultima IV in 1985 – but when I think about “moral…
Category Criticism
Some Steam Reviews I Wrote
Something I’ve been meaning to do for a while, and which I’ve been perpetually putting off, is writing some short Steam reviews for the games I’ve played over the past few years. I have read from many sources that hitting…
Lying’s Pride
We will believe any words said with conviction. Not all of us, not all of the time – sometimes people can tell the difference between flattery and observation, between pleasant lies and harsh truths. Still, as much as you may…
Cogs
As I worked on last piece about Inscryption, I also played Daniel Mullins’ other games, Pony Island and the Hex – primarily out of a desire to not put my foot in my mouth by making over-broad statements on their…
Trouble in Paradise
As the world careens towards apocalyptic dystopia, it is only natural that the dedicated escapists of gaming might crave the inverse – a world that at least functions, that isn’t on fire or ridden with disease or rapidly shuffling malicious…
Bloodborne: Traversing the Threshold
...dreaming and waking, known and unknown, and the ever-shifting boundary between these. Even the player's weapon represents this idea of boundaries and thresholds, flicking between two states on command just as the player navigates the boundaries of dreams.
Interesting Choice
“A game is a series of interesting choices” – Sid Meier The above quote is one of the first foundational ideas one encounters when studying game design. Sid Meier, most well known as the designer of the Civilization series of…
The Building is in the Building is in the Building is in…
There are two kinds of bad procedural content: The first is the generic kind, made by connecting a bunch of random rooms and hallways together, all technically unique but functionally identical. The second is made by connecting pre-authored pieces together…
Multimedia
What’s interesting about games as a medium is that, as I touched on briefly last week, they aren’t a medium in any substantial sense. Yes, there are certain expectations and technical restraints and conventions, but nothing that can’t be easily…
Patrolling the Premises
I recently read this article decrying the famous trolley problem’s newfound fame and ubiquity. While I may have quibbles regarding some of its arguments, I still found it a very interesting and thought-provoking piece. I’d like to, for the moment,…