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Family Values Group Rails Against Hypothetical Transgender Darth Vader Video Game
The Florida Family Association, best known for badgering companies into pulling advertising from TLC reality show All-American Muslim last year, is hard at work ranting about a new target: BioWare/EA game Star Wars: The Old Republic. This isn’t the first temper tantrum that supposedly pro-family groups have thrown over The Old Republic, just the most…
By Kate Cox -
From Flower to Journey and Beyond: A Talk with Kellee Santiago of Thatgamecompany
Kellee Santiago is president and co-founder of thatgamecompany, which released Journey last week. Their previous game, Flower, is a featured, playable game at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s new exhibit The Art of Video Games, which opened this weekend. Santiago was at the museum as one of the featured panelists in Friday’s festivities, and I…
By Kate Cox -
Certain Video Games Can Help Kids Beat Cancer, Researchers Say
Researchers have looked at mainstream video games for years, trying to determine the effects games have on players’ brains. Maybe they make us faster decision-makers, or better thinkers, or more aggressive. Studies come out nearly weekly and often seem to contradict each other’s findings. But one specially designed game has been having a beneficial effect…
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Hideo Kojima Speaks on Creativity, Business, and Wanting to Be in the LAPD When He Grew Up
The Smithsonian American Art Museum celebrated the opening of its new exhibit, The Art of Video Games, this weekend with GameFest, three days’ worth of entertainment and panels with game industry notables. On Saturday, the museum featured a one-hour talk with game design legend Hideo Kojima of Metal Gear Solid fame. Kojima’s mere entry into…
By Kate Cox -
The Banner Saga Begins Waving the Kickstarter Flag
In February, a trio of former BioWare vets announced a somewhat mysterious but gorgeously drawn new project, The Banner Saga. Today, they’ve unveiled a Kickstarter campaign for the game, which comes with some further information about their plans and designs. The initial plan for The Banner Saga is for it to be a DRM-free release…
By Kate Cox -
I Played Myst at the Museum: Visiting The Art of Video Games
This weekend, the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC opened the long-awaited exhibit The Art of Video Games Walking into the museum, one immediately feels the whispered air that says: this is the home of Serious Art. Museums like the Smithsonian take much from our everyday lives and set it aside, defining it as…
By Kate Cox -
The Lady Version of World of Warcraft‘s New Panda Race is Kind of Ridiculous
Last October, Blizzard announced their newest World of Warcraft expansion, The Mists of Pandaria. One of the major selling points for the expansion is a new player character race: panda-bear people called Pandaren. And yet in the five months until now, all screenshots and trailers featuring the Pandaren have shown exclusively male characters. Today, Blizzard…
By Kate Cox -
The Faces Behind the Voices of Mass Effect 3
Like radio, film, and theater companies going back hundreds of years, BioWare games often have a very familiar voice cast from one production to the next. A Dragon Age II player can’t help but hear Varric’s dry tones from the Male Trooper in Star Wars: The Old Republic, nor can a Mass Effect fan miss…
By Kate Cox -
Even Mice Play in Virtual Worlds, For Science
A psychological study using mice, in place of humans or other mammals, is nothing new. Every high school or college student who has ever taken a low-level psych course knows that for ages, scientists have been running mice through mazes, teaching them to press levers for rewards, and having them perform countless other tiny tasks…
By Kate Cox -
Dying Boy Gets His Own Personal Virtual Wonderland Built by a Game Community in Just Four Days
Long-time Everquest II player Carri Hoover has a son not quite as old as the game is. Sadly, however, six-year-old John Hoover is terminally ill, with doctors estimating he has only weeks left to live. Last Tuesday, March 6, she posted a request to the “Norrathian Homeshow” board on the official forums, a place where…
By Kate Cox -
Creator of Unreal Engine Says Consoles Have a Good Six to Eight Years Left In Them Yet
Is the age of the home game console as we know it drawing to a close? There are those who say it is. But when, realistically, can the consumer expect the technology gap between the box they plug into their TV and the tablet they hold in their hand to close? In an interview with…
By Kate Cox -
Former Adventure Game Designer Makes Disney World His New Canvas
What’s an adventure game designer to do when he moves on from PC titles? Conquer Disney World, of course. Once upon a time, Jonathan Ackley worked at LucasArts, where he worked on classics such as Day of the Tentacle and Sam and Max Hit the Road. He now works for Disney, where first he worked…
By Kate Cox -
Game Sales Are Dead, Long Live Game Sales
It’s become popular at the moment to worry about the death of gaming as we know it. The meteoric rise of mobile handheld platforms certainly has been disruptive and, as Kotaku Editor-in-Chief Stephen Totilo reported earlier today, there are valid concerns about the longevity and existence of console-based gaming in the future. The future of…
By Kate Cox -
EA Update Adding Security Protection to FIFA Accounts
Reports began to surface last year from players whose Xbox Live accounts were hacked after they played FIFA 11 and FIFA 12. Players’ accounts were being activated on Xbox 360 consoles that were not their own, at which point their credit cards were charged for large amounts of Microsoft Points, then used on FIFA downloadable…
By Kate Cox -
Why Is There No Donkey Kong In Super Mario Galaxy 2? Because Miyamoto Said So.
After a game is finished and released, it’s always interesting to get a glimpse into what might have been, had not someone in the development process spoken up at just the right moment. Early in development, Super Mario Galaxy 2 contained a number of ideas that didn’t make the final cut. One such idea was…
By Kate Cox -
You Won’t Jump Over the Flagpole in These Awesome Mario Heels
Artist Jamie Ferraioli proves that stunning, feminine accessories are in no way at odds with nerd culture with her gorgeous, hand-painted shoes. These heels and flats display meticulously detailed hand-painted art from Super Mario Brothers and The Legend of Zelda. My personal favorite part is the lava painted onto the platform sole of the black…
By Kate Cox -
Why Mass Effect 3‘s Ending Doesn’t Need Changing (SPOILERS)
If you died tomorrow, if some kind of disaster struck and removed you entirely from the world, would the choices you’d made with your life to date matter? Would it matter what you had accomplished? Who you had loved? If you had saved another’s life? Would your life’s work have meaning? Would there not be…
By Kate Cox -
The Art of Video Games Brings Pac-Man and Mass Effect to the Smithsonian This Weekend
The biggest game here in Washington, DC is usually the game of politics. But this weekend, the city will be hopping with something much more fun. This Friday, March 16, the Smithsonian American Art Museum will open their new exhibit, “The Art of Video Games.” And as always happens these days in gaming, they have…
By Kate Cox -
Console Companies Continue to Keep Inspectors Out of Factories
We’ve written many times before about the working conditions at Foxconn and other Chinese plants at which nearly all of the electronics used for gaming are manufactured. The short version is, its not great. Factory workers manage extraordinary hours for very little pay, living in cramped conditions. Following a spate of suicides in 2010 and…
By Kate Cox
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