Category Archives: Video Games

Fanboys: These Days’ Mods and Rockers

By Jens | Published: March 2, 2010
When I was writing about the iPad and technicity, I noticed that the notion of technicity can also be applied to the scourge of the game world: Fanboys, and their hatred of other people’s choices. To recapitulate what technicity means: it is an “aspect of identity expressed through the subject’s relationship with technology. Particular tastes [...]
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Breaking with Technicity: The iPad is the Nintendo Wii of the Computer World

By Jens | Published: February 5, 2010
Apple introduced its iPad to mixed reactions: It’s not capable of multi-tasking, lacks Flash support, and has no camera. It was derided as a blown-up iPod touch. The enthusiasm that has surrounded other Apple launches was lacking. I believe one of the main reasons for this is the iPad’s break with the dominant technicity of computers. Technicity [...]
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Oh, the Games We’ll Play!

By Parker Mason | Published: January 8, 2010
When I used to play dodgeball, I always found that my best games came after I’d ripped a few rounds of Armored Core for PlayStation 2. If you’ve ever played either, the similarity is obvious. In both, you’re primarily facing your opponent with nothing really in between. Shots are lobbed from shoulder level, and there [...]
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‘Internet Eyes’ put gamers on police patrol

By Jens | Published: October 9, 2009
A couple of months ago I wrote about a $2-million citizen surveillance system installed along the Tex-Mex border which allowed to people to catch Mexicans from the comfort of their home. I was joking about what would be next: Xbox users collecting achievements by helping to catch gang members? The answer came quicker than I thought: gamers [...]
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Should I buy a PlayStation 3 or an Elite X-Box 360?

By Parker Mason | Published: September 22, 2009
Last Christmas, my roommate Claudio’s brother gave him an X-Box 360. I subsequently spent most of January and April playing Halo 3 online. (I was away for most of February and March.) While we bought a few other games, they were pretty much shelved permanently, and I never even tried the campaign mode of Halo. Multi-player [...]
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Left 4 Dead in the Aussie Censorship System

By Jens | Published: September 21, 2009
It looks like Left 4 Dead 2 has been banned in Australia. The reason: [C]lose in attacks cause copious amounts of blood spray and splatter, decapitations and limb dismemberment as well as locational damage where contact is made to the enemy which may reveal skeletal bits and gore. This was not deemed suitable for 15-year-olds. Despite the [...]
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More To Marvel At

By Parker Mason | Published: September 15, 2009
No, this post isn’t about Disney acquiring Marvel. Instead, it is going to talk about how awesome the Marvel Create Your Own Super Hero website is. Using the basic building blocks of a few major characters, the site allows you to customize your own superhero with all the flashy comics and crazy weapons or accessories that are [...]
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Could game play at work actually improve engagement?

By Jens | Published: September 2, 2009
“Button” is a nice example of how games can be used to mentally stimulate people in order to keep them engaged in their mundane jobs. The game is as simple as it gets: there is a button on the screen and when it lights you push it. Explains Techcrunch: Blank Software will choose random times to light [...]
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Policenauts Fan Translation Finally Sees Release

By Jens | Published: September 1, 2009
Snatcher is one of my all-time favourite games. I’m lucky enough to own the original game for the Sega CD. After reading a review in a German gaming magazine, I bought Hideo Kojima’s early masterpiece right away. In this cyberpunk adventure you play as Gillian Seed, a “Runner”. Your job is to track down the source [...]
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How I Met the Inventor of the Videogame

By Jens | Published: August 7, 2009
Ralph Baer, inventor of the videogame console, recently came to Berlin to celebrate the online launch of the “History of Video Games Timeline” by the Berlin Computer Game Museum. Quite an exciting moment for me, and probably the last chance to have a chat with the man behind the craze that touched our lives and [...]
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