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I’m taking a break along with the rest of Popmatters for what’s left of 2009. It’s been great year, and I really appreciate you folks stopping by to read Banana Pepper Martinis. At the risk of looking pretentious, I thought I’d throw up a few links to other websites I’ve worked on while I cook up some new stuff for 2010.
Back in June and March The Escapist published two articles by me, The Parables of Gaming, which discusses religion in games and a more personal piece about going 5 days without the internet. I also helped produce a retrospective on The Warriors for EDGE Magazine, although I don’t think that one is online at the moment. Finally, I participated in a large collection of essays on video games with my particular one being on Bully. The other essays in the book can be read from the right column. Personal favorites of mine from the book were Corvus Elrod’s piece on Ultima Underworld and Nick Fortugno’s essay on Shadow of the Colossus. And although it hasn’t been released yet, I put together a retrospective on Ocarina of Time for the soon to be released Kill Screen.
If you’re up for something long and wordy, I’m in the habit of posting my research papers from law school on my personal blog just because I hate to see them go to waste. A very long discourse on Privacy Rights in MMORPGs along with a brief overview of developing issues in Criminal Copyright Law. They weren’t written for a general audience, so they’re not really oriented around being entertaining. But you might find them relevant to your interests. In that same spirit is a history paper on legal changes after the black plague in England.
I also throw up the things on my personal blog that are too academic or too dense to really be read by someone unless they really want to know something. I did a four part series of essays applying Jungian Dream analysis to video games. You can find Part One here. The rest are in chronological order as I completed them, so just scroll into the later months on the blog. There’s also a piece that explains my basic style and reason for producing these kinds of blog posts along with an explanation for how I find the time to produce all this crap. If you liked the Lester Bangs and Pauline Kael write-ups, I went full Book Nerd and wrote a long essay about what Samuel Johnson would bring to video game criticism, a weird ramble about the ending to Battlestar Galactica along with a prime example of me actually trying to be funny were also highlights.
Finally, I was able to produce some retrospectives on some actual video game critics themselves for Critical Distance. The first was about the ARG Pixel Vixen 707 and her too short career. The second was a lengthy piece on Ten Years of Penny Arcade.
It has been a great year, and I’ve had the chance to work with a lot of great people. Have a great holiday season, and again, thank you for taking the time to stop by and check out the BPM along with the rest of Popmatters.
