On Point and Click Adventure Games with Creator Joel Staaf Hästö

Point and click adventure games, says Kathy Rain and Whispers of a Machine creator Joel Staaf Hästö, hit a "sweet spot" between puzzles that exercise logical thinking and stories that stimulate emotions.

                                      
Film
    
        Through the Looking-Glass of Black Mirror's 'Bandersnatch'
    
Jesse Kavadlo

        07 Jan 2019
    
Books
    
        How Does One Condense the World of Video Games into a Mere 64 Objects?
    
Sarah Boslaugh

        06 Nov 2018
    
Games
    
        Masks, of Course, Can Be the Subtlest of Traps -- as Seen in 'Ready Player One'
    
Kym Buchanan

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In 'Mass Effect' While You Stare into the RPG, the RPG Stares Back into You

Just as you interrogate your companions and enemies in order to understand them and their worlds, the game reveals itself to have been questioning you. What kind of player are you? What kind of person?

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Community and Collaboration in 'Battle for Wesnoth'

The one part of gaming that can lay claim to true, untarnished ‘freeness’ is the open-source world, where other incentives besides profit drive creativity.

Television

'Westworld' Ponders the Lives of NPCs

Westworld seems less interested in examining traditional protagonists than interrogating the behaviors and abuses of a fictional world's props, its non-player characters.

Games

'Undertale' and Immanuel Kant: Ethics in Video Games

Undertale invokes (consciously or not) the ethics of Immanuel Kant, and in doing so, it ushers in a new era of video games as art.

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'The 100 Greatest Console Video Games' Chooses Style Over Substance

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Moving Pixels Podcast: The Greatest Couples in Video Games

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Why Don't Videogames Have Their Own Criterion Collection?

Though the video game industry bases itself on forward progression, the rich history of the medium is being underserved by the lack of preservation for older, essential games.

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Books

'You' and the Minutia of Coding Vintage Video Games

Austin Grossman's You is kind of like one long advertisement for the sanctity of the video game and the coolness of working in the video games industry.

Games

A Space for the Boys: Considering the Gendered Quality of Arcade Culture

My own arcade was called the Gold Mine and featured a facade of a 19th century mine entrance as the portal to entry. Greeting one inside, though, were simply rows of machines spread across a rather filthy and threadbare carpet and a cacophony of bleeps and bloops. Most often there was nary a girl in sight.

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People Are Sickening: The Bug's Eye View of Pandemic Games

Pandemic sims like Plague, Inc. create a marvelous kind of satire with ecological undertones.

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Paying Too Often for Sex in Video Games

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Games

The Good, the Bad, and the Moral: An Exploration of Ethical Questions in the Gaming World

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The Pleasures of Playing in an Economy of Pain

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Music

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Games

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Games

The Strength of Dialogue in 'Enslaved'

Last year’s Enslaved: Odyssey to the West remains one of the best written games that I’ve ever played thanks to a script that goes out of its way to imply more than it explains.

Games

Self Indulgence or Self Realization?: Sony's “Michael” Ad

What Sony's ad might recognize about games is my own self indulgence, as constantly trying on the roles of heroes is a pretty narcissistic pastime.

Games

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Visual Arts

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A little nostalgia goes a long way. Sometimes, you get so lost in looking at a thing that you forget that it's not real. Or at least, you want to forget that it's not real.

Games

The Problem of Genre in Video Games

Despite the wide variety of forms that games come in, the number of genres and the distinctions between them are confusingly small.

Games

The Art of Place in Hitman: Blood Money

A game isn’t just its content or game design alone, but rather, the space created when all these pieces come together.

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The Guild: Seasons 1 & 2

Only a keen understanding of the gaming culture could generate such a dedicated, enthusiastic audience.

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The Hipsters of Gaming

The new role of the hardcore gamer in their own subculture.

Games

DHARMA's Bent Reality: The Video Game Sensibility of Lost

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Games

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Games

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