Tag : gaming

A MAZE. Magazine: “I have a fucking agenda”

I was interviewed briefly for a piece in the current issue of A MAZE. Magazine, which is free to read online right here. The theme for this issue is “women,” and a number of amazing women in and around the games industry are featured.… Read the rest

Coin-Operated Americans has a cover!

I’m so excited about this that I’m using exclamation marks: Coin-Operated Americans: Rebooting Boyhood at the Video Game Arcade, the book I’ve been working on since sometime in 2009 or so, now has an actual cover and is available on pre-order from Barnes & Noble.… Read the rest

Postcards from the Midwest Gaming Classic

The Midwest Gaming Classic is part fixed-rate arcade, part expo, part museum, and part fleamarket. For a weekend, the event sprawls through a Milwaukee hotel, occupying ballrooms, meeting rooms, and even hallways.… Read the rest

Call for Participants in Documentary Project on Women in Gaming Culture

My colleague Jennifer deWinter and I are putting together a short documentary project, and we are looking for contributors. Please pass along the call here and consider participating. If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch.… Read the rest

Conversation Games and Comfort

Last Thursday, I spent an evening offering moral support to a friend confronted with the dissolve of a well established romantic relationship. Sitting at a bar with several of her other friends, we got in a conversation about the difficulties of dating, and the deeply unsuitable people most of us had, at one time or another, found ourselves out with.… Read the rest

What I’ve Been Playing: Skylanders Giants

We picked up Skylanders Giants on sale at Target earlier this spring. I’d gotten interested in the game while researching the history and use of feelies, and so I was curious about the integration of the character toys with the video game.… Read the rest

Special Issue of Reconstruction on “The Undead Arcade”

My colleague Samuel Tobin and I are co-editing a special issue of Reconstruction all about the video game arcade. I’ve copied the full CFP down below. Please pass along and consider submitting.… Read the rest

Sexism and Gaming at Flow: All of Jennifer deWinter and My Columns in One Place

Over the past few months, I’ve had the pleasure of co-authoring a series of columns for Flow with Jennifer deWinter of Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Our columns, which focus on sexism in the gaming industry, have now all been published, which means you can go read them all, in order, at your leisure.… Read the rest

What I’ve Been Playing: Depression Quest

Depression Quest is an interactive fiction title that is more or less exactly what its title implies, which is to say, it’s a game about depression.

Specifically, it is an interactive fiction-style game in a “choose-your-own-adventure” style.… Read the rest

Teaching Myst

In one of the earlier weeks of this semester, I had students play Myst (Cyan 1993) and read Mark J.P. Wolf’s Myst & Riven: The World of the D’Ni (University of Michigan Press, 2011).… Read the rest