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Games, play, and culture with Jamin Warren
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Want to win at Battleship everytime? Yes?
Nick Berry spent ten years at Microsoft’s Casual Games division, and now is the president of DataGenetics, a data mining company based in Seattle. But in his spare time, he decodes the mysteries of board games like Battleship. Although the film adaptation had a lackluster opening this weekend, that
Science fiction legend and space dreamer Ray Bradbury dies at 91.
A sad loss and a man who certainly inspired a generation of game designers. NYT describes Bradbury as a shrewd popularizer of science-fiction: Mr. Bradbury was hardly the first writer to represent science and technology as a mixed bag of blessings and abominations. The advent of the atomic bomb in
So what is the etiquette around playing iPad games on the subway?
Brian Lam explores the proper manners around a wide variety of digital activities including using your phone on first dates, running with your phone, and, of course, our favorite, using your tablet public transportation: This isn’t etiquette so much as fear mongering: Grip your tablet tight and be a
Nintendo builds its own theme park into Wii U with Nintendoland.
video Periodically the calls went out for Nintendo to build an actual theme park. Like Disneyland, fans craved a magical environment where Mario, Link, and Donkey Kong became incarnate creatures inhabiting the open spaces between roller coasters and gift shops. For its forthcoming Wii U console Nint
In defense of the anti-social — from game designers to tech entrepreneurs.
The Economist praises misfits for their eccentricities. From quants to hackers to Jobsian acolytes, all hail the Disorganization Man: Wired magazine once called it “the Geek Syndrome”. Speaking of internet firms founded in the past decade, Peter Thiel, an early Facebook investor, told the New Yorker
Whatever kills you also makes you stronger in Beyond, Heavy Rain creator’s next game.
video Death is the final mystery of human existence, according to Heavy Rain creator David Cage. His newest game, Beyond, was announced at Sony’s E3 media briefing and purports to be a parable about the mysterious powers an encounter with the afterlife can leave a person with. Beyond was introduced
Kids weigh in on the videogames as art debate.
The Smithsonian exhibit on videogames renewed some of the discussion about what art means. For some kids visiting the exhibit, the discussion helped them to think critically, perhaps for their first time, about what it means for something to be art or not. One precocious ten-year-old, Ryan Puthumana
