Dit artikel is ook te lezen op opiniesite ‘De Jaap’.
Afgelopen week verscheen een rapport, waarin gesteld werd dat ‘jongeren in de leeftijd van 13 tot 18 jaar lijden aan een serieuze vorm van ‘Social Media Stress’. Het onderzoek werd opgepikt door verschillende media, zoals het NOS Journaal en de dagbladen Trouw en Metro.
Okay, blogs about the tension between critics and fans have probably been done to death. In light of some recent events, mainly ‘Retake Mass Effect’ and the ‘Kinect Star Wars Intergalactic Dance-off’ (Yes, that’s a thing), I’m still going to get through with this nonetheless.
According to Xenophon, ‘Men create the gods in their own image’. According to Steven Poole, this might extend to man’s extra-terrestrial adversaries as well.
(…)Videogame aliens, it thus seems, should look either like giant Earth animals or like humans, bipedal and roughly anthropoid – because deep down, we like killing humans, and that is the operative constraint on xenomorphy. Aliens are just convenient stand-ins for people when we want to tickle an inviting sci-fi arsenal.(…)
There’s more to it, of course which you can read here (at the Edge Online). Great stuff.
Yesterday evening, or afternoon if you live in the US, Robert Bowling announced his resignation from Infinity Ward and Activision via Twitter. Bowling held the position of ‘creative strategist’, and for some time he was ‘the face of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’. Not a particularly thankful job…
I’ve received some angry comments about my previous post, I’ve answered to most of them but they already ‘crusaded’ on to other people who question the sense in the ‘Retake Mass Effect’ initiative. If I’m not mistaken, one of them has been exclusively Twittering about the Mass Effect ending for a solid week. That’s… dedication. Let’s just leave it at that.
While I have some reservations about ‘Retake Mass Effect’, I still have some problems with the ending of the game. Be warned: Very heavy spoilers ahead!*
I’ve been following the controversy* around Mass Effect 3 for the last couple of days. While I haven’t got around to play the game itself, I felt pretty much obliged to read about the game’s finale.
Apparently, brave, brave Commander Shepard jumps into a particle beam and disintegrates. Then - quite literally - everything explodes, if I’m not mistaken killing either everyone in the universe or almost everyone, effectively scaring off the alien ‘Reapers’ or killing them as well. But yay! If you made the right decisions, Commander Shepard still lives. Fate of the galaxy is not totally clear, brave new future, it’s a wrap. End of spoilers.
Artikel over Nederlandse indie-gamestudio Vlambeer, Het Parool - 3 maart, 2012
(Dutch) Article on indie game studio Vlambeer, Het Parool (Dutch Daily) - 3rd of March, 2012
Artikel over digitale kunsthandel Cook & Becker, Het Parool - 22 december 2011
(Dutch) Article on digital art dealers Cook & Becker, Het Parool (Dutch Daily) - 22nd of December, 2011
I’m not sure which one came first: the Edge column called Writing for the Everyday Player - might have missed that particular issue – or Dating Sims get Real on The Escapist. The first is an opinion article about game critics losing touch with a big part of their audience, i.e. ‘The Everyday Player’. The second one is an interview about the ‘lesbian dating sim text adventure’ called Encyclopedia Fuckme and the case of the vanishing entrée. Interesting article, but not something I would necessarily associate with the rank and file gamer.
Artikel over Sweatshop, Het Parool - 10 september 2011
(Dutch) Article on Sweatshop, Het Parool (Dutch daily) - 10th of September, 2011
