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Author: Phoenix Simms

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The Vampire/Half Elf rogue Astarion from Baldur's Gate 3. He's a smirky dude with platinum hair and an attitude.

Personal Emergence

By Phoenix Simms • December 6th, 2023

Games are often, especially at the AAA level, power or pleasure simulators.

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A screenshot of Raziel from Legacy of Kain: Defiance. He is a skeletal wraith and has a scarf covering the bottom half of his face.

Don’t Fear the Reaver

By Phoenix Simms • November 3rd, 2023

Raziel, the tragic wraith protagonist of the Soul Reaver series, contains within his arc a nuanced portrayal of how an energy vampire is made and unmade.

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Grounding The Games Industry

By Phoenix Simms • September 29th, 2023

Games, despite all their innovative trappings, are trash. To be more specific – games can create a lot of socioeconomic trash.

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Art from Final Fantasy VIII showing the character Laguna in the midst of battle.

Squall is Extradimensional

By Phoenix Simms • September 8th, 2023

When Laguna knew Squall and his allies were there but felt they were like faeries hovering in the ether unseen, wasn’t that what early encounters on forums and instant chat services felt like?

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A long corridor in a school building rendered in sepia tones.

Uprooting Time

By Phoenix Simms • August 4th, 2023

Déraciné is an interesting rumination on what makes game narratives convincing, but it’s also a game that effectively communicates EcoGothic fears of being at the mercy of nature.

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Mythology of the Commons

By Phoenix Simms • June 2nd, 2023

While there isn’t necessarily an overtly intersectional EcoGothic tone to Folklore, it does deal with bodies irrevocably changed by nature, binaries and transformed bodies.

Funeral Rites

Composing the World of Ultraviolet Grasslands and the Black City

By Phoenix Simms • May 24th, 2023

Luka Rejec’s world is suffused with mind-expanding, psychedelic heavy metal and is also inspired by “the Dying Earth genre, and Oregon Trail games.”

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A close-up of Daisy Fitzroy's face in Bioshock Infinite. She is a determined-looking young black woman with tied-back braids.

Less Punk and More Funk

By Phoenix Simms • May 5th, 2023

What would a character like Daisy Fitzroy have been capable of if her script in Bioshock Infinite were handled by an African American writer with a Steamfunk sensibility?

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The face of the Katamari king surrounded by rainbow circles rippling outward.

Rolling Up

By Phoenix Simms • April 6th, 2023

We Love Katamari and the series it’s a part of is about the alchemy of persistence at its core. You take what’s available to you and turn it into a star.

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An 8-bit rendering of a pale blue teacup and saucer on a wooden countertop.

What We Make From the Ruins

By Phoenix Simms • March 8th, 2023

Phoenix chats with the lead game narrative designer of The Archipelago about writing a game that explores both the political and personal.

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