Author Archives: mau7038

The Video Game Culture and Theory class investigates what defines the words “game” and “fun” and uses video games as a lens to look at video game and outside culture.  Recently, we have invested most of our effort into research … Continue reading →

My presentation suggests a relationship between video games and economic concepts, and takes a deeper look at teamwork in World of Warcraft.  I find it interesting how games, MMORPGs in particular, relate to real-world concepts. DJ‘s looks at games as … Continue reading →

McGonigal takes this apocryphal story as evidence of the power of games to sustain people and ease them through troubling times. Yet read ahead in Herodotus and discover a part of the story that McGonigal leaves out: “…In this way … Continue reading →

Nearly 11 million people play World of Warcraft, a massively-multiplayer online role-playing game.  Players begin their journeys killing bears and other woodland creatures, building up their gold supply while constantly looking for better equipment, and completing quests to gain extra … Continue reading →

“Soon gamers will be the anomaly. If we’re very fortunate, they’ll disappear altogether. Instead we’ll just find people, ordinary people of all sorts. And sometimes those people will play videogames. And it won’t be a big deal, at all.” Bogost … Continue reading →

Airport Security satires the dynamic nature of airport security, with seemingly random items being disallowed and allowed frequently.  The game utilizes wacky items, like snakes, pressurized cheese, hummus, cow skulls, and hemorrhoid cream to make a statement about airport security.  Additionally, a sign on … Continue reading →

Bear with me.  It’s rather late, or early if you prefer to look at it that way. As I read Bogost’s How to do Things with Videogames, I was impressed.  I shared similar viewpoints with Koster, and I clashed with … Continue reading →

“Angry Birds sucks!” I thought to myself as I read the assignment.  Zen Bound 2, I choose you! It was uncharted territory.  I play my fair share of games on my iPad–Fruit Ninja, Geared 2, Solipskier, Cut the Rope, World … Continue reading →

Bogost examines an independent Mario Brothers clone with a twist: A better example of a game convention prank is Syobon Action (Dejected Action), a Japanese platformer also known in the West as “Cat-Mario” or simply “Mario from Hell.” The game … Continue reading →

“As the legend goes, and it’s absolutely true, all productivity ceased for about a week as people attempted to solve it.” This statement spoke volumes about how innovative the Colossal Cave game really was.  As Dr. Jerz notes in the … Continue reading →