Play’s Republic

So much to point to, so little time. I’m heading to Ludium 2 on Thursday: For the nonce, here’s a really interesting note from Wired on the illusion-shattering nature of Voice Chat. We’re reminded that the willing suspension of disbelief takes more effort than some would suppose.
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If ever there were an interesting opportunity for political, historical, and rhetorical analysis of videogames, here it is. Wired has an photo-essay on “Lost Arcade Games of the Soviet Union.” See the accompanying article, too. A synchronic comparative analysis of Cold-War-era superpower videogames would be thoroughly original research that would make a [...]

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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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I second Garrison’s disappointment with Spore’s delay and am floored by its impact on EA’s stock price. Game releases have become high-stakes, just like the movie industry. In Hollywood, so much of a studio’s financial stature and continuing existence depends on its ability to put out hits or, better yet, blockbusters. The [...]

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So, it seems to me that the scientists in this article may have read Sutton-Smith (or perhaps – and admittedly more likely – read the same evolutionary theorists he had) because their rational seems similar to his. The article is discussing the intelligent and playful nature of the common raven. The researchers are [...]

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Updated!
Stephen E. Jones is a professor of English at Loyola in Chicago, where he’s just finishing up an undergrad seminar on “Video Games and Textual Studies.” It is an undergrad class, so the reading load is considerably lighter, but the syllabus still makes for interesting (comparative) reading. Be sure to check out the [...]

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After looking at sexuality and video games, I got a little curious about what conservative religious groups are doing with video games. I imagine there’s some controversy over material appropriateness etc, but I also imagine that there are several conservative religious organizations creating their own material.
In God in the Console (2003), Tom Loftus argues that [...]

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I’ve not gotten Sicart’s paper yet, but I did have a copy of his dissertation (he’s a 2006-minted PhD, and still smells like New Car). I should point out before the link that I’ve not had time to read these, so I don’t know what to expect.
Here is Miguel Sicart’s dissertation on Video Games, [...]

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So, some links which have caught my eye lately:
First a game, which I think is very interesting to look at in terms of all the readings we have had on Games, Narrative, and Rules. There are several games in the Eyemaze Grow series, this is a link to the basic one I find most [...]

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