In my previous ‘Practical Necromancy’ post, I made the argument why we should toy with history, using the Netlogo agent based modeling environment. Let me tell you today what happened when I introduced the idea of simulating the past to my first year students. The phrase ‘digital history’ does indeedContinue Reading
One of the classic books in the field of computer gaming and learning is James Paul Gee’s What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. I often see the title abbreviated as What Video Games Have To Teach Us–an understandable shorthand, but one that allows, I think, forContinue Reading
The marketing industry has undergone unprecedented changes over the past decade, with digital transformation reshaping how brands interact with consumers. Technology’s influence is only expected to grow, paving the way for innovative approaches that will redefine traditional marketing strategies. As we anticipate the future of marketing, it’s essential to understandContinue Reading
In the MMO gaming community, and perhaps among all gamers, one can often hear a plaintive lament for the good old days. Each new offering in the genre makes things easier, dumbs down gameplay and caters to the casuals, if you believe the forum trolls. “I remember when death wasContinue Reading
All thought is mediated by tools. Right now I am writing this post on a computer, it has a 15 inch monitor, I’m using google docs, I’m writing text, that text is in the English language, I will copy and paste this into our instance of WordPress. The computer, theContinue Reading
The beginnings of practomimes, whether oral traditional epics or narrative video games, can, I think, tell us a great deal about some fascinating similarities and differences among how performers through the ages–bards, storytellers of all kinds, video gamers–expressed themselves artistically. Such comparisons seem to me to pay huge dividends notContinue Reading
I have a longstanding interest in the way videogames imagine a part of our cultural heritage that many of us might enjoy experiencing in a game or on a cinema screen, but which we’d presumably rather not know firsthand, and that is the role of prisons, asylums, and hospitals inContinue Reading
There is a story that circulates among wargamers about a German Kriegspiel being played out at a command post somewhere in France in 1944, when reports of an Allied attack along the lines of what was being simulated in the game began arriving at the headquarters. The general staff orderedContinue Reading
Our past isn’t the only one. Most of the virtual worlds that exist through video games have histories of their own. Some are long and detailed and only individuals truly dedicated to the lore can possibly know the entire history of their world today, be it Azeroth, Ferelden, or Norrath.Continue Reading
“The best place to view Los Angeles of the next millennium is from the ruins of its alternative future” thus Mike Davies begins his provocative history of L.A. When Davies interrogates Blade Runner and The Martian Chronicles he finds a considerable amount of material to critically interpret the city andContinue Reading