“A Game of Chess”: Breath of Death Is The Waste Land of Video Games

[Originally posted on PopMatters] In the wake of the Great War and a Spanish flu epidemic, T.S. Eliot wrote The Waste Land with considerable help from his friend and mentor, Ezra Pound. Ostensibly, The Waste Land is a shell-shocked reaction to the spreading wars and disease that would define much of the twentieth century. But beyond … Continue reading “A Game of Chess”: Breath of Death Is The Waste Land of Video Games

We Are One: JRPGs, the Group Journey, and the Mechanics of Cooperation

[originally posted on PopMatters] Somewhere during the first third of Final Fantasy VII, as the party grows and events begin coalescing, the protagonist, Cloud, complains that he’s turning into a “three-ring circus.” This is a cute bit of meta-humor as the game followed the then common convention of having party members travel around inside the body … Continue reading We Are One: JRPGs, the Group Journey, and the Mechanics of Cooperation