September 2008
postpunk.tumblr.com →
I started a new tumblr to highlight some music from my favorite era.
The ending of Braid is the most emotionally...
Is Barack Obama The Next President? →
shutupinternet:
Find out for yourself.
I like sites with finite lifespans.
August 2008
The Evil Summoner FAQ v1.0: How to Be a Cheap Ass →
This piece is one of the more unexpected, if not questionable, entries in The Game Design Reader. With a little context, however, the relevance on this text becomes apparent: First, this is a great example of one of the more pervasive forms of game-writing-by-gamers: the strategy guide. Second, and more importantly, it’s one of those strategy guides where the player knows the game better...
The History of Atari: 1971-1977 →
This is a hell of an introduction:
Mt. Fuji towers 3776 meters as Japan’s highest mountain. It’s a striking landmark, one that rises almost impossibly out of an unassuming plain to a pinnacle of ice-capped beauty. After its mammoth breadth is realized, it settles back down again into a valley as if it was never there. It was formed by a volcanic eruption about 10,000 years ago, and has since...
postpunk:
Fire Engines - Get Up and Use Me
...
Reading List →
nostrich:
Sussex University sent me a preliminary reading list to get through before I start my course. Still need to buy those three, and bought the following today:
The Stories of English, David Crystal
Mother Tongue, Bill Bryson
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of The English Language, David Crystal
Expensive, this education lark. (Yeah, that’s a wishlist. FEEL FREE!)
I had to read three...
Class Schedule
Computer Science 367 - Intro to Data Structures Computer Science 539 - Intro to Artificial Neural Networks English 219 - Shakespearean Drama English 367 - Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales English 553 - Humanism and Beyond
“Roger Caillois identifies four elemental play rubrics—agôn, alea, mimicry,...”
– Kate Salen and Eric Zimmerman discuss Roges Caillois’ 1962 essay “The Definition of Play: The Classification of Games” in their topic essay on The Player Experience in The Game Design Reader.
I find this quote interesting because despite being written before electronic gaming, all...
Muscles - Sweaty
Last night, I decided to start...
Castle Crashers
peroty:
I am ready to go home and crash some castles! I played last night for while alone then with two friends and had an awesome time!
I even beat two people 10 levels higher than me in a 1-on-1 duel.
I <3 my green knight.
I can’t wait to try this game out.
“Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it’s just the...”
– John Kenneth Galbraith, quoted in the Simtropolis Simcity 4 strategy guide chapter on exploits and cheats.
1Up: Top Five Lamest Pokemon →
Mr. Mime - The “What Were They Thinking?” Pokémon
“Can’t sleep, clown will eat me.” Such was the refrain of millions of children around the world the first time they saw Mr. Mime, possibly the most bizarre and terrifying Pokémon of them all. Like Jynx — the infamous “blackface Pokémon” — Mr. Mime makes you shake your head and question what...
Wikipedia: List of films considered the worst →
Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam (1982) In a time when Turkish cinema was at its nadir, this film, known in English as The Man Who Saved the World, is more commonly known derisively as Turkish Star Wars. It is so named because instead of using its own special effects, the producers of Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam blatantly copied and pasted scenes and elements from famous American cinema (most notably, outer space...
Games As Art, But At What Cost? →
We’d like to see games as art. Even those of us who’d personally rather just shoot stuff, thank you very much, realize in general that “games as art” might be a simple way to vault them into the sphere of mainstream relevance, earn them appreciation and understanding from an audience that currently, unjustly, looks down on them.
We love, of course, when games have themes...
College: Day 1
shutupinternet:
Computer Science has been my favorite so far. The teacher used to work at IBM back in the day and spent the whole time making fun of “pale people who think they can avoid human interaction by sitting in a dark room with a computer.” He told us that the class will be the most meaningful and fun that we’ll take all year long so I’m excited for Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
CS...
WatchMirror’s Edge Gameplay Trailer
One of my personal highlights from the deluge of E3 coverage was gameplay footage of the parkour/free-running inspired Mirror’s Edge. The game continues the first-person platforming innovations of Metroid Prime and Portal, and judging by the video’s gun-breaking maneuver, the game seems to playfully reject the shooting gameplay that has dominated...
“At the Kotaku pre-E3 party, an MA student introduced himself to me and queried...”
– Maggie Greene on “outsider” status in academics and the nature of academic boundaries as they related to game studies.
friendssharingmusic:
Life Without Buildings -...
britticisms:
“Optimo” by Liquid Liquid
Dare you...
“As an educated American with multiple advanced degrees, I am deeply saddened...”
– A comment on a Washington Post blog entry that references a particularly anti-intellectual quote from a McCain spokesman. (via caro)
Horseback Riding? Really?
shutupinternet:
People who call Counter-Strike a sport are usually stuck in a computer chair for upwards of eight hours a day and the only muscles that they use are in their hands. Counter-Strike is a video GAME. Game, there, see? It’s right in the type of software. If video games are sports, horseback riding is gymnastics.
Denying Counter-Strike’s sports status solely because it’s...
Retrogaming 1: Rodent's Revenge →
Inspired by Zack’s Retrointernet feature, I’ve decided to feature some downloads/emulations of old games. For the inaugural post, I decided to showcase the Windows 3.0 / Windows 95 classic puzzler Rodent’s Revenge.
Quoth Wikipedia:
To win a level, the mouse must stay alive and trap all the cats using the movable blocks. Doing so changes the cats into cheese, which the mouse...
“This is all very well and good, but I’m still bald.”
– Larry David, in his 1993 Emmy acceptance speech for Best Comedy Writing (Seinfeld, “The Contest”) (via insidethebox)
“Pitchfork must be kidding if they think I’m going to sit through another...”
– Gabe
“Many game makers, from Miyamoto onward, have focused on creating environments or...”
– Dungeons and Dreamers articulates Henry Jenkins view that games provide opportunities for children to explore and engage in virtual worlds.
Previously: The Thesis of Dungeons and Dreamers
Greetings From Michigan
Just as soon as my family and I touched down in Wisconsin after returning from NYC, I left for East Lansing to visit Mary. She really liked the Top Chef shirt I got her from the NBC store. Today, we’re going camping by Lake Michigan.
Trip Recap
Yesterday: Niagara Falls. Maid of the Mist tour, Cave of the Winds, a park with a statue of Nikola Tesla, buffalo wings from Buffalo.
Today: New York City. Canal Street and China Town, Times Square, Rockefeller Plaza. I bought two shirts at the NBC store: one with the MILF Island logo and one with a silhouette of Top Chef’s Hung that says “Chef Hung”. (Sadly there were no...
“It’s silly but you should read it anyway because it’s one of the best things...”
– perpetua recommending Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O’Malley.
I’m sold.
Greetings From Niagara Falls
We may or may not hit New York City.