Recently after our president announced his plan to meet with executives in the video game industry to discuss the level of violence, particularly violence related to guns, children are exposed to in the entertainment medium, Nintendo dropped a surprise announcement for the next Super Smash Brothers installment. Super Smash Brothers, […]
politics
9 posts
Full disclosure, I have read Johan Huizinga’s book Homo Ludens five times. Cover to freaking cover, I have read it five times. That’s about three full times more than I have ever read any book. I have read it so many times because it is like a really good board […]
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 […]
Spoiler Alert: This article contains heavy discussion of the plot and characters of Supergiant Games’ Transistor. I should state now, as a white person who can pass very easily (despite wishing I didn’t) as a straight woman, I have a lot of privilege. I had a lot of privilege before […]
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 […]
To start things off, I’m going to be honest with everyone: I’m not big on sports. I wasn’t just the kid that got picked last for gym class, I was the kid who got a stomach ache so he wouldn’t have to play. I didn’t even have to fake the […]
LEGO has always been fiercely protective of its brand and reputation, and even though their decisions don’t always make sense, they have tried to stay away from politics and violent themes. Their approach has always seemed somewhat contradictory to me. I’ve written about their aversion to politics before, and I […]
Over the years — and particularly, in the last year — the notion that game reviews should be objective, depoliticized, or both, has arisen time and time again, and been debated, discussed and parodied to oblivion. But who are the people asking for objective game reviews? Who thinks they’re possible, […]
Recently, LEGO rejected a LEGO Ideas submission featuring the women of the Supreme Court, citing LEGO’s rule of not engaging with current politics. On one hand, I see their point; I don’t really want political LEGO sets, and I can certainly think of more than a few politicians that I […]