As technology advances, video game developers are able to portray realism in their games much more accurately: graphics make video games look like movies, AIs interact with characters at an uncanny level, and the stories can hit closer to home than ever before. Still, some people will always look at video games as unrealistic and [...]
Archive for the ‘Mac’ Category
Stop Blaming the Games
October 29th, 2012 
Nicole Marie As a GameStop employee I have to be extremely aware of the ESRB Rating system and what each rating means. Employees are required to test on the rating system before they can begin their employment and are trained to take the ratings very seriously. Every time a M (mature) rated game is entered into the [...]
Modern Warfare 3: Hits and Misses
November 10th, 2011 alexlayne Currently I have put in about 12 hours played time on MW3 (for those counting, that’s 12 hours in-game time, not the loading screen and not the lobby). I am currently level 56 (finally I got the claymore) so I feel I have a pretty good handle on what is working for me and what [...]
Posted in 360, Game Reviews, Mac, Miscellany, PC, PS3, Uncategorized, Windows 
Tags: fps, game review, modern warfare 3, mw3 
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So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
October 8th, 2011 dr. b. On October 5, 2011 the world lost a great technology visionary in Mr. Steve Jobs. His passing was extremely sad but, we must admit, not surprising. I won’t take up time and space extolling the virtues of Mr. Jobs and all of the great things that he did at Apple, Atari, Pixar, etc. That has been done [...]
Posted in iPad, iPhone, Mac, Uncategorized Tags: games, handheld, iOS, Steve Jobs, ubiquity Comments Off
The Women of Mortal Kombat
October 3rd, 2011 alexlayne As I played the new Mortal Komat, I was struck by how similar this game seemed to the ones I had always played: similar characters, similar scenes, and similar moves. I’d like to imagine that video game companies are under pressure to develop their characters to move away from the disgruntled, white, male protagonist. [...]
Posted in Games and Rhetoric, Mac, Miscellany, PC, PS3, PSP, Uncategorized, Wii, Windows Comments Off
Representations of the Other
September 8th, 2011 alexlayne I’ve been talking (and thinking) a lot lately about the differences between historical accuracy and the perpetuation of past culture (ie. the treatment of women in LA Noir and Madmen). I do have a genuine interest in creating representations of cultures in the past, and I think we can learn a lot about ourselves from [...]
Posted in 360, DS, Games and Rhetoric, Mac, Miscellany, PC, PS3, Uncategorized, Windows Tags: Alma, Alyx Vance, April Ryan, Carla Valenti, carmen San Diego, representation, the longest journey 3 Comments »
Historicity Versus Perpetuation
August 23rd, 2011 alexlayne I watched the first episode of Mad Men the other day, and I found myself thinking about the line between historical accuracy and a perpetuation of attitudes that we no longer find appropriate. Don’t get me wrong; I appreciate an attempt at historical accuracy, even when it may get a little uncomfortable. A little [...]
Posted in Games and Rhetoric, Mac, Miscellany, Mobile, PC, Windows Tags: anti-Semitism, history, LA Noir, Mad Men, perpetuation, racism, sexism 3 Comments »
False Utopia and The Land of the Meritocrasaurus Rex
March 22nd, 2011 alexlayne The idea that fields of technology such as open source programming is a meritocracy is very, very dangerous. It leads to all sorts of discrimination, sexism, and racism. It also leads pretty smart people to say some pretty dumb things. For example, Michael Arrington wrote a piece called “Too Few Women in Tech? Stop Blaming [...]
Posted in Mac, PC, Uncategorized, Windows Tags: meritocracy, open source, programming, sexual assault 2 Comments »
Do video games influence social constructions in meat space?
March 5th, 2011 alexlayne Well, yes. I’ve argued again and again that gender, race, class, and all sorts of social constructions can be influenced by the way those things are depicted in entertainment media like video games. But, I’m a hypocrite. I would also argue against anyone who claims that violence in video games makes kids more violent. In [...]
Posted in Mac, PC, Uncategorized, Windows Tags: Facebook, facebook games, hotness, it girl, social construction 3 Comments »
I’m Not Addicted, I’m Just Conditioned This Way.
February 17th, 2011 dr. b. So this week Alex did 2 things to suck my time dry. First she talked me into going back into WoW and then she agreed to my hair-brained idea to make a video about Skinner Box Logic in video games. To make it even funnier, we spaced it and made the video and then did [...]
