Hey. We’re going to be interrupting our regularly scheduled essays for MOTHERFUCKING LUDUM DARE. If you’re not familiar, Ludum Dare is a 48 hour game making competition, challenging designers to create a whole game over a weekend. I’ve participated before,…
It’s been interesting to observe the ongoing shitstorm about sexism and misogyny in games as it pulses through the loosely knit ‘gamer’ community, particularly from the perspective of someone who agrees to some extent with people on both of the…
So for the last couple of weeks I’ve been experimenting with these shorter-form essays, 300-500 words, and for the most part I’m really digging the results. 500 words is the perfect length, I think, to capture an idea, and usually…
One of the criticisms I often see levied at World of Warcraft and other such MMORPGs is people saying that playing them is ‘like work.’ By this they mean, I believe, that the gameplay involves a lot of more-or-less tedious…
I have been thinking about sorrow, because I feel sad, or at least morose. I think of Silent Hill 2, and what a powerful experience it was for me because, unlike most games, it was unrepentantly tragic. I like the…
This week is proving to be, even by recent standards, exceptionally chaotic. I’m not sure if I’ll have the time for the usual two-essays a week, so instead I’m going to try to post a few mini-essays, 200-500 words in…
Today is the day I start trying to promote the Problem Machine, to spread awareness of it beyond my immediate circle of friends and family. I’m basically terrified. Some things come easily to me. I’ve always been creatively inclined, probably…
