Tag Archives: mass effect 3

I Can’t Stop Buying Things: Amazon and Borderlands 2

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Ethan Gach

I was at my friends’ apartment watching the Eagles scrape out an undeserved victory when I tried to pre-order Borderlands 2. It was too close to the game’s release though. Even with my Amazon Prime membership I would have to … Continue reading →

Posted in Critical Conversation | Tagged 2K , AMazon , , Dead Reckoning , , EB Games , Ethan Gach , Gamestop , Gearbox , Guidebook , Gunzerker , , HDTV , How It Is , Hyperion Corp. , , , McDonald's , Pokemon: Black and White 2 , Pre-orders , Rewards Membership , , SDTV , Siren , The Eagles , Top Trumps , Troeg , XBox 360 , , Yuengling | 3 Comments

Second Nature: Language, Exclusion, and Gamer Rage

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Edcrab

by Edcrab A little after its release, my dad played Baldur’s Gate. I remember him being amused that hitting livestock with a quarterstaff had shifted his reputation to that of a heinous slayer of innocents. Wanting to know exactly how much harm he was doing to said cows, he checked out his weapon’s stats. “What’s a d6?” In a fit of rage I threw him out the window and then told everyone on Facebook, which existed back then if you knew where to look, what a newb he was and how I’d totally owned him, and then I got all the likes. After my father had dusted himself off and we cleared up all the broken glass, I explained the term’s origins. He seemed quite happy to accept that it was shorthand for a six-sided dice, and therefore designated a value of one to six. And then he cursed the Continue reading →

Posted in Critical Conversation , Humour | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Girls, Games, and the Products They Create

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Vivienne Chan

Let me throw a couple of unsurprising claims at you.

1. Many girls play video games.

2. Many girls are geeks.

Neither of these are news to you, I would imagine, because for one thing, you’re reading something written by a girl who meets both those claims. For another, it’s just common sense. That said, a smaller percentage of all girls play video games or have geeky interests than is the case with boys. This might depend on your definition of “geeky interests” (or even “video games”), but basically, more dudes appear to be into it.

Indeed, of the entire “hardcore”/”real” video gaming or geeky interest population, the vast majority are boys. Again, no surprises. So, really, we shouldn’t be surprised that attractive gaming girls or geeky girls are extremely marketable. What does surprise me, however, is how people tend to cash in on it. Continue reading →

Posted in Critical Conversation , Features | Tagged , , , , , , , , ludolingus , , , , | 5 Comments

The Mind’s Eye: In Defence of Subjectivity

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Alan Williamson

I learned the joy of owning a ZX Spectrum this week, but I’ve never played one. I felt the connection between Dear Esther and the end of a relationship I never had. I understood the fear of being an inadequate mother, although I am not a parent. It’s easy to see how a piece entitled “What’s wrong with game reviews?” would provoke games writers, especially those who subscribe to New Games Journalism, but Joseph Hilgard’s essay contradicts what I believe about the value of subjectivity in games writing.

Hilgard and I are both psychologists, and we both focus on video games. My undergraduate dissertation studied non-verbal behaviour differences in violent and non-violent games. Even with a science background, it is a mistake to treat game reviewing as an exact science, something that can be dissected and analysed, assigned scores and scales. There is no ‘Five Factor Model’ of gaming. That approach reminds me of when game review magazines had entire columns dedicated to scores: giving games separate marks for their gameplay and graphic fidelity which didn’t count towards an overall score. Continue reading →

Posted in Critical Conversation , Criticism | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , psychology , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments