February 28, 2009 Eric Swain Game Essays, Recent Posts

Problems with Prince of Persia One Last Time

Why oh why do I do this to myself? I said that the last one would be the last one, but no. I go out to buy some chips late and I find myself thinking about concepts of the game design. My mind turns to something being debated now around Flower, most prominently over at Sexyvideogameland. The concept of the designer manipulating the player emotions, which in turn led me to a previous debate of the designer manipulating you into caring about a character. The dog from Fable II comes up a lot in this discussion. | more

February 27, 2009 QWERTY Recent Posts

How to Write Good Video Game Critique

(Since I am hard up for content I figured a weekly thing might be just the thing. When I described what I do here, one guy insisted that he write it. He submitted some posts and having read some of it, I now feel that this was a very bad idea. But I promised so this will be on a trial basis and will need the following: ) | more

February 24, 2009 Eric Swain Recent Posts, Thoughts

What is Video Game Completion?

In the gamer scheme of things I am a freak of nature. I finish nearly every game I buy. Weird right? The fact of the matter is that most narrative based games are not completed. It was considered an enormous success by the developers of Bioshock that 50% of those who played it reached the end. Even the Half-Life 2 episodes, which are only about 6 hours long and have extremely friendly level design aren't finished more that that. | more

February 13, 2009 Eric Swain Game Issues, Recent Posts

The Generations, Ages and Eras of Video Games

A few weeks ago I talked about games in their console generational context and received the internet equivalent of blank stares. After a little clarification I mentioned I had a post idea to define the generations and explain my own unique ways of dividing the history of video games. Someone said they liked the idea and so here we are. For anyone to really understand the evolving state of an art form or medium must understand where it came from. | more

February 9, 2009 Eric Swain Recent Posts, Thoughts

Pretending to be Nostradamus

Anyway I was thinking about what to write as a quick of the top of my head post and it occurred to me. I did a post last year, I Called It, which was kind of pointless being one of the first half a dozen things I posted on the site. I could have written anything that happened and said I say this would happen. Well I did say those things, maybe not on the net, but in real life to anyone who would bother to listen to me. This year I decided to put my money where my mouth is so to speak and play act as Nostradamus of a little bit, without the cryptic speech that can be interpreted any which way of course. | more