games – Page 4 – Cubilone's Dimension

Another Blue Moon

Remember the last blue moon? Woo boy, wasn’t that a special period?

Well, this time the blue moon just happened to be in August. Everyone started going bananas over how that one was going to be this August’s large moon, nevermind all the talk over whether it would actually be blue or not.

Just to make things clear at this point: August full moons aren’t larger than the rest of the year’s full moons, contrary to the widely believed fact (no less by yours truly until fairly recently) — the proximity cycle doesn’t coincide with the luminosity/phase cycle. In fact, it was only this May that the full moon happened to be the same day as that month’s perigee. Anyway, I digress.

Museums and archaeological sites were open for the night, couples everywhere were enjoying their romantic night out, people were outside cherishing their last days of summer wondering what was so special about this moon in particular.

In another realm, a digital one, the Scythian discovered the five sylvan sprites, fought with the Bright Moon Trigon, jammed along with Jim Guthrie, all the while feeling a hand guiding her actions. A hand belonging to a person who hadn’t had a gaming experience so moving and intense in quite some time.

If you ask me years from now what I was doing on this day of the blue moon, I’ll probably remember the Scythian’s adventures in the world of Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP under the bright moon of ambiguous actuality.

I find that this experience speaks tons about how much and how quickly our digital and our physical lives have already blended… and beyond a shadow of doubt will continue to do so to spectacular, terrible, unimaginable levels.

Spoilers ahead:

Jamming with Jim Guthrie, the game’s composer:

Battling the unimaginable geometry of the Bright Moon Trigon:

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Μετά από 30 ώρες εκπολίτισης…

GIRP

The sequel to QWOP is

here!

Every day the same dream (indie 5-minute game)

We need way more games like this. Thanks Garret for linking me to this little tidbit.

Play it. If you don’t manage to see the ending, don’t worry — I didn’t and had no problem with having the impression that there was no ending. To be frank, I was even a little disappointed. You’ll see why.

And enjoy the music.

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Bροοοούύύύμ OH ΥΕΑΑΑΗ!

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Πάει αρκετός καιρός από το τελευταίο μου review. Πάρτε μια τζούρα.

Review: The Ethics of Computer Games

The Ethics of Computer Games by Miguel Sicart

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Excellent blend of philosophy (chiefly ethics) and a game design analysis. The main idea presented by Miguel Sicart is that gamers take their morality in the games they play, that players are moral subjects with certain cultural and individual backgrounds when they come in contact with a game and cannot be analysed individually without a player-activator. That is to say that as an object turned into an experience by a moral subject cannot exist on its own and thus should not be analysed as an experience players would enjoy passively (as is droned by politicians and the media concerning violent games). The best comparison he gives is that games provide a moral skin for players to wear over their normal subjectivities. This skin is the basis for all interaction with the game world, whatever the player’s role might be within it.

For Sicart, ethical games are games that allow a certain freedom of choice to the player but do not impose their own morality on them as Knights of the Old Republic or Fable would do, both examples of games he deems unethical exactly because the subject that creates the ethical meanings out of the game is not the player-subject herself.

I have never read a more up-to-date and complete reading on games and ethics together and I can say that I generally agree with the author, even with his bolder suggestions. I’m still not sure, though, what exactly makes Custer’s Revenge an example of poor design if it can, in the end, make the player-subject reflect on her actions nonetheless. But I’m prepared to cut him some slack. I mean, an in-depth analysis of BioShock and DEFCON, mentions of obscure little gems like Cursor*10 and Daigasso! Band Brothers?

Miguel Sicart is a philosopher gamer. We need to read more from other people with similar critical abilities and back-catalogue of game experiences. Until then, this book will remain the definitive literature on the subject.

View all my reviews