Jonathan Harrison, in his TED talk titled ‘How video games can empower real world success’ (link), debunks the commonly held notion that games are a luxury that have little real world benefit. Instead, he talks about the skills gamers develop that transfer to real world settings. One real world benefit he briefly mentioned that I…
Our final class was one of the most memorable experiences I have had in an Amherst class. The Stencyl games I tried out were engaging and impressive, given the timeframe in which we had to complete them. Most fascinating where the various interfaces groups created and incorporated into their games. Enormous card box surfaces placed…
TreaAndrea Russworm, in her book chapter Dystopian Blackness and The Limits of Racial Empathy in The Walking Dead and The Last of Us, proposes four guidelines that help form a framework for critiquing and building racial dystopian narratives in video games. In her final guideline, she writes that “…game design should be a dialogic process…
Quadrilateral Cowboy is a cyberpunk game that delightfully blends 80’s technology with a futuristic edge. The game mainly consists of players using their hacking skills to pull off heists. As the player progresses through Quadrilateral Cowboy, new abilities are unlocked that allow more creative solutions to the hacking challenges found in the game. For instance, players…
Thunderbird Strike (https://www.thunderbirdstrike.com/) allows the player to choose whatever actions they deem appropriate in attaining a narrative outcome. The game’s storyline culminates in the restoration of an oil site from capitalist interests that aim to extract oil and in the process damage the woodland environment depicted in the game. Players can choose to reach…
This post is an answer to an exam question. I chose Escape from Tenopia Island, a CYOA eBook I downloaded, because I found its sci-fi plot interesting. The novel’s plot centers around an apocalyptic event during which my spaceship collides with a meteor. I am the only person to survive the impact, and I abandon…
(This post was a response to an exam question.) The Last of Us is a game I find interesting based on two criteria: the use of vulnerability in the storyline to create a deep emotional connection between the player and the game characters, and the use of an inventory system that reinforces the desperate circumstances…
The interplay between decision making and immersion is an aspect of video games I have recently been contemplating. In games such as Crash Bandicoot, the choices a player makes are limited due to linear storylines and simple game mechanics. Other games such as Assassin’s Creed: Origins create vast open worlds that provide players with a…
During last week’s class, there was a session in which Professor Parham played the text-based online game Cat Simulator 3000 as the class watched. It was interesting to observe the dynamic between Parham and us during her gameplay. I noticed a high level of engagement between us and Parham. Although we were not playing the game, we…
