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Do videogames count as design objects? NYU sociologist Harvey Molotch certainly thinks so as we are prone to think of videogames as another form of entertainment. But much like videogames, design faces the same problems of anonymity, disrespect, and cultural bias. However, design is now ascendant a
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Pop artist Jeff Koons has drawn criticism and praise in equal doses over the life of his career, but a Florida art student has decided to express his opinion in a different way—by blowing Koons’ work to pieces. Hunter Jonakin created “Jeff Koons Must Die!” for his MFA thesis show as a first-person s
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Lewis Carroll’s protagonist’s take on badges, prizes, points, and balderdash of that sort.
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Think games are smart now? MyCyberTwin’s John Zakos and his business partner Liesl Capper-Beilby are hoping to bring their moldable AI clay to everything from massively multiplayer games to microwaves. Will AI in games be too smart for its own good?
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Timothy Leary isn’t remembered for his contributions to videogames. The controversial pop theorist’s body of work consists of exactly one game and a handful of prototypes. For Leary, the trouble with making finished products was a matter of self-restraint. Leary had lofty ideas about the role and fu
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The “games as art” debate has fortunately waned a bit. Good riddance, I say. But a broader interest in videogames as a visual, interactive medium is certainly welcome. At least, that’s how John Sharp, who teaches at the Savannah College of Art and Design, is approaching games. For the last year or s
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For more than 20 years, Jayne Gackenbach has been doing research into the depths of our sleeping subconscious as a dream researcher. Over the past decade, the professor of psychology at Edmonton’s Grant MacEwan University has become increasingly interested in the world of videogames after watching h
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Helen calls them the “Hurrah!” buttons. L2 + R2 + both analog sticks held upwards. Whenever she wins the most points on a LittleBigPlanet level, she presses these buttons, and her grinning Sackgirl lifts both arms in the air in wordless celebration. My Sackboy, meanwhile, tends to scowl and storm of
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Our friends over at Paste posted a bunch of photos of Tim Schafer that were taken by Brian Taylor at last week’s Game Developers Choice Awards. Since Schafer is the funnyman-in-chief at Double Fine and responsible for games like Brütal Legend, Grim Fandango, and others, we figured he would be open t
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Games teach us, and they change us – but only if they get close to us. Welcome to “Intimacy,” our most personal, most haunting, and most uproarious issue.
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This article was originally delivered last week as a “microtalk” at the Game Developers Conference 2011. The format dictates that all speakers must also use 20 slides that auto-advance every 16 seconds! So if you dare, attempt to read the following in about five minutes.
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To put it mildly, the hype machine has shown nonstop love for the upcoming Superbrothers production Sword & Sworcery EP. I played through a fair bit of a mature beta, and it is every bit the smartly crafted affair I had hoped for. Sword & Sworcery feels like a game created by one of us. Among those