E3 is this week. You probably noticed. Videogame makers are rushing to capture more and more of your attention. But maybe that’s not such a good thing. One of my fave science writers Jonah Lehrer has a defense of day-dreaming in the New Yorker, looking at several studies that about the benefits of l
Thanks to All Things Considered and NPR producer Justine Kenin for making this happen. Listen!
Microsoft developed the Kinect with video games in mind, but hackers and hobbists had other ideas. When the Kinect was first released, Adafruit, a New York electronics company, offered $3,000 for whoever could crack the PC drivers first. The incentive worked and immediately after the open source Kin
Screw the Kinect voice commands. Screaming is all the rage. Chris O’Reilly at UCLA’s Talk Therapy is absurd: In Talk Therapy, two players compete by screaming at each other. Speed up or slow down your piece, and yell at the exact moment it lines up with your competitor’s. Ok. Sure. Video
Hastening the transformation of games into platforms unto themselves, EA announced Battlefield 3 Premium, a subscription service for the first person shooter that will give customers access to five major DLC packs as well as “deeper personalization options and advanced features.” Each of the expansi
Italian street artist Combo playfully combines real-life celebrities with cartoon ones in the streets of Paris. One of his most recent works shows Muhammad Ali taking down Street Fighter‘s Ryu. Which one would win in a real fight? We’ll leave it to the fanpeeps to settle that one. Also, it’s unclear
Kill Screen, in conjunction with Pitchfork, is proud to announce the launch of Soundplay, an interactive program focused on the intersections of music, gaming, and technology. Kill Screen has commissioned some of our favorite independent game developers to create new, original games inspired by Pitc
A couple years ago, I was on a panel for the MacArthur Foundation on the future of games and schools. One of the big questions was how games would be integrating and I found the answer of “systems-based thinking” to be convincing. In large part, this philosophy teaches that creation and collaboratio