A Review of the iPhone
Despite attempts to maintain my geek cred, despite my propensity for gadgeteering, despite my favor for the cult of Apple, despite my lust for shiny things with microprocessors, I didn’t get an iPhone when it first came out earlier this year. Indeed, I also didn’t get one when the new versions were released this month. It’s not that I wasn’t… read more
How gameplay makes changes in the real world. From my "Persuasive Games" column at Gamasutra.
Playing a video game is usually something we do outside of our everyday lives. As with any medium, our experiences with video games can influence how we think about our real lives, whether now or in the future. But when we play games, we take a break from that life. Playing a game is different from sorting digital photos, filing… read more
My experience with Make My Own Monster
I received a Make My Own Monster kit for Christmas last year. It’s a service offered by the North American Bear Company, which has the distinction of having the worst shopping site I’ve seen in some time. Anyway, the Make My Own Monster concept is great: kids (of all ages, in my case) draw a monster, send in the drawing,… read more
115 years of sports game adaptation
I have an interest in game adaptation, something that we normally think of only as it relates to film-to-game licensing. In our forthcoming book on the Atari VCS, Nick Montfort and I also discuss another kind of videogame adaptation that was once its primary form: from arcade coin-ops to home consoles.
Using the collapsible Elmar-M 50mm f/2.8 on the Leica M8
As I’ve discussed before, one of the main ideas behind the 35mm rangefinder camera was its small size and subsequent portability. Since their beginning 80 years ago, Leica cameras have often been coupled to collapsible lenses. The early production Leicas in the 20s and 30s were all designed for a lens that collapsed into the body of the device, making… read more
This website in The Industry Standard's Top 25 B-to-Z List Blogs
The Industry Standard has compiled a list of the top 25 “B-to-Z List Blogs”… you know, the ones that come after the A-list. It seems that this humble site was selected as one. Quoth the Standard: This videogame theorist and assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology waxes between scholarly navel-gazing and witty media references. Ian really knows his… read more
who misconstrues my work and that of my colleagues
(1) I’m not going to bother to write a thorough prose response to your recent Escapist article Quibus Lusoribus Bono? Who is Game Studies Good For?, but only numbered objections and comments. Readers, you’ll have to go read Travis’s article before any of these will make sense. (2) Your article is based on the premise that Douglas Wilson looks down… read more
The vices and virtues of selective color shift at high ISO in the Sigma DP1
One of the problems with digital SLRs is their large footprint. Not only the size and weight of the camera, but also that of the lens attached to it, especially for serious photographers interested in large apertures and high-quality glass. This is an issue that affects professionals and amateurs alike, since both groups might want to have a smaller, more… read more
Opinion piece published in Gamasutra
Note: the “Spore Store” description has been updated here to account for misinformation I received researching this material. Full clarification is available at the end of the Gamasutra article. In the games industry, Will Wright’s Spore is surely the most highly anticipated title in recent memory. Everyone knows about it — we’ve been seeing previews and demos and hearing news… read more
Straight Outa Canada
This week I was in Canada, which is the country immediately north of America (“the States” for the rest of you). I like to read the newspapers delivered to my hotel room when traveling, so I inhaled today’s issue of the Globe and Mail, which is a national coverage paper in that country. Among the many things I learned about… read more