This week my fiancée told me about an app she had recently installed on her phone. As she excitedly described it, users of the app can "check in" at a retail store (it sounded like your location is verified through GPS) and you receive points for doing so, presumably to redeem for store purchases but … Continue reading Multiple angles on gamification
Tag: gaming
Epic EVE battle, Critical games criticism, indie developer self-publishing
I've never played EVE Online, and I don't even really understand how it works, but I find it fascinating. Last week saw the biggest battle in the game's history. This breakdown from The Verge is headlined like a real-life dispatch from the frontier of mankind's space-faring endeavors: Largest space battle in history claims 2,900 ships, … Continue reading Epic EVE battle, Critical games criticism, indie developer self-publishing
Hacker’s death, wearable tech, and some Cyberpunk
White hat hacker Barnaby Jack was found dead in San Francisco this week; he was 35 years old. From the Reuters article on his death: His genius was finding bugs in the tiny computers embedded in equipment, such as medical devices and cash machines. He often received standing ovations at conferences for his creativity and … Continue reading Hacker’s death, wearable tech, and some Cyberpunk
Thoughts on Oculus Rift, modding, and assessing games journalism and criticism
Jeff at Holy Grenade extolls the value of access to gaming journalism: Gaming journalism is, by some accounts, a broken field. By others, its unjournalistic process is a symptom of reporting online, where advertising revenue is minimal, at least when compared to revenue from newspapers or magazines. And that isn’t just exclusive to gaming journalism … Continue reading Thoughts on Oculus Rift, modding, and assessing games journalism and criticism
The Ideology of Scarface, Community as PoMo masterpiece, Present Shock reviewed, etc.
I posted a video from the PBS Idea Channel on Baudrilliard and hyperreality a while back, and hadn’t kept up with the channel since. I recently came across a couple of their other videos and enjoyed them enough to want to share. This video assesses the TV show Community as a postmodern masterpiece: And in … Continue reading The Ideology of Scarface, Community as PoMo masterpiece, Present Shock reviewed, etc.
Multiple angles on gaming’s Ebert, Kubrick, and Citizen Kane
Roger Ebert ruffled some feathers a few years ago when he declared that "video games can never be art". One obvious difference between art and games is that you can win a game. It has rules, points, objectives, and an outcome. Santiago might cite a immersive game without points or rules, but I would say … Continue reading Multiple angles on gaming’s Ebert, Kubrick, and Citizen Kane