Unbreakable
A structural defect? An object lesson?
Do they put “unbreakable” on it just to taunt people like me? Is it a complex marketing strategy to sell more combs? Is it an object lesson in temptation? (click for a bigger version)
Writing
Can Games get Real? A Closer Look at “Documentary” Digital Games
Co-authored with Cindy Poremba, in the Games as a Sociocultural Phenomenon collection
This article also appears in Computer Games as a Sociocultural Phenomenon: Games Without Frontiers, Wars Without Tears Digital games are commonly celebrated for their realism, but this is typically a reference to their visual verisimilitude rather than an association with something actual. As games begin to push past traditional boundaries and contexts, a new genre, of sorts, has begun to… read more
Videogame Pranks
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
Text of my GDC Education Summit Keynote
Following reflections on Georgia Tech president Wayne Clough's appointment to the Secretaryship of the Smithsonian
Today G. Wayne Clough, the president of Georgia Tech, announced his plans to step down as of mid-summer to take the top post at the Smithsonian Institute. The Smithsonian has been plagued by many problems in recent years, from major budget overruns to a crippling executive corruption scandal last year that forced the last Secretary out. The challenges of the… read more
Not Interdisciplinarity, But Love
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
Reading Online Sucks
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
Finally, Smart Web 2.0 Critique
A special issue of the journal First Monday
The open-access online journal First Monday has just published a special issue devoted to critiques of Web 2.0. There have been few such attempts heretofore, the most well-known being fellow Colbert Report guest Andrew Keen’s naive and poorly-argued book The Cult of the Amateur. Thankfully, the articles in First Monday’s special issue are top-notch, and everyone should go read them,… read more
Sony, Global Infant
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
Videogame Vignette
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
Shoes, Laptops, Liquids, Blog
The Transportation Security Administration's new blog
As an airport obsessive, I was interested to learn that the TSA has a blog now. It’s a curious thing. For example, they’ve gone to some significant lengths to humanize the bloggers: Hi, I’m Bob, and I started with the TSA in September 2002. … I live in Southwest Ohio with my wife, 3-year-old daughter, and a 100 pound German… read more