The face of game protagonists is looking rather generic. If you were to poll gamers as to what the average playable character looks like, chances are there would be a general consensus among the answers. It’d almost certainly be a white man. He’d likely be in his late twenties or […]
gaming
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As we discussed in our podcast last week, one of the community-selected sales in Steam’s Summer Sale was “Story-Rich Female Protagonist” games. Dr. B and I were decidedly unsure what to think of this category. Of course, one of the first questions she had is whether the creation of this […]
In an effort to promote Namco’s recent edition in the Soul Calibur franchise- Soul Calibur: Lose Swords, a free to play downloadable game available for PS3 – and perhaps in an attempt to boost the fighting franchise’s relevancy, Namco will be offering their players the chance to attain some “season […]
(Ignore the pun, I couldn’t help myself.) Since Ubisoft made their controversial comments last week regarding why they had decided to not include female assassins in their latest addition to the Assassin’s Creed franchise, I’ve seen a lot of problematic justification going around. While plenty of concerned players and developers […]
Last week, designer Tina Gong and her rather innocuous-sounding Happy Playtime app created controversy as it was officially rejected by Apple’s app review committee. Despite any attempts to appeal otherwise, Apple has insisted that Gong’s app will not be available for public access on their iOS store due to its […]
He flirts excessively and inappropriately with women, has an obsessive need to ogle all the attractive ladies around him, and may or may not partner his verbal sexual harassment with physical groping or “loose hands.” Sounds like a gross character right? Not always, because deep down this character might have […]
“Come, tuck yourself into bed / Let me tell a story / Of Lemuria, a kingdom past /And a girl born for glory,” a woman lyrically instructs as the stylized game begins. Much as it’s opening lines suggest, Ubisoft’s new cross-platform RPG Child of Light in many ways resembles a […]
“Casual:” it’s a word that’s laden with hidden meaning in the gaming community. It’s an increasingly popular style of game that’s largely meant to target an audience outside of what might be considered the “core” gaming demographic. It’s the trend of game development companies to increase their funding and attention […]
Virtual reality: the Sims had it long before I was aware that it was something that was possible outside of kitschy sci-fi movies. It was the best and most efficient way to give a Sim some much needed entertainment, if you could afford it anyway. Once the Sim had strapped […]
For me Mario Party showdowns begin long before the actual competition, at least in the early editions anyway. It doesn’t begin the first time we enter a mini-game or a lost duel. No, it begins at the character selection screen where, as long as I’m playing with at least one […]
Back in July of last year Microsoft announced new changes to the multiplayer system for their then upcoming Xbox One. This primarily referred to a reputation system that they would be implementing in an attempt to create a better social community. Today Microsoft announced some new details on the monitoring […]
The other day in my job search seminar class we discussed a topic that seems to make a lot of job-seeking, soon-to-be-graduates flinch: the increasing emphasis recruiters and employers place upon potential candidates’ social media pages. Of course this isn’t anything new, and a rather large number of the class […]
The advertisements that appear on the sidebars of Facebook pages are creepy. It’s true for a number of reasons. For instance I’ve heard stories passed around of people – specifically “edgy” looking girls – who have posted pictures on their personal social media pages only to have their faces wind […]
Games scholar James Paul Gee introduces the idea of an intersection between identity and learning in his book entitled What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy, through which he infers that video games are particularly able to encourage the player to assume the identities and mindsets […]
American McGee has added another game to his portfolio of delightfully twisted fairy tales in Grimm, an episodic series recently debuted on Steam. The game is split into twenty-three individual parts. Each edition follows a traditional story from Grimm’s Fairy Tales, the first of which is currently available for free […]
A video released the other day for the upcoming The Last of Us DLC gave an encouraging glimpse into something that I have come to realize is sorely lacking from video games: female friendships. In the clip Riley (who I was excited to see is a person of color), who […]