It’s been interesting to observe the ongoing shitstorm about sexism and misogyny in games as it pulses through the loosely knit ‘gamer’ community, particularly from the perspective of someone who agrees to some extent with people on both of the…
Ten days ago, I drove 500 miles. It took ten hours. I listened to music and podcasts and ate crappy diner food and watched the scenery slide by interminably at great speed, fields turn to mountains turn to forests. Quite…
I don’t seem to play games the way I used to any more. Studying game design changes you. To a certain extent, the change happens when you just play enough games, but actively studying their design catalyzes a greater change.…
There’s been a great deal of debate out there as to whether or not games are art. Well, it’s a very silly debate, since it mostly ends up with a bunch of people who have one definition of art arguing…
This is the song that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friends. Some people started singing it not knowing what it was, and now they keep on singing it forever just because this is the song that…
Sometimes, it is very hard to write. A couple of months ago, I went with a friend to a cafe to do some work. I had intended to try to do some programming, but when I tried to make my…
We keep finding ourselves as amnesiacs and strangers in the games we play. There are practical reasons for this, which have been frequently mentioned by other authors and by myself, in the realms of narrative and game design. The most…
So for the last couple of weeks I’ve been experimenting with these shorter-form essays, 300-500 words, and for the most part I’m really digging the results. 500 words is the perfect length, I think, to capture an idea, and usually…
One of the criticisms I often see levied at World of Warcraft and other such MMORPGs is people saying that playing them is ‘like work.’ By this they mean, I believe, that the gameplay involves a lot of more-or-less tedious…
I have been thinking about sorrow, because I feel sad, or at least morose. I think of Silent Hill 2, and what a powerful experience it was for me because, unlike most games, it was unrepentantly tragic. I like the…
