Discourse

When games reference other games, it’s almost always done in a flippant, shallow way, but allusions represent a greater possibility for ambiguity, multivalence, and expressive depth. Games deserve—and are increasingly ready to harness—that depth.

I wanted to be an engineer. But not if it meant giving up writing or design. But I was looking at it the wrong way: labels should be lenses, not boxes.

The first time I played Dark Souls, it broke me. I actually cried. I’m one of those silly gamers that has built some kind of...

I’m joining luminary game designers Heather Logas and Squinky to help organize an event in June called the Santa Cruz Retreat for Analog Play (SCRAP). In many ways, we’re designing SCRAP around the idea of an un-hack.

Last Friday I was totally buried and couldn’t make it to the Scholar’s Play stream, so I logged in to watch. For the first time I really understood why people watch other people play games, something I hadn’t even really figured out when we started the stream.

Since I was very young, I have hated playing video games in front of people, especially if I’ve never played the game before. This...

“Organizing a game jam follows roughly the same energy curve as participating in one,” a friend observed. First you’re really excited at the prospect...

Over the last several days, senior hypertext researcher Mark Bernstein has been publishing a series of posts on Gamergate edit wars and their broader...