One conceptual structure Phillips introduces is “digital death worlds.” She first brings in the concept of death worlds through a reference to Mbembe, and goes on to describe the digital versions as places that allow and even encourage gamers to play with dying and killing. She says that digital death worlds enact mechropolitics, which means…
LaPensée says that her game, Thunderbird Strike “doesn’t judge” the player through its gameplay. In the game, players can control a fantasy bird of thunder to either destroy things that remind of the tyranny of humans over the environment, or create through restoration of animal populations. Whether players choose to destroy, save, or a mixture of both,…
The definition of play is to take on the role of a character or object in a situation. The player becomes the character or object and is responsible for making decisions to advance within the game. In order to be considered playing, the player must have an active role in the game. They must be…
Two criteria that are important to assessing the game Blackbar are the objectives of the game and the role of the player. The objectives of the game are the goals of the game and what the player is trying to accomplish. The role of the player is how the player relates to the character. The…
Growing up, I played Pac Man on an arcade console. It would be a fairly mindless exercise and even when I played it again for the first time in a while this weekend, I just relied on instincts to avoid the ghosts. Needless to say, I have never been very good. Then I began looking into…
Is Pokémon Go racist? That depends. There are two definitions of racism: one societal, the other individual. Societally speaking, racism is the oppression of one race by a dominant race(s). Individually speaking, racism is discrimination based on race. Pokémon Go is racist in the first sense– none of the developers (presumably) meant to make their…
Re: Describe your previous understanding of “play,” one game from this semester, and how that game effected your understanding of play. Before this semester, my definition of play as it pertained to videogames would have been centered on interacting with a game in a way that is fun. Also, playing would have at least required…
Re: Discuss two criteria, apply them to a game, and show how they don’t apply in the same way to a different game Immersion is one important topic to address when discussing the Stanley Parable. By immersion, I mean the player feeling as if they are surrounded by the game’s world. This often is helped…
Twine was one of my first true loves, along with Ren’Py. When I was 14 or 15 and I began wanting to transition from writing stories to writing game stories, Twine and Ren’Py were easy and accessible, with the right amount of programming to teach me something, but not too much that it was impossible to…
I really enjoyed watching the movie “Edge of Tomorrow” but was confused what this movie had to do with videogames. However, the more I thought about the movie, I came to think about how this movie mirrors us playing games. Major William Cage continues experiencing the same events over and over again after he dies,…
