Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea and Michael Koloch’s The Old Man Club can help us understand the costs of certain representations. After reading The Old Man and the Sea I realized that there was some gendering in regards to animals and oceans. Typically, old man Santiago, the protagonist, would refer to the sea…
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…
So far in this class, we have played a variety of games dealing with moral choices as well as discussed them in class. As I see it, it’s possible to divide games with a moral aspect into three categories: (1) social issue games, which deal explicitly with issues with a moral dimension, and make this…
Games have space. This is one of the core components of game design, and something that every designer must consider. What is the space of your game? What are the rules? What are the challenges? How do they interact to form a system that is compelling? Space is one of the more ambiguous categories, as…
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…
I’m writing this post because I don’t play video games. The only game I can remember playing is Spyro on PS1 when I when I was in middle school (I’ll let you figure out how old I am) . I’m barely even a casual gamer–I did play a little Candy Crush and Fruit Ninja when…
Considering the endings of Queers In Love At The End of The World and The Stanley Parable in conversation with each other reveals different ways of determining what to value in games. There are multiple endings in the Stanley Parable, and the end that Stanley meets is determined by player choices. Once an ending…
In the article “Videogames of the Opressed,” (http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/firstperson/Boalian) Gonzalo Frasca says of the Sims: “The fact that the best-selling game of the year 2000 was about people is a clear sign that videogames are on their way towards maturity.” He goes on to repeatedly make the connection between humanity and maturity in games. This intrigued…
As a few of our readings explained, the notion that videogames should be fun (and form of escape) is why some gamers are so resistant to games being critiqued for being racist or sexist, or why they’re so resistant to games addressing social issues. When I read last week’s readings, and when folks in class…
