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 […]
depression quest
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Recently, as I re-read Raph Koster’s A Theory of Fun for Game Design, I kept thinking about the differences between the games Koster was using as examples and the games I’ve most often been writing about lately, the indies and the so-called walking simulators, games that often have low levels […]
Since playing The Beginner’s Guide, I’ve continued to wrestle with the various definitions and boundaries of just what a game is, considering the ever-expanding sphere. Even if I think only of recent releases, there are games without fail states, like Submerged, and that also have no real win conditions, like Her […]
Episode 109: Games, Identification, and Culture: A Conversation with Adrienne Shaw (Right click and save as to download, or find us on iTunes, Stitcher, or TuneIn). Not a milestone episode numerically, but what a shift: we added contributor Bianca Batti to the podcast crew (finally!) and were joined by our dear friend Kishonna Gray and […]
I recently read a great article from FemHype that focused on the problematic, one dimensional representation of mentally ill characters in video games. Lindsay Goto, author of the article, analyzed the insanity trope in depth, writing about the portrayal of mentally ill characters as either crazed antagonists with a violent agenda […]
The term “serious games” is problematic. We play for fun and enjoyment, yes, but the idea behind serious games is that they are somehow more impactful…more real…than other games. But these games also try to fill a void that is lacking in the world of AAA titles and platformers. Serious […]
*Trigger Warning: brief discussions of suicide follow as well as discussions of depression below.* The news of actor and comedian Robin Williams’ death by suicide came to my attention from all sides this week. My family was talking about it in person as it buzzed across the daily news. Across […]