The Growing Player Driven Economy of Video Games.

In the digital age where video games are common and easily accessible by anyone with a phone, game console, tablet or computer gives rise to player communities that propagate themselves much like communities/societies in the real world. Video…

Video Games are Advancing Too Fast

Only being nineteen years old, throughout my lifetime I have seen video games make huge advancements. They started out as very simple counsel and even more simple games where today there are virtual reality games and can do far more than I ever would have expected. But…

Do games need characters??

“Video games are better without characters” — a very bold claim by author Ian Bogost of The Atlantic. A claim I strongly disagreed with, but could possibly be persuaded against. When I think about the most popular video games from the past 50 years, the first thing that comes to…

Evolution of Gaming Systems

The video game industry has evolved rapidly. From just playing in an arcade with friends to playing games at home and now to playing games on the go on a smartphone. It’s crazy. In the article The History of Gaming: An Evolving Community written by Riad Chikhani, he discusses the…

Narrative and Story in Video Games

What is a story’s role within a video game? Is it a linear sequence of events like a movie or a book, or is it simply means to an end, where the player is rewarded? And how do narratives differ in their interaction? Some suggest that video games cannot contain…

In an article published by Jan Simons titled Narrative, Games, and Theory Jan differentiates the difference between External Observers and Immersed Players. Jan describes External Observers as people who apprehend “what has happened” in contrast Involved players care about “what is going to happen”.

The Conflict and Bond Between Player and Character

Games as Advocacy

I am a proud activist for video games — mainly games that are mind-numbing and take you away from the current issues of everyday life. The reason I game is to escape reality and to drown out the struggles and issues that seem to be never ending in the real world. That is how video games started…

Racial Injustice in Games

People play video games as an alternate reality, to get away from all the crap you see in the news. It is an escape from all the politics, terrorist attacks, and race issues — at least I thought it was. Now these current events have crossed over into our alternate reality. Are video…

Stories in Video Games: Here’s the Story

Once Upon a Time, there was a girl who never considered herself a gamer, EVER, but she…