The videogame violence debate is old but not over, because it’s not just worried parents and politicians anymore. Recently, Warren Spector–revered designer of System Shock, Deus Ex, Epic Mickey, among others—told G.I.biz: We have to stop loving it. I just don’t believe in the effects argument at all
The accidental aesthetic of Quick Response (QR) codes has gained the attention of artsts looking to explore its vast storage capabilities and (smart phone) user-friendly scanning. A few QR artists have hung whole galleries, courting comparisons to Piet Mondrian. Another Dutch artist, Sander Veenhauf
The social game giant who owns Facebook’s Farmville and mobile fads like Draw Something and Words With Friends has watched their stock deflate rapidly in the past few trade days. Just a couple of possible reasons for the recent tailspin: dwindling interest in previous games from mobile players and F
At last capitulating to the growing digital hegemony, the hermitic, not-dead-yet novelist–whose beautifully explosive books (Gravity’s Rainbow, Mason and Dixon, The Crying of Lot 49) have left readers, writers, and critics in awe for the last half-century–is all-of-the-sudden fine with his books bec
Tim Schafer, lead writer and creative director of some of the most inventive and moving adventure games ever (Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, Brütal Legend), writes beyond what his games show on the screen. His recent interview with On The Media–cut from a longer interview about Schafer’s multimillion d
Who knows why the endearingly blustery 21st-century philosopher from Slovenia hung a poster of Call of Duty: Black Ops in his living room? Either way, according to this recent Guardian profile, the celebrated/ridiculed genius/”Borat of philosophy” does indeed have the poster. We can only hope that h
Drifting toward a more Deist approach to the in-game world, Big Robot’s in-development Sir, You Are Being Hunted generates its own environment. Ostensibly, Hunted is a game of surviving on moors patroled by rabid, robotic, tea-drunk gentelmen poachers, who presumably shoot on sight. But these spooky
Finally expanding the one game universe we believed was just too unbelievably cloistered, Snakes on a Cartesian Plane by netgrind has introduced speciation to the classic cellphone game. Chase to unlock the Mamba, Python, Boa, Solid Snakes, etc. Despite the memetic name, Cartesian investigation and
Implement this into next year’s baseball sim: The New York Times’ detailed 3D map of one of baseball’s most confouding pitches–Mariano Rivera’s cutter. Thankfully, Youtube offers the historical gamut of 3D technologies and styles, including the old fashion naked eye(s). So if you humble yourself in
Like a child tapping glass at a toy store window display, the creators of Tactus Technology have felt a rift between finger and device since 2007, when Apple dropped the touch-screen veil over its devices and denied consumers the feeling of total manual domination. Perhaps seeing that child in all o
Flying in the palmed face of such nascent alternate Abraham Lincoln anti-histories as Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, comes Pixel Lincoln: The Deckbuilding Game, a Kickstarter-backed card game promising the “fun and simple” appeal of a meat-slinging, dino-slaying, 8-bit Abraham Lincoln. The baroque
Artist Donald Judd would have likely seen a fundamental difference between Box Life–the free, abstract, first-person problem sovler by Tequbio–and his own work. That is, his box-y pieces dictate an experience of structural purity in the real world. Box Life–as a videogame–abstracts and softens the s
We wake, unblinded by the Retina Display, to see the sun shine once again over earthen headlines. Disney plugs Wreck-It Ralph with the playable Fix-It Felix, the game from the movie about the “bad” guy from the game. Verizon to drop ordinary phone contracts, pick up “Share Everything” plans. Far
Movie studios have a habit of capitilizing on their blockbuster titles with a videogame of the same name and basic plotline. The games rarely do their cinema sisters justice. But by redrawing characters and rewriting plotlines, Warner Interactive’s new market strategy will attempt to transform movie
In the 8-bit arcades of yore, villians are flat characters–to say the least. With Wreck-It Ralph, Disney hopes to round one out for the sake of empathy, family fun, and a fresh roll of coins.The 3D animated feature goes beyond the CRT to show you the senstive, high-BMP side of Ralph (voiced by Jon C
Where does recess end and hookie begin? Architects and educators from Norway to Thailand are blurring the line between classroom and playground. Gestalten has recently published a book documenting the most wonderous examples. Our school grounds inspired lava monster and red rover–the next generatio
Despite public trepidation, nanotechnology continues as a new standard of Western medicine. Molecular biologists at Harvard are in the process of nano-sculpting DNA tiles–strands of synthetic DNA programmed to build off each other to form shapes to act as prescription drug couriers. Little children
