Year: 2011

Eric Swain Recent Posts, Thoughts

Laptop Fluff

Since this weekend was an overall bust with unexpected work hours throwing off a major project undertaking I had planned. However despite that, this has been a really great week for me. Why? Because my new laptop came. And since I have been taking on too much heavy lifting when it comes to all these what I’m calling projects I’ve been starting. (I call them projects because while the end result may just be an essay or a podcast, but the amount of work and research that goes into it. | more

Eric Swain Critical Responses, Recent Posts

A Comment on Video Games as a Medium

(Because Open ID blog comment systems are crap and for some reason never want me to comment regardless of what blog it is, this time I think because the comment was too long, and because I felt the need to say this, I’m posting it here and hoping to post the link in the comments instead. And for those of you absolutely sick of the ‘are games art’ debate, not everyone has had this debate and if we who have gone through this question and hammered out the answer do not take our time to educate or at least inform the debate then we really are Ivory Tower wankers. | more

Eric Swain External Sources, Recent Posts

Another Podcast, Another TWIVGB

It seems to be a theme for this year. I've done more on other people's sites than I've done on my own. This continues to be true. Over a week ago I was invited to do the Chronoludic podcast with Chris Green, Mike Dunbar and Seb Wupper. The topic at hand was the question 'what is a game worth?' The focus of this particular question was the issue of economics and us as game purchasers. WE didn't reach any groundbreaking conclusions or earth-shattering revelations. | more

Eric Swain External Sources, Recent Posts

My Latest Work at Critical Distance

While I haven't been updating my own blog much lately it's partly because I've been busying myself with other things. I've worked at finding a new job. I lost or rather finished my other part time, contract work last month. I've also been hurriedly trying to get my RSS feed back under control. The week I spent away from it (I'll tell you why later on) even though it was the week between Christmas and New Years it didn't slow anybody down when it came to posting. | more

Eric Swain Game Essays, Recent Posts

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West’s Thematic Failure

*Spoilers for Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, Heavenly Sword, Bioshock and Braid* Ninja Theory is a studio I really want to like. I really do. They hold a philosophy towards creating games, AAA games at that, I would love to see more of. They create a work and let it stand for itself. There is no extra tie in, no comic book spin offs, and more notable, no sequels. Before modern Hollywood took over (thanks in part to Star Wars and Jaws) nothing needed a sequel. A work stood or failed on it's own merits and not as a part of a whole. | more