Boomshakalaka!
An Old Hope
Most sports stories play out the same way. Two baseball narratives, The Rookie and The Natural, offer a different understanding of the game by beginning at the end. Our sports columnist responds in-game.
Columns
Columns
Playing Tricks
We have come to expect everything from gimmicky machinations to pure innovation in videogames. But are they part of a broader historical tradition? Diana Poulsen delves into the Baroque to shed light on gaming’s modern tricks.
Boomshakalaka!
Open Your Eyes
The bifurcation of society into jocks and geeks was supposed to end with high school. So why do the two groups eye each other with mutual suspicion? Our sports columnist argues that the videogame community has wrongly ousted sports gamers.
Columns
When Robots See Us Laugh
Have you ever asked the nearest robot how you can help it—not vice versa? If “charismatic machines” take hold, then we’ll have a lot to laugh about.
Columns
A Sound Design: L.A. Noire’s False Notes
We tend to think about the “uncanny valley” as something that we can only register visually. But is the it harder to stomach the almost human faces in L.A. Noire or the game’s replica and relic of a soundtrack? Music columnist David Raposa looks at the game’s sound and music design and wonders if hi
Boomshakalaka!
Next Time I’m in Rio
An experimental videogame called Hokra invites comparisons to sports, but not only for its rules. For Abe Stein, sport is a feeling that runs deeper than the inner workings of games, existing in the events and dramas that we cause to emerge from them. So how do a few pixel squares pull that off, and
Columns
To Build and Break
What do boardgaming’s stars look like? If Donald X. Vaccarino is any indication, they are difficult to grasp. The designer of runaway favorite Dominion builds games that change and remake themselves nearly to infinity. In his latest column Gus Mastrapa tries to get a foothold in Vaccarino’s twisty w
Columns
Like Looking In A Mirror, Only Not
Nicolas Cage may be our greatest living actor. On the precipice of Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Scott Wayne Indiana talks to Brandon Bird, the insane genius behind the Nicolas Cage Adventure Set.
Block Quotes
Dust to Dust
Somewhere in the desert, Aram Bartholl is about to build a life-size reproduction of Counter-Strike‘s most famous map, “de_dust.” Our architecture columnist Michelle Young talks to Bartholl about how he intends to disrupt space by bringing virtual reality into the air we breathe and walk in.
Columns
The Global Game Project: Brazil
The Duck, Duck, Goose model of kids games emerges in the latest entry into The Global Games Project. James Dilks explains how a South American rodent provides the basis to a simple Brazillian amusement.
Columns
The Global Game Project: Malaysia
We visit Malaysia for the latest Global Games Project. In this obscure take on everyone’s favorite Mancala, village houses replace the playing board.
Columns
The Global Games Project: Vietnam
The Vietnamese game of Bit Mat Bat De helps develop the fine art of trolling.