Play’s Republic

A note about this post: Soon after publishing it, I received an amiable email from the author of the blog to which I refer below. He’s suggested I read his whitepaper in order better to understand his argument. I’ll post an update presently.
Let this link stand as a reminder that there is […]

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Just one more posting for y’all. Thought this map was pretty interesting. Enjoy!

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The aptly-named First Person Shooter is… well, okay, it’s a play. It is the story of two young programming geniuses, their start-up company (’JetPack Games’), and their amazing technicolor computer game: a red-hot, ultra-violent FPS game that hits the top of the market in no time, bringing its creators fame, fortune, and all sorts of […]

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 A textbook published by gaming company Capcom, dedicated to teaching children (through use of comics) about the ins and outs of video gaming culture, industry, history, and the creative process, distributed to primary schools and libraries all over Japan?
Why can’t WE have something like that?
http://www.joystiq.com/2007/05/11/capcom-releases-japanese-textbook-about-video-games/

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This is far from new, but I just thought I’d bring it to peoples’ attention anyway.
VG Cats, an online comic by Scott Ramsoomair, did an amusing little comic on the upcoming god (?)-game Spore. Likely to be prophetic, because, well, this is just about how much freedom Will Wright’s newest simulation will probably GIVE […]

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Early on in the course, we covered learning within games, primarily as a function of gaining faculty within a semiotic domain. We have never, not once, discussed games as learning devices used to learn about a specific type of content, however, and we especially didn’t talk about “edutainment” games. In the name of […]

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As the tags might suggest, this is an aside about something that I still find somewhat amusing. One topic that I always recall coming up in class about World of Warcraft is its plot- and/or lack thereof. As convoluted and nonsensical as it may be, however, I’m simply amazed that it still manages to be […]

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I’ve never heard of “Entropia Universe” before this article, but it sounds like an interesting way of doing business- and of dealing with the difficult, rarely-sanctioned issue of the real-world trade of virtual world goods. First: their currency is set against the U.S. dollar at a fixed 10-to-1 rate. And secondly… they’ve sold licenses for […]

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 So. Doki Doki Majo Saiban, for the Nintendo DS: you’ve probably not heard of this game before, but judging by the title alone, you might be able to guess that it’s yet another quirky Japanese title that will probably never see release in U.S. stores. Here, though, there’s another good reason why this game won’t make […]

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