When it comes to video game villains, I have always had a soft spot. Growing up, it seemed the good guy was always just one tragedy away from becoming the villain. They had flaws, were often deformed in some way, and were undeniably human. But sometimes, the villain goes too […]
alexlayne
211 posts
This is the the second installment in my series “Video Games I Find Disturbing.” The first was the Binding of Isaac; this is about a game called Viva Piñata; the third is a part of COD MW3. Viva Piñata by Rare is a video game for children. In fact, the […]
Currently I have put in about 12 hours played time on MW3 (for those counting, that’s 12 hours in-game time, not the loading screen and not the lobby). I am currently level 56 (finally I got the claymore) so I feel I have a pretty good handle on what is […]
1. Limbo by Playdead Platform: Steam, PC, XBLA, PSN Cost: $10, free demo Premise: The game itself is very open-ended. You aren’t presented with a story up front, but you do know your character, a young boy, has fallen into the nether-realm of Limbo out the outskirts of hell. […]
At the Extra Life gaming marathon last weekend, I played a good amount of the indie game The Binding of Isaac. Several of us played together, taking turns fighting bosses and watching (often, with horror). This game is straight up disturbing. But, I find it disturbing in a different way […]
Machinima is the reappropriation of animations (and sometimes sound) from a video or computer game, remixed into a different context. For as long as we have had video games, we have had machinima. On the site we focus a lot on video games themselves, but that is not the only […]
As I played the new Mortal Komat, I was struck by how similar this game seemed to the ones I had always played: similar characters, similar scenes, and similar moves. I’d like to imagine that video game companies are under pressure to develop their characters to move away from […]
I’ve been talking (and thinking) a lot lately about the differences between historical accuracy and the perpetuation of past culture (ie. the treatment of women in LA Noir and Madmen). I do have a genuine interest in creating representations of cultures in the past, and I think we can learn […]
I watched the first episode of Mad Men the other day, and I found myself thinking about the line between historical accuracy and a perpetuation of attitudes that we no longer find appropriate. Don’t get me wrong; I appreciate an attempt at historical accuracy, even when it may get […]
So I’m reading this book called Finite and Infinite Play by James P. Carse, a religion professor. His take on play has inspired some interesting possibilities that I can see being very useful in the current debate about gaming and education. First, and he makes this very clear, “whoever […]
I’m writing this post to clear up a few things that were confusing in my last post. What I worry about is not those who work to integrate games into their pedagogy, or even ‘gamify’ their classrooms by embedding things like competition, progress bars/reports, HUDs, quests etc. That has been […]
The reserve army of the bored zombie the earth, fiddling with their cell phones, checking their watches. Boredom is the meter of history. –McKenzie Wark I love games. My friends love games. My students love games. We are a society in love with games: game-shows, reality games, board games, online […]
I’ve been thinking about why so many technical fields are dominated by men. Here is a great chart about the percentage of men and women in various jobs in the gaming industry in 2010 (for more from this study click here):
The idea that fields of technology such as open source programming is a meritocracy is very, very dangerous. It leads to all sorts of discrimination, sexism, and racism. It also leads pretty smart people to say some pretty dumb things. For example, Michael Arrington wrote a piece called “Too Few […]
Well, yes. I’ve argued again and again that gender, race, class, and all sorts of social constructions can be influenced by the way those things are depicted in entertainment media like video games. But, I’m a hypocrite. I would also argue against anyone who claims that violence in video games […]
I’m writing this as a response to a thoughtful article called “If tech discussion was really about tech, it wouldn’t be sexist” by Restructure. The author writes, “There is sexism in tech culture. However, I continue to love tech, because I think of the sexism as a separate, unnecessary appendage […]