July 23, 2014 Eric Swain Game Issues Hypothetical Moral Behaviors Last week I concluded a series of posts on moral choice in games, the first three posts looking at the idea of making specific choices at specific moments and the last about the choices we make that result in our constant play behavior throughout. I identified two ways behavior acts as a moral attribute. Either the behavior reflects a moral being in the player character or it allows the player to choose a path based on a play style that reflects a moral standing on an issue, usually violence. | more
March 6, 2012 Eric Swain External Sources, Recent Posts Never Break the Flow: Interface Design in ‘Driver: San Francisco’ Again, I write about Driver: San Francisco and again it’s at PopMatters. Instead of going the more esoteric route with the game, this time I went for straight design analysis simplicity. It only occurred to me afterwords that I probably should have started from this angle and worked my way up. I’m actually a little disheartened that nobody else has taken up the torch for this game and got to writing. It was largely forgotten once it was released and didn’t have that much hype industry wide, despite IGN’s best efforts to pump people up for it. | more
September 15, 2009 Eric Swain Game Issues, Recent Posts Where are all the War Games? I've been playing Battlefield 1943 a lot lately. It's the first shooter in a long time that I've played. I am usually a single player game kind of guy and usually shun multiplayer modes, unless the person is sitting right next to me. But I tried out the demo and I was hooked in the free half hour it gave me and immediately bought the unlocked game. Playing it lead me to a realization. | more
August 28, 2009 Eric Swain Game Issues, Recent Posts What Do I Do Here? Usually I take the criticism silently and appreciatively and I still do, but after more than seven months I'm still getting the same comment. "I can't wait to see where your going with your blog." It is a little annoying that after all this time my blog still feels schizophrenic enough that I haven't fallen into any sort of groove yet. I felt that I had to spend some time examining my thoughts and my opinions of critiquing in a way I have never done so before and probably should have done in the first place. I sat down and thought about what exactly where I want to go with this site. | more
March 4, 2009 Eric Swain External Sources, Recent Posts Killzone 2 Commercial Here's a little design analysis piece I did for Creative Fluff desgin blog on the Killzone 2 commercial. Sony took the marketing in a different direction and are actually getting behind the game. See what I thought of it. | more
December 17, 2008 Eric Swain External Sources, Recent Posts Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune – design that is so much more I also write for the design blog Creativefluff.com, where I turn my eyes towards the design aspects of video games. Here is a bridge article between that site and this one where I examine the PS3 exclusive Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and find the design aspects lead to a little more than just a great game if you're willing to look. | more