& a blog

It has become completely impossible to ignore the massive social, economic, and cultural implications of video games. It is an industry that has outsold cinema and publishing for years. Its myths and characters have escaped consoles and computers for popular culture at large. And more and more people are becoming “gamers” everyday. Revolutions in casual [...]

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At a recent Philadelphia Flyers game, in which I saw no less then eight goals (and no more than four fights) I came to the conclusion that not all sports are created equal. In some, scoring is something routine and expected, something that defines the pace of the game. In others scoring is something extraordinary, [...]

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In 1993, Cyan published a game called Myst marooning the nascent gaming world onto a mysterious island whose parts interacted like some sinister engine waiting to re-stoked after countless years un-used. The cover featured a perspectival overview of the island, with a shadowy man falling down towards it. The island was the game, the player [...]

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my dream of assassin’s creed
when my a good friend of mine first got assassin’s creed, i was enchanted by its premise. as a serious lover of medieval history, particularly the crusades, the concept of gaming a 12th century jerusalem was immediately attractive to me. when i finally saw the game, i realized that the power [...]

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the five coolest things from last week
this is rundown of the coolest things i came across last week. it includes a remix, a video game, two trailers, and an essay. i am going to try to do this more often, as it will give me a larger outlet for the fun stuff i discover [...]

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when i decided to buy a nintendo dsi (see previous post for a re-cap of my logic) i knew i needed a killer app, to make me feel that the purchase was justified. thoroughly, conscientiously, i researched the available games, seeking a game that would help me to immediately dig into the potential of the [...]

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i’ve been missing my gaming fix lately. this time last year, i was rock band-ing daily a la berkman center, and even exercising my gamer theory with monthly mit-harvard game design meetings hosted by the ever brilliant gene koo.
anyway, between a brother who is no longer all that interested in video games (or staying up [...]

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this is the most insane advertising campaign i’ve ever seen: kevin garnett cast as a king arthur, wearing an abstracted celtics jersey, and “questing” for gatorade. but in order to find this “holy g” he must face kareem abdul jabbar (as the wizard “tim”) and other alice-in-wonderland type pop culture insanity.
i don’t even know what [...]

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mckenzie wark was at brown this morning, talking about his recent gamer theory project. for those who haven’t read it, gamer theory is a rather indirect assessment of what we might call the gamic experience. i mean this in the sense that whatever pauline kael was to cinema, mckenzie wark might be to game studies. [...]

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