Must I Say Goodbye?: Leaving Behind jRPGs
The idea of Japanese RPGs vs. Western RPGs seems like a false dichotomy. Rather, it’s just jRPGs vs. everything else.
09 Apr 2012
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'Dear Esther', We’re Moving Past Story
Dear Esther critiques games that use innumerable amounts of game mechanics to communicate experience. It achieves much with just one.
26 Mar 2012
One Day That Wall Is Gonna Fall: Game Design for Everyone
Zia’s song from Bastion wasn’t meant to be a challenge to gaming juggernauts, but it will be on the lips of those leaving GDC this year.
12 Mar 2012
Women, the Ensemble, and Narrative Authority in the 'Final Fantasy' Series
What makes some of the games in the Final Fantasy series interesting is how much the women share narrative responsibility with other characters.
27 Feb 2012
How Could He?: Exploring Social Issues Through 'Dragon Age II'
No one is implying that the LGBT community turn into blood magicians and that the religious march out to cage and murder them, but this conflict still echoes the tensions felt in the lives of real people.
13 Feb 2012
Narrative Is a Game Mechanic
If game mechanics are meant to provide players with experiences such as fun and anxiety, then narrative actually is a game mechanic, as much as game mechanics can also be narrative elements.
30 Jan 2012
Mass Appeal vs. Accessibility in Video Games
Video games reflect themes and skills found in boys’ styles of play as children, and any introduction of qualities that are different from that (especially if tagged as feminine) are cast out as inferior “casual” games.
16 Jan 2012
Those Games Left Off of the "Game of the Year" Lists
Why can't free-to-play games or extremely niche titles be featured on end of the year lists?
02 Jan 2012
Storyline? In 'Skyrim'? No Thanks!
The narrative rests in the relationship between the environment and the items found in it, specifically placed for the player to find and create an explanation.
12 Dec 2011
On Men’s Sexualization in Video Games
Because pornography typically has straight male consumption in mind, its politics leak into games by highlighting how they look at women and other men in porn. We would have to look to pornography made for women and gay men and apply how the camera looks at the performers for a holistic approach to sexualizing characters.
Mattie Brice
Games
28 Nov 2011
Speaking in Accents and the American Ethnocentrism in Video Games
The cultural politics that voice acting implies often escape analysis.
Mattie Brice
Games
14 Nov 2011
Why You Should Give 'Dragon Age II' a Second Chance
It’s possible that gamers haven’t figured out a use for criticism. But one of its uses is the possibility for encouraging new perspectives and second chances.
Mattie Brice
Games
31 Oct 2011
Wikiocracy, or We're All Doomed... Citation Needed
Forget trying to read Wikipedia for the articles. The real story of the human condition is found in their behind-the-scenes creation.
31 May 2011
Locked Content: The Wrong Approach to a Pre-Order Bonus
Why would a game's developer choose to rub in its audience's face the presence of a no-longer-available pre-order bonus?
28 May 2009
Video Game Connection to Tragedy
A look at some of the responses and coverage to the recent school shooting in Germany.
17 Mar 2009
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