Minecraft Is Not About Colonialism May 21, 2026 Featured image: original (dumb) Minecraft villager. As I take it, Dan Olsen’s overarching argument is that “emergent systems can sometimes reproduce the values of…
Agency and Agents in Papers Please May 15, 2026 How much agency do we have under a system? How do the choices we make (as individual actors) impact a larger system? How do…
Sociologist’s Take on a Short Hike May 7, 2026 First — as a side note, not really relevant itself to the blog post about A SHORT HIKE — I have some deep qualms…
Video Games Can Just Be Great Video Games, ft. Bastion May 1, 2026 According to Liam Mitchell, Bastion is not just a video game. It’s a text “advanc[ing] an argument about the nature of contemporary society and…
Bokura Planet is Not Really About Trust or Bats? April 24, 2026 Ah, a deep co-op video game about being controlled by a parasite! Obviously, this video game would talk about trust, and the phenomenology of…
Maybe We Should Be Evil: Slay the Princess April 17, 2026 I used to think that however horrible the content in novels, it wasn’t really possible for a book to be evil, per se: its contents…
Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, etc. etc. in a World with No Author April 10, 2026 (Note: I bought The Beginner’s Guide, but then it said my computer can’t run 32-bit games… really tragic stuff. So I played the 20-minute…
Final Class Reflection June 9, 2024 I really, really enjoyed this class. I have always been interested in games – I played a lot of games like Stardew Valley or…
Critical Play: Stardew Valley and Feminism May 28, 2024 I played Stardew Valley, developed by Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone. The game is available on almost all available platforms, and I played it specifically on…
Critical Play: Mysteries May 15, 2024 Monument Valley is a puzzle game developed by Ustwo Games, available on Android, iOS, and Windows. The target audience of the game is anybody…
Checkpoint 1: A New Job May 6, 2024 The emotions I want this game to evoke: haunted, strange (trippy?), suspense. This is the Spotify playlist. I wanted the game to feel distinctly…
Critical Play: Gone Home and Narrative Architecture May 5, 2024 Gone Home is a mystery “walking sim” developed by The Fulbright Company, available on PC, Playstation, Xbox, Switch, and iOS. With a storyline involving…
Critical Play: Journey, a Walking Simulator April 30, 2024 Journey is a “walking simulator” developed by Thatgamecompany, available on Playstation, Windows, and iOS. Its target audience is (I believe) “non-gamers,” who are looking…
Critical Play: Judging in Skribbl.io April 24, 2024 Skribbl.io is an online multiplayer drawing and guessing game, similar to Pictionary but with strangers (or friends!) on the Internet. It is published by…