April 30, 2009 Eric Swain Critical Responses, Recent Posts

April’s ’09 Round Table Entry – Torture

Taking Games Seriously, Making Game Seriously: This month's Round Table challenges you to design a game that deals with a social issue that personally troubles you. The recent months have seen controversy sweep through the video game industry. Whether people are objecting to the use of imagery widely considered to evoke racial stereotypes, or to the gameplay based on violent sexual crimes, or to the fact that anyone would complain about either topic-the discussion has been fierce. | more

April 17, 2009 QWERTY Recent Posts

QWERTY: Why I Don’t Pay Him

(Last week he decided a moment of silence was in order for the fallen and the stolen. I think he was just being lazy. – Eric Swain) Disclaimer: QWERTY's opinions are not mine nor the site's. The psudonym QWERTY is used to protect the innocent. Let us all have a moment of silence for the stolen. … … … … … Thank you.I have been thinking. Last generation we had the na na na na na na na of Katamari Damaci to drive us all batty as it continued round and round in our heads. | more

April 14, 2009 Eric Swain Game Essays, Recent Posts

The Storyline Behind Beyond Good and Evil

During the game's tenure as the Vintage Game Club's focus and playthrough, a lot of the discussion focused on the story and the player's confusion that came about from it. Indeed it is confusing if you aren't playing close attention and search out many of the details from conversations. Even then you have to make a number of inferences to get the whole picture. | more

April 7, 2009 Eric Swain External Sources, Recent Posts

Video Game Hall of Fame and Signs of Better Things

Yesterday over at Kotaku they had an article discussing the idea of a Video Game hall of fame. Where would this museum be? Ottumwa Iowa. Now before you go, 'what the hell is Ottumwa?' it does have some semblance of legitimacy for the honor. That city is known as the Video Game Capital of the World. The title of course is self induced, but the reason for it is back in the 1980s Ottumwa held an enormous gathering of the best arcade gamers in the world, including Billy Mitchel. | more

April 6, 2009 Eric Swain Game Issues, Recent Posts

A General Message to the Guy who Robbed Me

I try to be civil. I try to be nice and understanding to everyone. In other words it takes a lot to piss me off. Thank you to the asshole that broke into my room and stole my PlayStation 3. Thank you for making me have to take time out of my already packed and less than bright day to file a report and remove all credit information from my account. Thank you for changing my view of the world and making me feel no longer safe in my own room. | more

April 2, 2009 Eric Swain Game Essays, Recent Posts

The Killer 7 Argument – Beyond Good and Evil

Beyond Good and Evil definitely falls under the Killer 7 argument. It has been called a Zelda clone and in fact has even been called a Zelda for grownups. I'm not sure either of those monikers due it justice. It has many of the elements of a Zelda game. Environmental puzzles, dungeons, upgradeable equipments, but there is so much more going on here. | more

April 1, 2009 QWERTY Recent Posts

QWERTY: Games are not Films…they’re Plays

Everyone is always comparing video games to movies and for some reason people are complaining about his. Someone says Citizen Kane this or The Godfather that and everyone gets all in a huff. Stop that. Looking to other mediums is the only way we'll get any good games out of these people anytime soon. We need to learn so we can speed up the process. | more