There is a gulf between understanding what a videogame is meant to evoke in its players, and intuiting what a player experience is like. The former is something that can be read in nearly any Wikipedia article; the latter is difficult to experience without having first-hand play time and knowledge in games.
Written for MMOGames, recreated in part, with permission. The forest is quiet. Somewhere on the far side of a small grove a trees, a boar is grunting to itself as […]
Written for MMOGames.com, recreated in part, with permission. Little slices of sunlight dance along the grass. The hints of light pierce through the canopy above, painting abstract patterns as the […]
An empty, vacant soundscape resolves to the sound of rushing air. The camera starts on a tight angle along the side of an old military plane. It follows the line of an airplane’s body, as though flying in its slipstream. As the camera draws back, the view quickly dips down through the empty space where the tail of the plane would be. We discover that the old shell of this military bomber is sunken into the dirt. Unpaved road slides into view, which the camera follows until a bright red sports car rips across the frame.
Dantooine is warm around this time of year. On the warmer months, Jedi often train out in the field, surrounded by nature.
At some point, I stopped playing games just for myself. It can be hard not to in games. Even with a relatively quiet media landscape years ago, with just occasional […]
According to completely sound advice, a good way to make anything compact and meaningful is to make sure everything has a purpose. Good writing employs every character, moment, and scene […]
Are relationships better for the struggles?
Somehow, I return to the five or so play experiences I can pick up, loop a few times, and then put down.
It feels like there’s a strict script one must follow: Games are played “right” when done right, and anything less efficient or less appropriately critical is missing the point. Only like good games, consume them voraciously, and leverage every bit of criticism you have against those that fail to meet appropriate standards.