Casual Scholarship
History of Games International Conference
Since the conference site is now online, I can start talking about how excited I am about the 1st History of Games International Conference: Working With, Building, and Telling History which is taking place this June in Montreal.… Read the rest
Video Games and Women’s History Month
On Tuesday, I gave a talk for women’s history month on my campus here in Chicago. The talk was part of a lunch hosted by the Department of Humanities for Women’s History Month.… 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
It’s only a Purple Moon
Games from Purple Moon are my current eBay obsession. I’ve been very interested in “games for girls” lately — hence the Barbie game I featured a few posts back. I missed Purple Moon the first time around by a few years, as I was well into high school by the time the first games launched, and so I was too busy reading my dad’s old Beat generation paperbacks and cultivating obscure music knowledge to be bothered.… Read the rest
Postcards from the Drake Hotel: SCMS 2013
Because SCMS (Society for Cinema and Media Studies) conference was right here in town this year, I was able to stop by a few panels. I’ve actually never attended SCMS before, and so it was nice to be able to check out the conference in a low-pressure kind of way.… Read the rest
Bit of news regarding the Learning Games Initiative
I’m pleased to announce that I have joined the Learning Games Initiative as a Regional Director. I’ve been loosely associated with LGI for several years. In the long run, the new title probably means I’ll be helping to organize some projects.… 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
What I’ve Been Playing: Lost Pig & Cabinet Noir
This past week, in my “Critical Analysis of Video Games” class, my students and I played Adventure and discussed the game and interactive fiction more generally. Most of my students admitted finding Adventure a frustrating game, and one summed up the problem as “Guess the Verb.”… Read the rest
Why I Recommend the SW/TX PCA/ACA for Game Studies Scholars
I frequently see pieces outlining the benefits of attending academic conferences. Such pieces promise opportunities for networking and publishing, the aid conference attendance can provide in staying abreast of the field and cultivating an academic reputation.… Read the rest
Why you should support Medium Difficulty
Medium Difficulty is one of my must-read game sites (and I’m not just saying that because they once published something I wrote). While many game publications stress timeliness and providing up-to-the-minute coverage of controversies, Medium Difficulty’s approach is more idiosyncratic.… Read the rest
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