Gaming and the liberal arts

I love that their guide is named Alexander Stakhanov. Players as Stakhanovites!

Play harder for great victory of glorious people's clan!

This guy isn't the only gamer who has tried this, either. There was a World of Warcraft player who was doing it as well -- he even equipped a fishing rod as his "weapon" so his weapon skill would remain low. I *think* this is the player's blog: http://pacifistundeadpriest.blogspot.com/

I'd be very interested to play a level such as those myself. Quantifying "restraint," "remorse," or "laying down your arms" seems like a particularly tough assignment, though.

Go Portal!

I wonder if there will be any discussion of the emotional impact of abandoning/destroying the weighted companion cube. That still haunts me.

tee-hee - cheap 'n' easy journalism

Did the writer just snarf bad Amazon reviews? Nice work if you can get it.

Audio with novelist Nicholson Baker, who describes learning about computer games and respecting their art. Check out which title he thinks is most novelistic. There's also a full article, but not online yet.

Book review for "Extra Lives" by Tom Bissell.  I wouldn't say that "beat Red Dead Redemption" should be on the list, but I don't disagree with adding Bioshock.

Good catch, Vicky. The book's on my stack.

Indeed. Fascinating to see the negative press, too.

I liked the NPR review of the reviewers: http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2010/08/12/129150813/-scott-pilgrim-versus-the-unfortunate-tendency-to-review-the-audience It is good to be reminded once in awhile that gaming is still considered "lowbrow" and only for 12 year old boys to the uninformed. God knows I love me some elitism, but only when it is justified.

Yes, the disdain for gaming is still powerful. This movie is getting good reviews, generally. But is it doing badly at the box office?

Erin Robinson's games.

Jennifer Jenson's site. Contains links to Contagion, Epidemic, and Tafelmusik.

"LAYOFF uses a simple casual game paradigm to comment on the current state of the US financial crisis. Both friends and strangers face tough times in an unstable economy. Part dark humor, mostly grim portent, in the game players play from the side of management needing to cut jobs, and match types of workers in groups in order to lay the workers off and increase workforce efficiency."

Mary Flanagan's digital games lab at Dartmouth College. 

Tracy Fullerton's project with USC's Interactive Media Division. "The prototype focuses on the constitutional crisis surrounding school integration in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. A set of webisodes and a graphic novel provide the background story of this crisis, while the central "Debate Game" asks players to use the people, laws and values from the era to support two out of three points of the argument for or against school integration, addressing questions like "Should the federal government intervene?", "Is media coverage swaying public opinion?", and "Are civil rights woth risking a constitutional crisis?" Players can take the side of the "Forces of Change" or the "Status Quo" in debate over the constitutional issues that shaped the country."

Susana Ruiz's game design studio for "casual games for change": Darfur is Dying (genocide), Finding Zoe (gender stereotypes and abusive relationships), and In the Balance, a documentary game about the justice system in the US that uses animation and documentary footage of real prisoners.