Monday, May 26, 2014

26/5

Can Video Games Be A Spiritual Experience? | Game/Show | PBS Digital Studios
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK91LAiMOio

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Postmortem: The Chinese Room's Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/218372/Postmortem_The_Chinese_Rooms_Amnesia_A_Machine_for_Pigs.php

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Glitchhikers belongs to a tradition of game authorship, rather than game design. The idea is to stop designing videogames in service of ‘fun’ (or any other phenomenological sense), and instead to author videogames that explore ideas, themes, the human condition and so forth using literary techniques rather than behavioural conditioning and psychological experimentation.
http://blog.brendanvance.com/2014/05/19/blowjobs-loneliness-and-glitchhikers/

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This rather huge article is intended to collect and structure a complete overview of how gender design works and how gender design is currently done in games.
http://howtonotsuckatgamedesign.com/2014/05/press-x-make-sandwich-complete-guide-gender-design-games/

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Matt Chat 242: Chris Avellone on Torment, Tides of Numenera
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06YvwO3V4Ms

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Extra Credits - How Games Empower Us - Education: Agency
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T39kYzzv_3Q

Sunday, May 18, 2014

18/5

§VIDEOS

Game Theory: Flappy Bird, PewDiePie, and Pasta Sauce

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyXcr6sDRtw

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The Future of Games | Game/Show | PBS Digital Studios
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oON6S4fXS4k

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Does "Indie Game" Mean Anything Anymore? | Game/Show | PBS Digital Studios
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8iwDkE8mw4

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Extra Credits - How Games Prepare Kids for Real Life - Education: 21st Century Skills
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hoeAmqwvyY


§TEXTS
I'll tell you some stories about balancing Yomi. First I'll give you two myths about game balance, then I'll tell you about tier lists and matchup charts, and then a bunch of specific balance problems we had to solve in Yomi.
http://www.sirlin.net/blog/2014/4/18/game-balance-and-yomi.html

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let's move on to the two hardest problems in horror.
http://frictionalgames.blogspot.se/2014/05/alien-isolation-and-two-hardest_5.html

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Why we ignore gamers behind bars
/.../
Prisoners play games. How play might liberate or counteract or reinforce a life of confinement is probably for those prisoners to dissect. Not us. From the outside, what we hear—me, Alejandro, Robert, Shane, and now you—is a voice completely disconnected from that experience. They’re asking for information, but they’re asking moreover to be heard.
http://killscreendaily.com/articles/why-we-ignore-gamers-behind-bars/

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Oculus Rift has plenty of potential for changing human interaction, but what about other animals? One project from Iowa State University assistant professor Austin Stewart (via FastCo Exist) imagines how VR goggles could make chickens believe they’re free-range, even when they’re not.
http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/15/an-oculus-rift-for-chickens-gives-animals-the-freedom-to-roam-without-the-roaming/

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

6/5

§QUEER
that is precisely what troubles me about the sexualization of certain races in BioWare fantasy worlds. Sexual and racial discrimination is written into these games in a way that shows awareness of and sensitivity to real-world social inequality [...] But the games want to have it both ways: characters like Liara may exhibit agency and self-determination, but like most romanceable NPCs, her ultimate purpose is to give in. For that reason and because her entire species is designed for the galaxy’s pleasure, her resistance is largely ornamental. This picturesque struggle with systemic oppression is the best case scenario for the sex class: even if you play the game for purity points, your playable character and yourself are made complicit in the fantasy world’s objectification of its sexualized demographic.
http://ontologicalgeek.com/the-sex-class-in-bioware-worlds/

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Game Theory: Are Video Games Anti-LGBT?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdmJXHJLZ6M


§ZELDA
|||.......a little boy went out to play. when he opened his door, he saw the world. as he passed through the doorway, he caused a reflection. evil was born. evil was born, and followed the boy.......|||

let's talk about a videogame called Zelda...
http://ellaguro.blogspot.se/2014/04/evil-was-born.html


§VIDEOS
Should All Videogames Be Free To Play? | Game/Show | PBS Digital Studios
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-MIFSAz9as

SWT - Saints Row IV and Kitsch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT03ezSnVL8

Education: An End to Fear - Why Students Hate Homework - Extra Credits
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWyPLNi8rD8

The Old Man and the Season Pass
http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/l0ogbt/the-final-bosman-the-old-man-and-the-season-pass