![[Talk 4/17] Building Worlds While the Actual World Burns](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/84/2584b75d-4bd6-4cce-8259-f1d1c65abbb5/content/images/size/w800/format/webp/2026/04/Kara-Stone-Joshua-Dawson-Header.png)
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Games, play, and culture with Jamin Warren
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E3: ZombiU plays with the power of unconscious decision making.
video The last few years have brought a bounty of new evidence about how the subconscious guides our actions. Where this leaves the concept of free will is up for debate but we are discovering large parts of our lives run by the rote guidance of the unthinking mind. ZombiU dramatizes the stress betw
E3: Dishonored gives you a keyhole view into other people’s private lives.
video Like all games that support stealth, Dishonored can be played by silently watching other people from the shadowy wings. In playing through the E3 demo mission without killing anyone, you’ll need to trail behind guards, eavesdropping on idle conversation to learn who’s running the show, what ar
Cheat Sheet 6/7: New retro Final Fantasy going mobile, workers riot at Foxconn, and Miyamoto ponders 3DS/WiiU connectivity.
Today E3 gave the world a parting hug in the form of these headlines. –Final Fantasy Dimensions, an episodic retro-RPG, coming to iSO and Android. –Angry Birds coming to consoles. -Shigeru Miyamoto talks about potentially connecting the 3DS and WiiU. -1,000 workers riot and Foxconn’s Chengdu factory
E3: What would Gene Roddenberry think of the new Star Trek game?
The original Star Trek series was an unspooling yarn of multicultural adventurism that celebrated the discovery of new species and new ways of life. These discoveries sometimes left human beings in the unflattering light of savage cowboys always ready to reach for the phaser when a simple “how do yo
Virtually-augmented cookies help dieters fill their stomachs faster.
Video How can we help overweight people eat less? Convince them they’re eating more than they really are. At the University of Tokyo, augmented reality glasses have convinced test subjects the snack they were eating was 50% larger than it really was, helping them eat ten percent less than usual. The
What does American Psycho’s Patrick Bateman have in common with Agent 47? No one listens to either of them.
video Hitman: Absolution is a game about assassinating people in public spaces. The E3 demo puts players in control of Agent 47 in a bustling Chinatown quarter surrounded by hundreds of people, all potential witnesses to his crime. Paradoxically, in the moments before the violent outbreak, no one ca
Are femme fatales a thing of the past?
Spy films are tiring of the old femme fatale. For the movie Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), apathy and demoralization may have extinguished sexual desire, making sexual tactics defunct. Or at least that’s what Samantha Hinds argues in the New Inquiry. The new style in spy cinema has been one of a
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