Hard Boiled Heroism For the Kids: MySims Agents

Sometimes you play for the sake of challenge. Sometimes you play for the sake of character and charm. Games for kids these days seem sorely lacking in both, but in the case of MySims Agents, the game has a lot more in common with hard boiled detective fiction (and maybe more in terms of gameplay than plotting, though it contains a elements of that genre in both), and I find that charming.

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Hard Boiled Heroism For the Kids: MySims Agents

Inclusive Criminality: Multiculturalism and Saint’s Row

I'm kind of wild about open world crime games. Much like the Western or the mobster flick, the genre is for me currently the most American of video game genres as it concerns itself frequently with topics most often associated with American life, liberty, achievement, and economic success.

I am returning to a topic that I wrote about a considerable time ago when reviewing the first Saint's Row that seems to me one that might not normally be associated with the themes of crime fiction, the odd inclusivity of the 3rd Row Saints. How American is it to even want some pluralism in your street gangs?

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Inclusive Criminality: Multiculturalism and Saint’s Row

The Gleam of Electric Sex: What Video Games Might (or Might Not) Teach Us About Sex

This week's blog largely concerns my reactions to some obsrevations made by David Cage of Quantic Dream about the "stripping sequence" in a demo of Heavy Rain. Cage's interesting observations about how players reacted when made the object of a voyeur's gaze got me thinking about how sexuality has been represented in other games and what limitations those representations have on producing more interesting explorations of sexuality in video games.

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The Gleam of Electric Sex: What Video Games Might (or Might Not) Teach Us About Sex

Review: Fatale: Exploring Salome

So, I haven't played The Path, but I have heard all sorts of interesting things about this "arthouse" game from Tale of Tales. I thought the notion of riffing on fairy tale heroines was nice enough, but, you know, it's been done.

When I heard that Tale of Tales intended to play around with the story of Salome in their next "game," though, my ears pricked up: sex, violence, voyeurism, and the Bible! Now, you're getting into my areas of interest (body theory and theology being two of my chief interests).

In any case, Tale of Tales was nice enough to send a review copy over to PopMatters early this week, so I spent an evening or two with it.

I like it. You may like it. Not everyone will like it. But here's why (and also an explanation for why I am calling it a "game," not a game):

Review: Fatale: Exploring Salome

Moving Pixels Plays Telephone: "Ganking" Broken Systems in Video Games

This week my fellow Moving Pixels bloggers and myself decided to play a game of telephone in order to discuss some gaming related topics. Beginning with a post by L.B. Jeffries on Tuesday, we are considering how the concept of "ganking" (a term normally associated with multiplayer experiences) might apply if considered in relation to single player experiences.

What resulted is a discussion that has largely considered issues concerning player freedom and design intentions and how those two sometimes competing interests may or may not be resolvable. I posted a continuation of the discussion today, and Nick Dinicola will serve as the anchor for the discussion on Friday. If you are interested, I am providing links to all of these parts of the discussion here (so, check back here or on PopMatters on Friday for Nick's essay and the discussion's conclusion.

Oh, and as I noted in response to some comments on L.B.'s essay, this is a game of telephone. As such, we are playing fast and loose with semantics assuming that games of telephone are about allowing unusual correlations and correpondences in language to emerge as a result of passing a message along and allowing it to be reinterpreted. We are playing fast and loose with terminology here, but that's kind of the fun of telephone, right (and, of course, we always run the risk of ending the game with a very different message by the end)?

Moving Pixels Plays Telephone Part 1: Considering “Ganking” the System in Video Games

Moving Pixels Plays Telephone Part 2: “Ganking” Broken Systems in Video Games

Moving Pixels Plays Telephone Part 3: The Right to “Gank” the System in Video Games