Opinion piece published in The Guardian
There are a few common reasons why advertisers want to use videogames to reach consumers. One is the belief that videogames are a place to recover the waning audiences of television advertising. The highly desirable, seemingly elusive 18-34 male demographic is often, unfairly, assumed to correspond directly to videogame players. What better way to retrieve these “lost” consumers than to… read more
Ten principles for better academic career advisement
Jason Mittell, a media studies scholar at Middlebury College, recently wrote about his experience being a researcher at a liberal arts college. Mittell’s offering points to and comments upon a related article in the Chronicle of Higher Education by Kristen Ghodsee, who explained her path from UC Berkeley graduate student to Bowdoin professor. Both Ghodsee and Mittell question the assumption… read more
I got a barrage of text messages and emails and Facebook messages this afternoon, all telling me their senders were listening to me on NPR’s All Things Considered. The segment isn’t about me but rather about the broader topic of videogames and depth. The correspondent is Heather Chaplin, co-author of Smart Bomb: The Quest for Art, Entertainment, and Big Bucks… 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
On using videogames for practical jokes and gags. From my "Persuasive Games" column at Gamasutra
In one of the many memorable moments of Ricky Gervais’s BBC television series The Office, troublemaker Tim encases Gareth’s stapler in Jell-O. Gareth is annoyed, and the viewer is amused, because both comprehend the act immediately: it is a prank. Pranks are a type of dark humor that trace a razor’s edge between amusement and injury. The risks inherent to… read more
My keynote presentation at the 2008 Game Developers Conference Education Summit
Note: this is a written version of the keynote address I gave at the Education Summit at the 2008 Game Developers Conference. The original presentation was extemporaneous and included evocative (rather than explanatory) slides. This version has been adapted from the presentation and the slides in a manner that will hopefully preserve the ideas fully while maintaining their original context:… read more
Reflections on scholarly writing on the web
Or more subtly: reading online isn’t the same as reading on paper, yet we continue to treat the web as a distribution tool rather than as a medium with its own material constraints, both suited and unsuited to certain kinds of content. I’ve been thinking about this recently after I started reading a lot more scholarly writing online. Let me… read more
Opinion piece published in Gamasutra
From Gamasutra’s summary: In a fiery opinion piece, game designer/author Ian Bogost examines NPD chart trends to suggest that Sony’s lack of unified message on PS3, Blu-ray and the ‘average consumer’ is rendering ineffective its pitch to users. It’s also probably the only piece on Gamasutra that mentions Jacques Lacan. Sony is a global conglomerate which is significantly different from… read more
On the figure of the vignette in videogames. From my "Persuasive Games column" at Gamasutra
Hush is an unusual game created by University of Southern California Interactive Media Division MFA students Jamie Antonisse and Devon Johnson in their fall 2007 Intermediate Game Design and Development course. Like Darfur is Dying, created by fellow USC IMD student Susana Ruiz, Hush creates a personal experience of a complex historical situation. Ruiz’s game addresses the contemporary crisis in… read more
Why downloadables aren't more accessible than physical media
Recently, friend and colleague David Edery wrote a nice feature on Gamasutra about how to make trial versions of downloadable software sell more games. He has some good points, including observations about how a trial shouldn’t just be the beginning of the game nor should it give away enough that a purchase is unnecessary. But there’s something missing from Edery’s… read more