Call of Apathy: Violent Young Men and Our Place in War
mediumdifficulty.comthe vast majority of us are straight up sociopaths
Estimated reading time: 7 min
0 XP: The Zynga Counterrevolution
mediumdifficulty.comGamers don’t expect to come out ahead in money, but they should expect to get some kind of worthwhile experience when they spend their time. Too often instead they get experience points that serve as numeric markers for the gaps in the middle of the narrative where the interesting experiences were supposed to go.
Estimated reading time: 7 min
Hired Guns: The Real Price of Game Violence
mediumdifficulty.comWe’re a long ways out from Quake, and everybody from HEALTH to David Bowie has tried their hand at video game soundtracks in that time. Those soundtracks, however, didn’t involve going against the image and ideals you’ve come to espouse over the course of two decades. Who knows, maybe there’s some hidden dimension of meaning that comes with sharing space on credits with a man responsible for selling arms to Iran to help fund to Nicarguan guerillas who murdered nuns. Or it’s a paycheck. “Bow down before the one you serve” indeed.
Estimated reading time: 6 min
superlevel recommended this story.
John Hemingway Must Die!
mediumdifficulty.comThe justification that a company can’t be sexist because it employs tough women is ridiculous, of course. One also wonders where these women were when Duke Nukem Forever was being shat out.
Estimated reading time: 5 min
superlevel recommended this story.
The Many Lives of Max Payne
mediumdifficulty.comWhat I suspect, however, is that Rockstar’s attitude towards its genre pieces is basically incompatible with doing justice to Remedy’s vision of Max Payne. Remedy has shown itself over the past decade to be Rockstar’s light side, a developer which comments on genre’s reflection of reality even as it invokes it – a trick which Rockstar seems unable to pull.
Estimated reading time: 7 min
superlevel recommended this story.
Contemplating The Mirror: Manhunt Revisited
mediumdifficulty.comThe last thought I have before I execute the man is a notion about how smoother the controls are on PC than for Playstation 2.
Estimated reading time: 11 min
superlevel recommended this story.
Game Over: Thoughts on Death and Dying in Video Games
mediumdifficulty.comTactic and strategy is required and, although the fluid ability to physically perform is key, the player must lull themselves into a state of complete immersion in the game in order to be successful. When it comes to this type of game we are a slave to the system. There is no time to think about the consequences of our actions – and really no need to do so.
Estimated reading time: 5 min
superlevel recommended this story.
On Avatars: Creating An Other Self
mediumdifficulty.comIn JRPG’s I always named the main character after myself. It instantly attached me to the avatar. It closed the distance between me and the world of the game. This isn’t a character designed, programmed and written by some external entity. It’s me. I am the hero.
Estimated reading time: 9 min
Jeremy Lonien recommended this story.
The Hagiography of Phil Fish
mediumdifficulty.comIf Phil Fish did not exist, we would have invented him.
Estimated reading time: 12 min
Jeremy Lonien recommended this story.
Interview: Davey Wreden
mediumdifficulty.comTo me this is the single biggest point the game makes: none of the meaning can be spoken. By putting it into words, by trying to explain and rationalise and reduce those themes and perspectives we stifle them, we split the animal’s belly open in order to see what makes it run and in doing so we kill it.
Estimated reading time: 9 min
superlevel recommended this story.
First-Person Perspective and the Untroubled Gaze
mediumdifficulty.comIn effect, first-person perspective eliminates the object of the gaze, so there is never a subjective distinguishing moment.
Estimated reading time: 5 min
superlevel recommended this story.
How I Helped Destroy Star Wars Galaxies
mediumdifficulty.comDid I help in the demise of SWG? Yes. That is something I accepted long ago. The game that I loved so much, I helped to destroy.
Estimated reading time: 8 min
Noah Doersing recommended this story.
Penny Arcade Sells Out: For Whom the Kickstarter Tolls
mediumdifficulty.comThe trouble is that the Penny Arcade of today is a thriving Internet-based business with so much influence that they can shift the dialog in the gaming community with a single tweet.
Estimated reading time: 2 min
superlevel recommended this story.
Response: Call of Apathy: Advanced Warfighter
mediumdifficulty.comI was behind a monitor the whole time. Every death, injury, gunshot, and explosion was only as real as watching it on the news or playing it in a video game. At the end of my mission I’d get a “congrats!” over IRC chat or through my headset.
Estimated reading time: 5 min
Meursalt recommended this story.
