[Originally posted on PopMatters] I want to like Deponia. I wanted to like it from the first frame of the cute tongue-in-cheek tutorial. The worst part about not liking it, though, is that there isn’t anything really wrong with it specifically that I can’t pin on the entire point-and-click adventure genre. For those that skip … Continue reading Review: Deponia
In my most recent article I talked about heroism in video games and how few protagonists are forced into an undignified position (“Forced Failure and the Undignified Hero.” PopMatters. Jul 23 2012.). Arguing games as a literary media runs into a wall with the word “game.” A few years ago, Roger Ebert wrote an article … Continue reading Why More Games Need to Make us Fail
[Originally posted on PopMatters] Games are about agency. They also blur the line between character experience and audience experience. The audience is the main character in a game, and the events of the story impact the audience directly. All that holds immense narrative potential, of course. In a game, then, the hero’s victory is the … Continue reading Forced Failure and the Undignified Hero
I have mixed feelings on Game of Thrones. After watching the first season I wavered back and forth before ultimately deciding I liked it. The book was about 600 pages too long and it lacks the flow and coherence of the show, but what George R.R. Martin couldn’t do on his own, HBO managed to … Continue reading The Dark Ages and the Unromance of Game of Thrones
[Originally posted on PopMatters] After two seasons on the air, Game of Thrones has captured the hearts of everyone on the internet. The books may have been popular, but it was HBO’s series that made it into the phenomenon that it is. Since the adaptation hit the airwaves it has been ripe for gamification. Games … Continue reading Cable TV of Thrones: Why Game of Thrones Does Not Work as a Game
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