By my eight year-old
We saw TRON: Legacy. My eight year-old daughter wrote this review of the film, which she suggested would be appropriate for blogging. If you haven’t seen Tron Legacy yet please for your own good don’t go see it. Because if you did then you would almost definitely die of boredom. I guess if you like to sit and watch Boom!… read more
A review of Adam Kotsko's book
Adam Kotsko’s little book Awkwardness is a pleasurable and insightful read, yet another reminder that Zero Books is quickly becoming the trusted source for short, punchy works on philosophy and cultural theory. In the book, Kotsko offers a tiny theory of awkwardness: “The tension of awkwardness indicates that no social order is self-evident and no social order accounts for every… read more
My Indiecade "Project Next" Talk
In addition to getting to exhibit (and collect two awards!) for A Slow Year at this year’s Indiecade festival, I was also invited to do a talk at the conference portion of the event, in a session called “Project Next.” Jon Blow, Chris Hecker, Alex Neuse, Paolo Pedercini and I all gave short talks about the new games we each… read more
Two tenure-track lines in my school
The Georgia Tech School of Literature Communication and Culture, where I work, has just announced two tenure-track job openings. I’ve pasted the job ads below. I hope any of you who might be interested will apply, and I encourage the rest to spread the word. Job One – Digital Media The School of Literature, Communication and Culture of the Georgia… read more
About Medal of Honor and Afghanistan. From my "Persuasive Games" column at Gamasutra.
In November, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments from the State of California, as the latter attempts to prohibit the sale of certain games to minors. The issue has remained a nail-biter for the industry and its advocates, who see the proposal as an attack on the First Amendment rights of game makers. Despite its importance to American life,… read more
Cultural Studies, circa 1995
I recently fell upon this reprint of a Lingua Franca article from 1995, “The Routledge Revolution: Has Academic Publishing Gone Tabloid?” written about Bill Germano during the golden age of cultural studies book publishing. One thing is for certain: By spotting intellectual trends ahead of the curve and responding with a flash flood of suitable titles, Germano has changed the… read more
On the familiar and the unfamiliar in games. From my "Persuasive Games" column at Gamasutra.
Consider two sorts of familiarity that arise in art. The first is the familiarity of predictability. Through craft, this sort of work gives us what we expect in a well-conceived fashion. It’s one of the reasons people enjoy television. The sitcom and the procedural tend to be particularly good at giving us what we expect. In twenty minutes, a banal… read more
Thoughts on Karate Kid
Recently I’ve been interested in remakes, so I was eager to see The Karate Kid, which revisits the now-classic 1984 film of the same name. The remake is one of the most faithful I can remember; in a time (in a world?) of updates and adaptations that wax nostalgic about TV, film, and toys of the 1970s and 80s while… read more
Time Will Tell, But Epistemology Won't: In Memory of Richard Rorty
In 1999, the Silicon Alley entrepreneur Josh Harris rented an underground warehouse in lower Manhattan and subjugated a hundred friends to a home-made police state he named “QUIET.” Its residents slept in open bunk pods stacked atop one another, each with a bus depot television with a closed-circuit feed from every other pod. Quieters partook of bacchanal feasts and abusive… read more
On "Heavy Rain" and interactive cinema. From my "Persuasive Games" column at Gamasutra.
Heavy Rain is not an interactive film. I know that’s what its creators were after, and I know that’s how it’s been pitched to the market, and I know it’s been critiqued as both a successful and an unsuccessful implementation of that goal. To understand why the game is not a playable film, it’s important to review what makes film… read more