Every Girl's Crazy 'Bout a Sharp Dressed Avatar

I've been interested in clothing as a mode of communication for some number of years. Part of it stems from my appreciation of the way that Tim Gunn talks about clothing but part of it derives from some stray comments from a professor I had in graduate school about self presentation in the classroom. In any case, I have written about the semiotics of character customization before in reviewing games in the Grand Theft Auto series (especially San Andreas) and in Bully. While Rockstar has especially impressed me in the way that they link character customization to meaningful interactions in their game world, I have been thinking about the idea in a few recent games, which resulted in the following post:

Every Girl's Crazy 'Bout a Sharp Dressed Avatar

Moving Pixels Podcast: The Best of Video Game Storytelling

Wrapping up our six week discussion of storytelling, we decided to acknowledge a number of games that we felt were especially strong examples of storytelling. While the lists that each of us generated do not contain much overlap, the patterns that did emerge amongst these games are interesting. In other words, while the games aren't the same, what we seem to value about good storytelling in video games seems to have some similarity.

You can listen to the patterns emerge here (still working on getting these up on iTunes):

Moving Pixels Podcast: The Best of Video Game Storytelling

Hamlet: The Video Game

In addition to the review of Rooms mentioned below, I also posted a review of another puzzle game at PopMatters today. Hamlet is a far superior puzzler, albeit a much briefer one.

Also, while I am critical of Rooms's narrative elements and the game makes me question the need for plots to exist in games of this sort at all, Hamlet with its radical departure from adapting the story of Hamlet to the puzzle genre generates a marvellously surreal tale alongside its often fun and challenging puzzles.

You can read more about Hamlet here:

Hamlet: The Video Game

Review: Rooms: The Main Building

Rooms: The Main Building doesn't lend itself to the most thought provoking analysis. It is a pretty straightforward puzzler, solid enough in short bursts.

Its strange tacked on storyline seems unnecessary given its puzzle driven mechanics, but it still does serve as an interesting (albeit brief) critique of the authoritarian nature of tutorials.

Rooms: The Main Building

Moving Pixels Podcast: Emergent Stories in Video Games

This week the Moving Pixels attempts to ascend to headier grounds with a discussion of emergent narrative. We play around a bit with the definition of the concept (which I may or may not have a funny sense of) as well as consider if stories can emerge in contexts beyond single player games.

You can listen to the podcast here:

Moving Pixels Podcast: Emergent Stories in Video Games

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Game

Due to the complexities of some things going on in real life, I felt that I needed to take a week off from thinking. So, this week's blog is simply a chance to feature something that I enjoyed last week with no real emphasis on critique or analysis.

Without further ado then:

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Game

Moving Pixels Podcast: Mystery Stories in Video Games

We have covered war and love, but the latest edition of the Moving Pixels podcast is all about mystery.

My colleague Rick Dakan insists that every good story has a mystery at its heart. I can't disagree that the mystery has a certain centrality to video games, which are focused on issues of "solution" often as their central purpose.

You can have a listen to the podcast over at PopMatters. Once again it includes discussion amongst PopMatters writers, Rick Dakan, Nick Dinicola, Thomas Cross, and myself.

Moving Pixels Podcast: Mystery Stories in Video Games

Building a Better Murderer

I’m getting better at killing. It stands to reason, since I’ve had good instruction.

A bit of a look at how we are educated to kill in Darksiders.

Building a Better Murderer

Moving Pixels Podcast: Of Plumbers and Princesses, or Love Stories in Video Games

Another week, another podcast. The third part of our storytelling mini-series for the Moving Pixels podcast focuses on love stories between plumbers and princesses, monkeys and maidens, and other lovestruck pixelated heroes and heroines. So, for those sick of just talking about fighting in video games, see the link below.

Moving Pixels Podcast: Of Plumbers and Princesses, or Love Stories in Video Games