[This piece was written as a part of Critical Distance‘s June 2016 Blogs of the Round Table feature] Videogame fiction, like a lot of adventure fiction for young people, places the central character in the position of rescuing a loved one. Often the loved one our hero must rescue is a damsel in distress with an implicit … Continue reading A Family That Plays Together
When I was 12 my family drove south through Atlanta, Georgia. We never stopped, we just drove right through to see some family friends in Orlando. But of that week vacation what I remember most vividly is passing through Atlanta and looking up from the freeway at the myriad of lit up skyscrapers and just … Continue reading On Cities
If somebody were to make a game out of that one twitter bot that proposes random situations (@AndNowImagine) the result would look something like Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. I really enjoy the game (Review: Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. PopMatters. Feb 19 2014.), though I admit that I had an extended honeymoon phase with … Continue reading Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII and Defamiliarization
[Originally posted on PopMatters] There are certain conversations in games journalism and criticism that are recycled every few months. Among them is the status of JRPGs and by extension Final Fantasy. For those that grew up with avatars that possessed bright spiky hair and RPGs focused on turn-based combat, it’s a little sad that once … Continue reading Alas, Poor Final Fantasy, I Knew You Well
[Originally posted on PopMatters] I’ve saved a lot of worlds in over two decades of playing video games. It’s refreshing that modern games are more personal than ever and that they don’t have to lean on something as ostentatious as saving the world to get their point across. Still, I have to confess that I’m fond … Continue reading Natural Heroes: Inevitable Environmentalism in Games
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