tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369217392011-08-22T07:42:30.613-05:00<b>Re. digital life:</b> game reviews; design esoterica; abstruse and cockeyed musings on the downfall of digital entertainment, the betrayal of its liberatory potential, and our collective passage into a twilight of undifferentiated mass-market muck.suibhnenoreply@blogger.comBlogger121100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921739.post-72465546724516865762007-07-25T18:11:00.000-05:002007-07-26T15:40:57.684-05:00

I just returned from the American Library Association's Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium, and I have a long list of topics to address over the next few weeks (in between writing papers for Postmodern Cinema...). Keynote speakers included luminaries like Henry Jenkins and Jim Gee, and the setting afforded three days of conversation about both analog and digital gaming - not just its place

suibhnenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921739.post-81854322542815534532007-06-29T13:39:00.000-05:002007-06-29T13:54:21.859-05:00

My current diet of gaming podcasts is sporadic, but I semi-regularly catch the AngryGamer podcast and the GamersHell Podcast (from the "Eat My Bomb" squad). I recommend both, but I'd like to comment specifically on one of GH's recent topics.(Well, "recent" may be a stretch. The cast dates from mid-March, when I first drafted the outline of this response.)The episode in question features Ruckus

suibhnenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921739.post-80754380219383216082007-06-27T10:12:00.000-05:002007-06-27T15:35:36.588-05:00

In Tuesday's post, I mentioned Henry Jenkins' recent Convergence Culture. For those interested, here's my capsule review on Amazon:Henry Jenkins is one of the least dogmatic, most pragmatic voices on contemporary media culture. Unlike many other critics of electronic games and culture, he doesn't slavishly follow any particular school of thought; Jenkins consistently charts his own path, based

suibhnenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921739.post-47265435807444471192007-06-26T10:39:00.000-05:002007-07-27T11:12:37.349-05:00

Word on the street is that the American Medical Association is rethinking an internal proposal to recognize "videogame addiction" in the next DSM. The internal report is relatively nuanced, but its controversial recommendation to offer diagnosis criteria in the next DSM has occasioned the most current debate. The AMA's approach is cautious, far from the hysterical treatment we've been conditioned

suibhnenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921739.post-91187404806932747042007-06-19T13:16:00.001-05:002007-06-21T14:18:41.115-05:00

I've had a mess of ideas percolating on the back-burner (is that technically a mixed metaphor?), but the past two months or so have been chaotic, with little opportunity to write. This too will pass.In the meantime, swing by the New York Times Magazine for a brief photo essay pairing real-life players with their online avatars. The photos themselves aren't surprising to me; I've used visual or

suibhnenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921739.post-56697511387073947042007-03-10T19:04:00.000-06:002007-03-11T13:02:12.685-05:00

I ended my commentary on Mass Effect's dialog system with this statement:...game designers too often forget that gaming is inherently abstracted, and there's no shame in this. If designers truly wish to offer "cinematic" experiences, why not take a cue from cinema and develop games which celebrate, rather than hide, the constraints on immediacy and interactivity inherent in our medium?That

suibhnenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921739.post-23777082797204967802007-02-09T11:09:00.000-06:002007-03-09T16:53:35.601-06:00

Apropos my earlier post on world-creation and the lack of innovation, take a look at GameShadow's "Innovation in Games" Awards. The results are a great overview of the vanguard of contemporary game design, and many are available for free (and others, like Psychonauts and Phoenix Wright, belong in every gamer's library regardless of cost). Some games received honors simply for pushing

suibhnenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921739.post-1169759339754567492007-01-25T13:52:00.000-06:002007-03-09T16:52:08.999-06:00

You can't accuse Canadian RPG developer Bioware of an overabundance of innovation. I don't intend that as an insult; Bioware has turned in more than its share of smash market successes, and its 1998 hit Baldur's Gate has even been credited (by particularly credulous reviewers possessing a weak grasp of history) with "saving" the PC CRPG market. But Bioware's achievements have generally been

suibhnenoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921739.post-1163188327095759262006-11-10T12:45:00.000-06:002007-06-20T16:30:18.121-05:00

I recalled Origin Systems while reading Barrington Bayley this morning, over coffee and a breakfast burrito at the hippie joint down the street. A British "new wave" sci-fi author involved with New Worlds in the '60s and '70s, Bayley never became a household name in the U.S., but his work genuinely merits the description of "speculative fiction". I can't think of another author so adroit at

suibhnenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921739.post-1162356013755697172006-11-07T10:39:00.000-06:002008-11-18T19:16:44.762-06:00

Rating: Summary: When she was good,She was very good indeed,But when she was bad she was horrid. (Longfellow)Updated 20.6.07.IntroductionDark Messiah of Might and Magic arises from a curious lineage.The most obvious antecedent is its own brand. The Might and Magic franchise is best known to contemporary gamers for Heroes of Might and Magic, a dominant turn-based strategy series since 1995 and now

suibhnenoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921739.post-1162489990680557362006-11-02T10:36:00.000-06:002007-03-09T21:07:56.941-06:00

There are obviously many things which we do not understand, and may never be able to.- Leela, Operations AI for the UESC MarathonIt's difficult for me to untangle the roots of my degeneracy. History's funny like that. But I'm pretty sure the first cause, the primal cause, is Bungie's Marathon series.These groundbreaking games were released between Doom and the original Quake, and the only reason

suibhnenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921739.post-1162344880128051032006-10-31T19:31:00.000-06:002007-06-20T13:47:09.825-05:00

Part the First.This is a work in progress. I'm convinced it's not the best way to do things, but I'm equally certain it'll have to do for now.That said, I approach games with a peculiar hierarchy of concerns:1. Story comes first in my book. This doesn't mean a game needs a strong central story; it could, like the original Fallout, feature strong storytelling without presenting a complex story.

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