Pick Up Anything of Use
THE ADVENTURE GAME IS NO LONGER RELEVANT, they scream, eyes flecked with the righteousness of the lifelong gamesman. THE CONTROL METHOD IS FRUSTRATING, the INPUTS UNSATISFYING. What are these, PUZZLES?! Oh, DECISIONS?! Where is the smoothness of play? The feeling of control? Why is it that we must combine this and that to make a conversation come to life? Why must I stumble from screen to screen like this? I am the hero. Why is everything so difficult? Everything in it is difficult they say. Everything in it is difficult.
Panels and Frames: Turkey Time Machine
Thanksgiving is upon us, America. I used to think of Thanksgiving as the holiday sandwiched between Halloween and Christmas. Sure, there’s a great dinner in there, but it doesn’t have the taboo overtones of Halloween, nor does it have the gleeful anticipation that surrounds Christmas. Thanksgiving is centered on an enormous supper with family. Its practice is, ideally, wholesome (even if its storied origin may not be, but that’s a tale for another time). Over the past few years, I’ve come to appreciate Thanksgiving in its own right. It’s a time of reflection – a time to be thankful for
Pretension +1: Indie Gaming Console Launches to Minimal Fanfare
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK – A loose-knit collection of programmers, anarchists and baristas launched an indie gaming console to little or no fanfare Thursday. The collective chose not to give the gaming device a name, a standard set of specifications or even a price point. “We’re trying to avoid the whole gaming hype train,” said hacker/forestry science major Arturo Gutierrez. “I mean, when I think of a brand, I think of cowboys searing the flesh of innocent cows. This isn’t about cattle capitalism.”
Poems For Fingers
It’s strange but undeniable that for all the millions we’ve spent on creating and consuming videogames over the last 20 years, we lack any broad clarity on what they are or quite why they have won their space in the sun. Never before has so much been spent on something so little understood.