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When Games Matter

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March 2012

March 06, 2012

When Games Matter: Playing against the Grain

"My incredibly frustrating experience with Shadow illustrates how risky it is to put an interactive...

February 2012

February 28, 2012

When Games Matter: The Weight of Personal Stories

"I know I will never save the world but I am reminded that my small...

January 2012

January 31, 2012

When Games Matter: Why Games Aren't About Story

"The best games give us a sense that we are making our own story and...

January 24, 2012

When Games Matter: The Art of Story in The Binding of Isaac

"Isaac respresents a stellar achievement in storytelling by taking something as simple as "powerups" and...

January 10, 2012

When Games Matter: For the Love of the Grind

"The fact that Skyrim broke me of my anti-grinding ways is a tremendous compliment to...

January 03, 2012

When Games Matter: Skyrim's Personal Deities

' . . . in this moment, Skyrim was working to encourage me to take...

December 2011

December 13, 2011

When Games Matter: When Music Makes a Game

"The goal behind each of these puzzles is literally to coax pixies out of their...

December 06, 2011

When Games Matter: The Wonderful Lore of Skyrim

"... the multitude of these details serves to do something rather rare in video games--it...

November 2011

November 29, 2011

When Games Matter: Game Night as Means to Sanctification

"Too often I refuse to apply the Bible to the "little things" in life--like card...

November 22, 2011

When Games Matter: Why I Passed on Modern Warfare 3

"I understand the appeal of MW3, but at the end of the day it really...

November 15, 2011

When Games Matter: Skyrim as Religious Experience

"Despite these inherent risks, Skyrim has been a worshipful experience. And every mountain stream, every...

November 08, 2011

When Games Matter: The Anatomy of a Boss Fight

"Arkham City treats us the way we all want to be treated—it's fair, honest, and...

November 01, 2011

When Games Matter: My Wife, Dance Central 2, and the Importance of Feedback

"She has beaten me by 2 million points before—if you watched us dance you would...

October 2011

October 25, 2011

When Games Matter: PayDay: The Heist and Virtual Crime

"If we were to replace PayDay's security guards and law enforcement officers with mindless zombies...

October 18, 2011

When Games Matter: What I Learned about Counseling from Sideway: New York

"Such counsel overwhelms people and does more harm than good. . . . Believe it...

October 11, 2011

When Games Matter: Controlling Horror in the Rise of Nightmares

". . . there is very little in our lives that we have complete control...

October 04, 2011

When Games Matter: Leedmees, Kinect, and Creativity

"Leedmees requires patience, foresight, balance, and teamwork. Its a game of both body and mind."

September 2011

September 27, 2011

When Games Matter: Kinect, Community, Ninjas, and Fruit

"Cultivating community takes many shapes--I never would have thought it would involve furiously chopping digital...

September 20, 2011

When Games Matter: Deus Ex and Its Dirty Trick

". . . the more heavily a game relies on story, the more careful that...

September 13, 2011

When Games Matter: Civilians in War Games

"... games like Battlefield play like just another shooter where war is fun. To me...

September 06, 2011

When Games Matter: Choice and Boss Battles in Deus Ex: Human Revolution

"For a game predicated on choice to remind me that choice is a privilege seemed...

August 2011

August 30, 2011

When Games Matter: Human Revolution and Flawed Design

Is there a time when a design choice in game nearly ruined the experience for...

August 23, 2011

When Games Matter: Trauma, Art, and Learning Empathy

"I felt for her loss, I felt I understood her pain and wanted to help...

August 16, 2011

When Games Matter: Video Game Violence and Its Frequent Lack of Self Awareness

". . . its almost as if the game itself is serving as sort of...

August 09, 2011

When Games Matter: Bastion, History, and Learning from Our Mistakes

"... but changing history cannot actually make the world a better place--to do that you...

August 02, 2011

When Games Matter: The Imaginative World of Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet

"I no longer possess the vivid imagination I had as a child, but games like...

July 2011

July 26, 2011

When Games Matter: The Tragic Amoral World of Far Cry 2

"FC2 is a game of non-stop survival, it rarely gives you the time to stop...

July 19, 2011

When Games Matter: Shadow of the Colossus and the Truth About Violence

" . . . agency free from responsibility only leads to disillusionment."

July 12, 2011

When Games Matter: Frozen Synapse and The Humility of Allowing Defeat

"I haven't submitted a turn in quite some time because of my own pride. I...

July 05, 2011

When Games Matter: The Silly Side of a Serious Game

"Its worse than all those cheesy Jean Claude Van Damme or Steven Seagal movies you...

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