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world of warcraft

May 4th

…in CounterStrike.

In keeping with the discourse of labour, value and space Keza MacDonald asks why fanboys are such jerks, especially on the internet, and Christian Donlan speculates on the sweet, sweet masochism of survival games in the age of late capitalism.

Appreciation over Time

Over at the A.V. Club, Samantha Nelson basks in the beautiful solitude of World of Warcraft‘s abandoned cities.

At Higher Level Gamer, Jason Coley proposes a framework for “persistent time” in videogames.

For the Love of the Game

Philippa War talks to former Swedish Pirate Party member Jonathan Rieder…

June 28th

…Harvey talk about the liberating feel of trying and failing to make a game for gamers.

Josh Bycer looks at game development from artistic and business viewpoints, and Rob Fahey examines Bungie’s decision to produce Destiny content without a subscription.

Elsewhere, Stephen Winson looks back at World of Warcraft’s gold economy:

But what is true in the rest of the world is true in the world of gold farming: reducing your labour costs is a fast and easy way to increase profits in the short term. And as in the physical world, farmers had three basic

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This Year In Videogame Blogging: 2015

…however unintentional.

Over at Memory Insufficient, John Brindle looked at the nature of consent in a community of roleplayers in World of Warcraft who dictate property rights. Elsewhere, Adarel explored the politics of City: Skylines with regards to its education system and how pumping money into it fixes all of a city’s problems.

In the last few months, Videogame Tourism ran an 8-part series “Demystifying MOBAs” by Eron Rauch, examining in close detail the game design of several of the big games in the genre: League of Legends, DOTA2, and Heroes of the Storm.

Kate Cox examined…

January 31st

…carry this point home.”

Former US Marine Chris Casberg praised and problematised fantasy revolutionary violence in Just Cause 3. Jay Barnson used his memories of playing Go and learning AI to put the news of a Go-playing AI in perspective.

Recognising erasure

[Content warning: racism and harassment] Tanner Higgin shared an article published in FibreCulture exploring the racial semiotics of 4chan raids on Habbo Hotel and World of Warcraft.

“[…] trolling more generally oscillates between harassment, lulz, and protest/intervention, creating controversy not just between troll and trolled, but between trolls. I would go as…

July 4th

…anxiety-inducing nature of online interaction with strangers. Content warning: descriptions of panic attacks.

  • A Return to the World of Warcraft, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Farm the Gold Not Your Mama’s Gamer Alisha Karabinus argues for the therapeutic satisfaction of virtual work in a less punishing economy.

    • “So many of us here have written about games as crisis management, about coping with tragedy and anxiety and mental health, and maybe that too is why representation seems so important to us. If games exist to take us somewhere else, to offer a bit of…

    August 26th

    …disciplining and controlling the sexual lives of his wife and daughter”

    Replays

    Two critics look at how recent updates and iterations on games that have been loved for years prompt a reexamination of how they achieve their effects on the player.

    • ‘World of Warcraft’ Has Finally Left Me Cold – Waypoint Cameron Kunzelman argues that WoW is like a mirror, its apparent contents only a reflection of the desires of its player.
    • Illumination and Occlusion | Dark Souls Remastered | Heterotopias Brent Ables evaluates how the visual remastering of Dark Souls retains important ambiguities…

    October 28th

    …reading more about both. These four authors showcase excellent critical attention to these elements. Also, my head is still spinning from the last one down there.

    • Resonance of Fate – a gem that deserves a second chance • Eurogamer.net Malindy Hetfeld offers a reminder that JRPGs have never been quite as samey and formulaic as their reputation belies in the form of a particularly off-beat example.
    • A History in Translation | Unwinnable Odile Strik profiles a game where linguistics, history, and scholarship are central and lovingly portrayed.
    • Can player choice solve World of Warcraft’s storytelling problems?

    …

    December 23rd

    …intimate, familiar terms used by synthetics to describe their own bodies.”

    Play by Feel

    Three powerful articles this week examine how games make sense of messy human feelings–and how we use them to make sense of our own.

    • World of Warcraft is my home from home at Christmas • Eurogamer.net Jennifer Allen reflects on WoW as a comfort against a tide of change and holiday stress.
    • *Mute and Suicide – ZEAL – Medium Sinclair August talks through autonomy and suicide via the work of Christine Love (content notification: suicide).
    • Florence finds emotional power…
    Abstract image evoking bird silhouette

    This Year In Videogame Blogging: 2018

    …on a YouTuber “donoteat” who uses Cities: Skylines to explain, historically, how cities are built. In trying to explain things historically, he finds he can’t help but explain that politics and what happened then is directly attached to what is happening right now.

  • How World of Warcraft Was Made: The Definitive Inside Story of Nearly 20 Years of Development | USGamer – Mike Williams From 1998, when it was first an inkling in its creators’ minds, to the present day, Mike Williams covers the history of the most successful MMO ever made and the stories of the people behind…

    • March 17th

    …and illness.

    • Behold the Wonder of Immorgamsics! – ZEAL – Medium The Giant Rat, in an incredible visual essay, maps the evolving experience of their trans identity onto an obscure series of escape room games.
    • Today I Can Finally Be A Tall, Portly Man In World Of Warcraft | Kotaku Mike Fahey describes WoW‘s overly long road to a little bit of human body diversity.
    • What Red Dead Redemption 2 gets right about having a terminal disease – Polygon Eirik Gumeny peers through the overwhelming simulacra of RDR2 to find an uncommonly satisfying character study of

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