The Audience Can Kill

The following is a reprint from Unwinnable Weekly Issue Twenty-Nine. If you enjoy what you read, please consider purchasing the issue or subscribing.  ——— There is no thing new under the sun.” A trite Biblical verse that, in this day and age, seems quaint and out of touch. And yet, just as those very words have been repeated since they were first etched into paper, the debate over the impact of art has become a social deja vu, reincarnations emerging with each generation, shifting as new mediums are born. I never used to get performance art. Seemed like a bunch of pretentious hooey for bored college students lacking any

The Biggest Choice You’ll Never Make

The following is a reprint from Unwinnable Weekly Issue Twenty-Seven. If you enjoy what you read, please consider purchasing the issue or subscribing. ——— The modern BioWare phenomenon begins with a choice. Part of the way through the first Mass Effect game (released in 2007), you and your party land on a planet called Virmire and you’re tossed into a big action sequence. At its climax, two of your party members leave to do two different things, something goes wrong and you have a choice: save Kaiden, or save Ashley? One lives. One dies. That’s not how big-budget games were supposed to