[originally posted on Unwinnable] Videogame interactivity is so great. Who wants to watch a hero when you can be the hero? That’s the promise games keep giving us on the back of the box, isn’t it? But they seldom deliver on that promise. Games welcome their players to a world, lay out a central conflict … Continue reading View From the Side
[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
I’d like to expand on some of what I’ve said in my article for The Border House on sexism in a scene of Breath of Fire 4 (“Sexism and Power Dynamics in Breath of Fire IV.” The Border House. Mar 13 2013). In the scene, a main character, Nina, must work for a minor character, … Continue reading Deconstructing Another Castle: How the Damsel in Distress Trope Fails to Move Plots
I haven’t been very diligent about this blog lately, have I? So I’ll give an update: I reviewed Tryst (Review of Tryst. PopMatters. Oct 5 2012) and then I wrote about it (“The Value of the Soldier.” PopMatters. Oct 9 2012). To summarize: Tryst is okay but it loses itself in its goals. Essentially, it … Continue reading Where Tryst Fails at Being StarCraft
Earlier this week I celebrated my twenty-fifth birthday and, while I don’t want to get too shmlatzy about the whole ordeal, the day was marked by that same arbitrariness/ceremony/ennui that all birthdays come with after puberty. I’m an adult. I have been for a few years now. But now it’s starting to hit home a … Continue reading On “Grown Up” Games
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