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3 reasons your kid is freaking out about their video game
Right now, many parents are spending more time with their children and more time observing their children’s interactions with video games. As a result, parental anxiety about video games is acute.… Read the rest
How to support video game preservation and history
I just got back from a fine time at MAGfest 2020, where I presented as part of the history track in MAGES for the second year. It’s real fun! I felt really lucky to get to do that for a second year.… Read the rest
What I’m playing: We Know the Devil
We Know the Devil (Date Nighto, 2015) is a short visual novel about some teenagers at camp. But the camp is for bad kids. And surrounded by sirens. And run by a sadist.… Read the rest
The future is unraveling as I write
A few years ago, I saw a call for a special issue of Ada New Media about feminist hacking. I am a crafter: I crochet; I sew; I mend and meddle.… Read the rest
I’m not supposed to be here, but I am
A few years ago, I won a research award for junior faculty at my university. I was very excited. I got a thousand dollars and a crystal trophy plaque thing. But then I looked closely at the engraving: “presented to Carly Kocurek in recognition of his Outstanding Accomplishments in Research and Scholarship.”… Read the rest
Elizabeth Swaney deserves a gold medal in trifling
In the fifth or seventh or twenty-third yoga class I ever took, I fell on my face. Flat. Full length. On the floor. I laughed. The fall hadn’t hurt me, and how often do you fail so spectacularly that you fall on your face?… Read the rest
What I’m playing: Lily’s Garden
Lily’s Garden is a cute, well-made mobile game that takes its audience seriously. While I play games in a variety of formats (and just dropped more than I meant to on RPGs at Cape Fear Games), most of my gaming these days is by phone.… Read the rest
Something has happened
This blog post is an expansion of some thoughts I wrote up for a journalist covering the invocation and position of video games in the horrific shooting in New Zealand. The journalist ultimately didn’t use them.… Read the rest
Announcing Feeling Games Symposium
A few months ago, I started putting together a symposium on the intersection of games and emotions. That symposium, now titled “Feeling Games,” is happening in a couple weeks here at Illinois Tech.… Read the rest
What I’ve Been Playing: Agent Alice
I downloaded Agent Alice to my phone a few weeks ago, and I’ve been playing it intermittently. It has a Warehouse 13-style supernatural detectives type setup and is very clearly being marketed to women with ad slogans like, “Sometimes it takes a woman to get the job done.”… Read the rest
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