weekend reader
Culture
Cooperative Multiplayer With The Devil You Don’t Know
6:00AM Owen Good | New Super Mario Bros. Wii released a week ago, and even its light-hearted cartoon environment and four-player cooperative mode still manage to bring out the worst in multiplayer behaviour – if you don’t know your partner, that is. More »
Regulars
The Importance Of Asking ‘Why’
6:00AM Owen Good | In film or literature, the creation of acclaimed work is sometimes attached to a personal event or reaction. “That doesn’t show up often in game development bios,” says one dev. Finding that “why” might save games from a “cultural ghetto”. More »
Culture
The Meta-Narrative That Pulls Back The Curtain For All Games
6:00AM Owen Good | Was GLaDOS, the artificial intelligence in 2007’s critically acclaimed Portal, in fact a game designer? And if so, what does our relationship to the computer, and its abuse of our trust, say about the other games we play? More »
Regulars
Why Games Should Have A Few More Senior Moments
5:00AM Owen Good | In video games, senior citizens are largely stereotyped NPCs. Rare is the kind of game like Metal Gear Solid 4, with a truly aged, playable protagonist. Can games create more roles for the elderly? Should they? More »
Regulars
Forced To Strip: How Games Might Teach Us More About Sex
5:00AM Owen Good | The upcoming Heavy Rain features a sequence in which its female protagonist is forced to strip for a disgusting mob boss. It’s sex but it’s not sexy, and it moves the needle for games teaching us to differentiate the two. More »
Regulars
Achievements, 100 Percent, And Games: Fun Or Compulsive Behavior?
5:00AM Owen Good | Finishing a bad or uninteresting book might feel like a chore, or at least unsatisfying, but it’s nothing like playing to the end of a game you don’t care for. Why do so many still choose to do this? More »
Features
Who’s Responsible For The $US60 Price Tag?
5:00AM Owen Good | Just how did we get to $US59.99 for the cost of a new game, anyway? Collusion? Happenstance? For a sector that mimics Hollywood’s studio model, the answer is about as simple—and clear—as why tickets cost $US10. More »
Culture
Manual Instruction: Two Types Of Learning In Game Tutorials
4:00AM Owen Good | Who reads instruction manuals any more? These days even the most complex console game arrives with just a 16-page booklet. Increasingly, we rely on in-game tutorials, and the two modes of learning they promote both have their benefits — and drawbacks. More »
Culture
Alignment Error: Even Good Games Can Offer Bad Choices
4:00AM Owen Good | Few things mar a game, especially a role-playing game, like being sold on creating a complex, even unique character and then being presented with tendentiously noble or evil choices to build out that role. More »
Regulars
