So, a few things happened, and I wanted to bring them up. First, game journo/critic/maven Patricia Hernandez gave my post a write-up on Kotaku which is humbling/gratifying. While I'm not normally a proponent of ignoring comment threads -- I think that sort of sweeps them under the rug as "not real" somehow when I firmly believe… Continue reading A Slight Followup on “An Open Letter to Riot”
Category: Gaming Reflections
An Open Letter to Riot Games
Hi, guys. This is Taric. (Yes, I used his Chinese artwork. Shut up.) Taric is a champion in League of Legends. In terms of types, he is both a support and a tank, having strong healing and buffing abilities as well as a stun and defensive power. His schtick is that he uses earth-elemental magic… Continue reading An Open Letter to Riot Games
Rampant self-promotion
So, a friend asked for me to consolidate, somewhere, links to the various podcasts I have been a guest of this past year. For some reason I cannot fathom the folks at Gaymism -- the Wonder Twins-style merger of Gayme Bar and Silly Frags -- have taken a shine to me and so I have been… Continue reading Rampant self-promotion
Mass Effect 3: Extended Director’s Unrated Super Special Rainbow Alpha Neo Ending EX
Right. You knew it was coming, so let's just get it over with. Obviously, spoilers for good old Mass Effect 3 and the Extended Cut endings, after the jump. So, when I first saw the "traditional ending," I wrote in this space about how the ending had a few holes and a few elements I didn't like,… Continue reading Mass Effect 3: Extended Director’s Unrated Super Special Rainbow Alpha Neo Ending EX
Lolicon Chainsaw
So, I'm currently working on a bunch of different writing projects, attempting to get some articles out the door. While this one is a bit far off, I wanted to get some of my thoughts about it out there, especially since one of the games involved -- Lollipop Chainsaw -- is relatively new. Strike while the… Continue reading Lolicon Chainsaw
Bio-aware
A very small post for you -- a number of people at PCA who came to our gender and sexuality in Bioware games panel asked if I would send them the slides from my talk on same-sex romance options. (Those links will probably be broken in about a month! Enjoy them while you can!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS83e65LMp8#t=01m46s Anyhow, I… Continue reading Bio-aware
Losing my religion
Okay so on reflection I had more thoughts to share on the ME3 ending. There are spoilers behind the cut. Also, it's worth reading through a friend and colleague's comments on my previous post which are also insightful (spoilers there too, natch). Right. So I gave some thought to this while I was talking it out… Continue reading Losing my religion
The Yin and Yang of Enthusiasm
So as you may know, I have an interest in competitive video games and their player cultures. Today Travis George of Riot Games gave a postmortem of the new Dominion play mode they added to League of Legends in 2011. I thought he gave a really great presentation, but the takeaway for me was what… Continue reading The Yin and Yang of Enthusiasm
Nippon ichi
So, today I attended a talk at GDC given by former Capcom designer Keiji Inafune about the future of the Japanese game industry and what is going wrong with Japanese game creators. As you might know, I recently was a podcast guest of Silly Frags/Gayme Bar collaboration Gayme Probe where I defended the appeal of JRPGs… Continue reading Nippon ichi