lana polansky

…amazing analysis of what queer game mechanics can look like. Read it.

Reid McCarter writes about guns in games and guns in the world and how those two things are related to one another through the fantasies of humans in “On Guns, Real and Virtual.”

Matt Barton asks some open ended questions about Neo-Marxism and how it could operate in games.

Stephen Beirne says some things about “detective mode” and how it is implemented in games.

Lana Polansky extols the virtues of the eroticism of games, championing the ones which manage to be “bleeding and vulnerable.”…

…Anthony John Agnello continues his series on empty spaces for The A.V. Club; this time with a focus on Final Fantasy VI.

Lana Polansky also looks at maps and space, but at their appropriating influence through the lens of Leonard Getinthecar’s visual art piece based on Space Invaders.

Writing for The Mary Sue, Becky Chambers, discusses how well Telltale’s The Wolf Among Us and The Walking Dead focus on morality by removing choices from in-game stat modifiers. Jorge Albor focuses his own microscope on The Walking Dead episode, “In Harm’s Way,” specifically with how Carver, the episode’s antagonist,…

…player understand *exactly* what part of the story belongs to them and what part belongs to the storyteller. It helps them understand things like identity and abstraction.

Putting the U in Labour

Lana Polansky takes to her blog to discuss payola in videogames and how it cheapens writers and their craft in favour of established, monied game developers:

Of course it’s disingenuous to argue that a review copy or a preorder are somehow less tempting just because they’re less personal — or that supporting a person’s work generally implies more bias than receiving side compensation…

…ranks, contributor Lana Polansky and alumna Mattie Brice.

There has also been a recent push within certain sectors of game design academia which has urged solidarity. Over on Gamasutra’s Member Blogs, USC’s Interactive Media and Game Design chair Tracy Fullerton has released a joint statement on behalf of much of her faculty condemning the harassment campaign which has dominated the discourse of the last few months.

Finally, for a good cathartic chuckle, the ever-reliable Damien Schubert has designed a highly accurate pie chart on the true influence of “social justice warriors” on game development.

My God, Pure…

…it also afforded a consistent, party-centric tone that blended play sessions into as a more holistic festival experience rather than pockets of individual gaming instances. […] [T]he festival catered to a variety of gaming interests without having to go the “white cube” route of homogenized presentation.

Further Reading

Interested in more? The latest issue of Arcade Review, brought to you by our own Zolani Stewart and Lana Polansky, is now live for your consumption.

Unwinnable Weekly remains the most compelling weekly periodical in games, and this week’s cover story about a couple’s relationship strained by an…