Author: Mark Filipowich

Mark Filipowich is a media critic whose work can be found on PopMatters and The Border House, Medium Difficulty, Game Church, Unwinnable, Nightmare Mode and The Ontological Geek. Many of his articles have been re-posted by Gamasutra, Critical-Distance and Good Games Writing
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Imagine the Power: Disembodied Violence in Fantasy Traditions

Violence is paramount to maintaining fantasy fiction and disembodied violence is a pillar of the fantasy genre. Disembodied violence is the celebration of violent power, or the expression of violent power against unthinking but vaguely human-shaped antagonists; it’s the kind of violence that isn’t really violent because it doesn’t take place against another person. Take Iron Man 2: in … Continue reading Imagine the Power: Disembodied Violence in Fantasy Traditions

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Cities of Magic

I’m not sure how to define cyberpunk. Oh, I can recognize it, but I’m not sure if I know how to pare it down to a digestible one-sentence review. I know that I can easily look the answer up online, but I’m more interested in how people categorize it not as a list of features … Continue reading Cities of Magic

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A Place of Refreshment: A reading of the bathroom scene in Binary Domain

About two-thirds of the way through Binary Domain, the player enters the evil Amada Corporation’s tower of evil. It’s a sleek, modern, generic company headquarters. The player walks by a bathroom and a teammate, Shindo, halts the team’s progress so he can step inside to make use of it. During this time, security attacks the rest … Continue reading A Place of Refreshment: A reading of the bathroom scene in Binary Domain