Games have taught us to fight, to follow orders and get the job done, because if we do, we’ll be rewarded in some way. Fewer games have taught us to reflect on what we’re doing, and why. We can reflect on our own, of course — that’s a lot of […]
Alisha Karabinus
185 posts
Because it is terrifyingly easy to lure me into anything related to attempted organization, I’ve recently made a bullet journal. The idea is simple: a self-designed journal/planner that allows more flexibility than a traditional planner (something I’ve never been able to keep). I keep to-do lists, and notes, and love […]
Work on Dishonored 2 took time, such time that there’s no chance of the story purposefully mimicking too much of what’s happening in the world now, but then again, the story of what’s happening in the world now is an old one, a repeated cycle of suffering, the haves not […]
I’m not a completionist, as a rule. I don’t have to get all the achievements or find all the secrets or upgrade all the weapons just because. Sometimes these goals feel arbitrary, and frankly, I’ve got better things to do. But there are some goals I will pursue, lying in […]
A note: I’ve only played through on low chaos with Emily so far, so while I’ve read about high chaos choices and Corvo playthroughs, I speak from the vantage of only intimately knowing my own adventure to reclaim Emily’s throne. Note also: spoilers here! When Emily was revealed as the […]
We’ve been writing a bit about Westworld from a games studies perspective because it’s fascinating, but also because it’s a big, beautiful, visual version of so much we discuss already, and for me, with my interests in how we continue to think about the magic circle, and about player experience […]
It’s election day here in the United States! Jane McGonigal’s Reality Is Broken opens the way I open most conversations with games scholars: with a discussion of the idea of a game. What even is a game, anyway? Where she differs here from most, however, is that instead of discussing […]
I spend a lot of time, much more time than I should, thinking about just what games are. Not what they mean to us, though also that, but what they are, where they begin and end, and what place we the players have in considerations of games. This is a […]
Some spoilers here for the second episode of the third season of Black Mirror, “Playtest.” The shift of Black Mirror to Netflix, with the release of the third season of the dire science-fiction show just in time for Halloween is making some waves. Black Mirror has got to be one of […]
For the marathon this past weekend (remember: you can still donate!), I played Hearthstone and then Left 4 Dead 2, and for the first time in the long hours I’ve put into the latter, I did not invert the controls. For years, I’ve been inverting Y axes in dozens of […]
Last week, a friend mentioned the recently released film The Girl With All the Gifts, and its associated book. I’d never heard of either, but it’s no surprise to anyone around here that I’m a huge zombie nerd, so the trailer immediately caught my attention, because it’s a human story […]
As we’ve talked about on the podcast, Sam and I have both been reading Katherine Isbister’s How Games Move Us, but while she’s been open chatty, I’ve been reserving my thoughts. For me, there’s a lot to wrestle with, because the book directly engages with a lot of ideas I’ve […]
I’ll be blunt: I didn’t want to play Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, but with the controversy around the game’s engagement with/appropriation of (depending on whom you ask) racial issues and activist movements, it’s an essential experience for someone looking for the human in the code. Mankind Divided promised humanity in […]
Dex, a Kickstarter-funded 2D sidescroller cyberpunk RPG (that’s a mouthful) originally available in early access in 2014 recently hacked its way onto consoles, with PS4 and Xbox One releases this summer. As a fan of cyberpunk worlds, choice-based games, and running in profile down long hallways, I figured I’d give […]
On the way to the (final!) Games+Learning+Society conference last week, my friend and co-presenter Tony and I were talking about hard games, and failure. We focused on how games were organized during the arcade era, around the lives bought with a quarter and how this helped shape not only games, […]
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 […]