Editorials

Why game criticism doesn’t exist

By Chi Kong Lui on March 1, 2008 - 10:06am.
Game designer and academic, Greg Costikyan, recently renewed the debate on the importance of game criticism and the lack thereof in a recent post at . I'd be lying if I didn't admit that every time there's a call for serious-minded game criticism (not game reviews), it pisses me off quite a bit.
» read more | Chi Kong Lui's blog | 8 comments |

Videogame technology used to model crowd behavior in military training program

By Brandon Erickson on February 27, 2008 - 1:03pm.
While videogame technology has been used before to model enemy behavior in military training simulations, it has yet to be applied to modeling the behavior of noncombatants in war zones. But that's all about to change thanks to Dr. Frederick McKenzie and his colleagues, whose research is presented in the March issue of Simulation & Gaming.
» read more | Brandon Erickson's blog | 1 comment |

FPS players feel better after dying than after killing others, say researchers

By Brandon Erickson on February 22, 2008 - 12:06pm.
An article in the February issue of the journal Emotion presents some strange findings regarding players' emotional reactions to killing and being killed in a first-person shooter (FPS). Conventional FPS wisdom would suggest that players like shooting enemies and dislike getting shot. The research findings, however, paint a different picture.
» read more | Brandon Erickson's blog | 26 comments |

Game of the Years

By Daniel Weissenberger on February 20, 2008 - 4:10am.
This year, one game stood head and shoulders above all the others, the chasm in quality between it and even its nearest competition was such a yawning chasm that it would take 8-12 Batmobiles to vault across it. Which game was it? Discover within...
» read more | Daniel Weissenberger's blog | 3 comments |

The importance of save systems in videogames

By Brandon Erickson on February 19, 2008 - 8:52pm.

Most anyone who has been playing videogames for any appreciable length of time is well acquainted with the agonizing distress of “dying” in a game and losing several hours of hard fought progress. Like it or not, save systems have a huge influence on our enjoyment of a game.

» read more | Brandon Erickson's blog | 2 comments |

Would a videogame by any other name smell as sweet?

By Brandon Erickson on February 6, 2008 - 7:13pm.
Does the “videogame” label properly capture what videogames have become? Will the term “videogames” still be used 20 or 30 years from now? Recent titles like BioShock and Mass Effect are pushing games to a realm of narrative and interactive depth that make the term “game” seem ill-fitting. As the boundaries of the medium continue to expand, I suspect that the “videogame” label will only feel increasingly inadequate.
» read more | Brandon Erickson's blog | 4 comments |

Moving away from mindlessness

By Brandon Erickson on January 30, 2008 - 11:10pm.
After listening to Jonathan Blow’s “Design Reboot” lecture last December, I made a small resolution that I would try to reduce my time spent on games that rely on meaningless reward systems. Putting it into practice, however, has proved tougher than I thought.
» read more | Brandon Erickson's blog | 11 comments |

Looking back on the Wii

By Brandon Erickson on January 23, 2008 - 10:05pm.
Now that the Wii's novelty has worn off, a number of questions come to my mind: Is the Wii really all it’s cracked up to be? Does the Wii remote actually improve the gameplay experience? Do motion-sensing controls really do all that much to increase the player’s overall enjoyment or sense of immersion?
» read more | Brandon Erickson's blog | 3 comments |

Trying to appreciate Halo

By Brandon Erickson on January 16, 2008 - 7:18pm.
Just as English literature buffs should be knowledgeable about the heavyweights of the Western canon—Macbeth, Huckleberry Finn, Ulysses, etc.—so too should videogame critics be acquainted with gaming’s megahits, games like Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, and, yes, the Halo series. So, like the English lit student who struggles to wrap his or her head around Ulysses, not because it’s enjoyable but because it’s important, I decided that I should at least try to understand Halo.
» read more | Brandon Erickson's blog | 10 comments |

The Hsu Editorial

By Brad Gallaway on January 11, 2008 - 12:00am.
Got my copy of EGM yesterday, but didn't have time to crack it until I had started seeing reports about Dan Hsu's editorial in the latest issue today. Apparently, some publishers have gotten peeved at EGM's less-than-favorable coverage of specific games—Mortal Kombat, Assassin's Creed, and whatever junk sports game Sony's put out lately.
» read more | Brad Gallaway's blog | add new comment |

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