So, this semester I'm teaching a course on "Game Design for Expression." It's really more of a class on how students -- especially students with no technology or game background -- can make small, personal games. I've been fortunate to have a lot of guest speakers willing to talk about their work, including Mattie Brice,… Continue reading Day in the Sun
Not Ghosts But Spirits
I had a brief conversation with Kris Ligman this evening about the Game Church, which led to me reading an interview they did with Steve Gaynor of Fullbright about Gone Home. In reading it, I had what the kids are calling "some feels" and while it won't make a very long blog post (sorry America), it's too longform… Continue reading Not Ghosts But Spirits
Went Home
Alright. So thanks to a gift from Maddy Myers, I went home. I had no plans to buy the game, mostly because "mansion games" (thank you Robert Yang) or "first person experiences" (thank you Cameron Kunzelman) aren't my thing. I don't really enjoy point and click adventures, or games where you progress by turning over every little thing until… Continue reading Went Home
Duck Soup
So Polygon reviewed DuckTales Remastered and then Twitter got ahold of it and, you know, stuff has happened. Since I'm trying to keep in the habit of blogging, I figured I'd write something about it, especially after I had an extended convo with Matt Bremner about it on Twitter earlier. Matt was pretty unhappy with the review, and… Continue reading Duck Soup
Femme Fatalism
This morning I asked on Twit-ar if people would be interested in hearing some discussion on The Wonderful 101's "Wonder Pink" character, which I knew comparatively little about until Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency fame who mentioned it last night on Twitter: https://twitter.com/femfreq/status/365253940587151360 She then linked to the "intro" video for the character that gives her… Continue reading Femme Fatalism
Dress for Success
Alright I promised I'd leave this alone but someone made a really great comment on that last post and I'm somewhat afraid that it might not get read. Plus it's actually a somewhat different line of thinking from the "FF is dead (to me and only me)" line of thinking. Plus it's a reason for… Continue reading Dress for Success
Dispatch From the Bureau of Critical Vitriol
Okay I don't like getting into blog fights where people asynchronously duke it out without ever engaging each other, but I don't know Chris Kohler personally and I am... disinclined to battle it out with him on Twitter, 140 characters at a time, while I infuriate everyone who follows me, him, or both. So when… Continue reading Dispatch From the Bureau of Critical Vitriol
Tropes vs Women in Chinese Historical Fiction (Also Games)
Warning: I try to make things non-referency as possible but some fluency with the broad-scale events of the Three Kingdoms novel will be very helpful interpreting this post's specifics. Alright, so I'm actually a big Dynasty Warriors series fan. Almost all the Musou games, actually; the exception is Hokuto no Ken Musou ("Fist of the North Star") and Troy Musou which… Continue reading Tropes vs Women in Chinese Historical Fiction (Also Games)
Reach Out to A Particular Contextual Version of the Truth
Right so last night Riot Games researcher and smart guy Davin Pavlas and I had a discussion about Kanji Tatusmi, one of the main characters of Persona 4. Specifically we discussed some of the ways in which his personal story is interpreted along both sexual orientation and gender presentation lines, and along the way I aired a… Continue reading Reach Out to A Particular Contextual Version of the Truth
You Knew This Was Coming If You Were Paying Any Attention
Right, I've about had it. Let me set some context for this blog post: I'm listening to "Blinded by Light" -- aka Final Fantasy XIII's default battle music and riff on Lightning's character theme -- on loop while I write it. So, you know. Strap in. So this happened: To be more literal about it: ever since… Continue reading You Knew This Was Coming If You Were Paying Any Attention