Hey, how are ya? Good? Glad to hear it. Let’s read some news: – Markus “Notch” Persson, creator of Minecraft, has celebrated the game’s 5 millionth sale by spreading 3 million dollars among his employees. – BioShock Infinite on PS3 will also include a copy of the original game. Not a bad reason to o
Finally, some explanations for why I don’t play Call of Duty online. According to researchers, when people win, they don’t take it humbly. It turns them into, well, jerks: “It seems that people have a tendency to stomp down on those they have defeated, to really rub it in,” said Brad Bushman, co-aut
The Hero Deck teaches kids how to, well, be heroes through. No better way to get at that than through card-based warfare! See more about the project here. -Jamin Warren
Roger Kimball, editor and publisher of the New Criterion, has a long, curmudgeonly eulogy for the novel in the Weekly Standard this month. He outlines the cultural conditions and requisites that are needed to keep the novel alive and of course, the internet and “instant gratification” is to blame. (
The Snowfield feels like a nightmare. You’re a soldier on a snowy plain that seems to stretch on until infinity. There’s the sleepy, slow crawl with which you move around, between other mute soldiers and a ruined manor with a raging fire. Step away from the fire, and you can feel yourself move just
We love games of all shapes and sizes, and guess what? So does the rest of the world. This is part of a larger project to document a homegrown game from every country in the world. People love throwing things. Especially at other people. The quickest way to earn respect in my elementary school was t
Yet another videogame exhibition has popped up. Game Change: Videogames as Art Medium and inspiration, which opened on February 27th runs until April 1st at the Jepson Center, a branch of the Telfair Museums in Savannah Georgia. The approach is a unique contrast to the Smithsonian’s The Art of Video
Nintendo has yet again solidified it’s a family-friendly image. The game giant recently rejected Edmund McMillen’s The Binding of Isaac for the Nintendo 3DS. “After a long internal debate Nintendo has decided NOT to allow The Binding of Isaac on the 3DS,” McMillen wrote on Twitter. “As many assumed
Jay Vidyarthi, a Masters student at British Columbia’s Simon Fraser University, has developed a system that turns breathing patterns into dynamic soundscapes. The Sonic Cradle is a sensory deprivation chamber that asks users to relax in a suspension swing and influence the creation of sound through
Kate Dailey’s article over at the BBC, analyzes bad films and the phenomenon of “so bad they’re great.” There is something admirable about the sincerity to the people making these films; their passion is obvious on the screen despite their lack of talent, skill or money. For bad movies to be discuss
To close out his several-part interview with the Village Voice, Steven Thrasher asked Philip Glass what he thought the meaning of love was. Below is his full response: Well that’s a very interesting idea. That’s a very interesting question. We have very different dimensions of it, but I don’t want t
Here we are again, let’s get through the rest of the day’s news: – Minecraft 1.2 is out now and brings some awesome new features, as the trailer shows. – Some Assassin’s Creed III art has leaked that may suggest the game’s protagonist and setting. – BioShock Infinite release date has been announced
Adam Gopnik reviews Elaine Pagels “”Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation” this month and asks some big questions about the purpose of the book. Nearly shunned from the canon (but resurrected by a pugilistic saint named Athanasius), Revelation is one the least unders
It’s somewhat intimidating when Randy Smith starts talking about Mars. Part of it is just how much he knows — he has clearly done more than just skim the wiki. But most of it is his obvious passionate enthusiasm, the way he manages to make you feel as if Martian ecology is something you really need
In one of his classic moments of vitriol against monopolistic capitalism, Schumpeter painted a nightmarish picture of standing in a grocery store, looking at all the different tubes and toothpaste. Slowly, the conscientious consumer starts to realize that they’re all exactly the same thing. One of t
Writing about whether or not puzzles like those in Angry Birds actually build real-world intelligence, writer and KS contributor Tom Bissell replied “until I find myself in a situation that requires slingshotting large objects at fixed positions, I withhold judgment.” Thanks to the new theme park “A
The future financial prospects for personal computing haven’t looked so hot in recent months, but the recent launch of Windows 8 raises another concern entirely: forget about assessing the PC from a business perspective, does it even work from a design perspective anymore? Reactions to the new Windo
And now that the leap day is over, we can all get back to work, cause come on, it’s a real day again guys. – Blizzard cut 600 jobs and though the vast majority of them had nothing to do with game development, that’s still sad news to hear. – There may be a new Baldur’s Gate game in the works. A teas
Phil Kilcrease spotted the lack of farming games on the market and decided to make his own. The board game community on Kickstarter is really vibrant! -Jamin Warren
Danny Birchall and Martha Henson of the Wellcome Trust have a little post-mortem on their game High Tea which had me intrigued just from its description: It takes the form of a strategy or trading game in which the player adopts the rôle of a nineteenth century British smuggler active in the Pearl D
For anyone who’s encountered those bands of roving teenagers on Xbox Live, you know that unique blend of disgust & amazement that comes from hearing the ugly little things that come out of their mouths. Over at ReadWriteWeb, Alecia Eler tries to divine an answer for why we speak more freely on socia
As if Lego Minecraft wasn’t enough, this lovely little Lego stop-motion montage of games of 2011 was built by Alex Dobbs for this past year’s AIAS Awards. -Jamin Warren
In need of a ginormous Scrabble board? As in, bigger than an average-sized man. Because, who isn’t, right? Well, here it is… The only possible justification for owning this thing is that, your hands are too big for normal-sized wooden tiles? You are given to sudden growth spurts, such as Alice in Al
Videogames, it is often said, are a “lean-forward” medium compared to other screen-based activities. Like music, games inspire movement and a kinesthetic attentiveness you don’t usually experience during the latest episode of Downton Abbey. And keeping your hands busy leaves less of an opportunity t
