Video Games

Session Report is a monthly series that explores the intersection of narrative and broader themes of game design by focusing on a specific tabletop (or tabletop-adjacent) game each month. This…

Irrational Games’ BioShock: Infinite, released in 2013, transitions from the underwater world of Rapture to Columbia, a floating city in the sky that makes parallels with the United States capital,…

“Who is John Galt?” is the opening line of Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged, published in 1957. Perhaps as an homage to the famous question, “Who is Atlas?” posters riddle…

Nostalgia is a powerful manipulator. Whether it’s the latest Star Wars or superhero retread or yet another video game sequel, nostalgia is big business. But who exactly wants to go…

The tower seemed manageable as I stood at the base looking up. The moon was out but it was a clear night, allowing me to see the very top and…

Session Report is a monthly series that explores the intersection of narrative and broader themes of game design by focusing on a specific tabletop game each month. This month’s game…

Parry. Putt. Rub the dogs and pineapples. Watch your lover die, over and over and over. Stare bewildered at the cactus, the only life form you’ve seen in the past…

There’s been a lot of interesting experimentation in overlapping the mediums of video games, poetry, and art. Video games by thatgamecompany like Flow, Flower, and Journey allow viewers to appreciate…

Photo via Petur HK (and his girlfriend’s camera). Often, reality is too narrow. The hour has just passed noon, the building opposite my bedroom is reflecting the winter light (always…

At their best, monsters are metaphors for ideas, or cultural phenomena, in real life that scare us, from the most basic ‘Other’/foreigner to, say, sex/desire in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Zombies…

With the recent trailer release of The Last of Us: Part II, which may, for all we know, come out in the very far future, and even as fanboys have…

The Past, Present, and Future of Japanese Role-Playing Games Whenever I’m asked what my favorite video game is, I’m torn between Super Mario Bros. 3, Metal Gear Solid, and Final…

They wheel her back to surgery, and I squeeze her hand one more time. The wheels of the stretcher squeak, and I hear the familiar hiss of an automatic door…

This article, which originally appeared on the Black Clock blog in 2011 as part of an ongoing exploration into interactive storytelling, has been revised for publication on Entropy. It’s practically a…