The Right to Remain Gaming

Supergiant Games have developed three titles since the company's inception: Bastion (2011), Transistor (2014), and Pyre (2017). All three games stand as a testament to video games as interactive art. Playing one of Supergiant Games' games feels like you are playing with an interactive hand drawn picture. If you were to stop at some random point while playing and take a screenshot, it would look like a piece of art. For example, the picture seen above is a screenshot I took during my playthrough. But it's not just the visuals that make the games unique and beautiful, the various musical scores in the titles are varied, powerful, and pair very well with the environments and/or situations that you find yourself in. These games also just ooze atmosphere; the worlds feel real and the writing makes the characters come to life. One quick example of a moment I really enjoyed was in Transistor. There are voting booths set up throughout the far future fanta...

The Law- Video games do have the same First Amendment protection as all of the other forms of media and communication, books, movies, ect. It may surprise you to know that video games were not given this explicit protection by the Supreme Court until July of 2011, although various lower courts had given video games full protection under the First Amendment. On July 27, 2011 the Supreme Court of the United State issued its written opinion on Brown v. Entertainment Management, explicitly giving video games the same protection as traditional media under the First Amendment. Brown v. Entm't Merchs. Ass'n , 564 U.S. 786  (2011). The Court held in a 7-2 decision, written by the late Justice Scalia, that Video games qualify for First Amendment protection. The Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment  exists primarily to protect discourse on public matters, but the Supreme Court has long recognized that it is difficult and foolish to try and distinguish po...

Whether you are purchasing a video game system for yourself, a significant other, or a family member (or anybody else) its a big decision. There are four main flavors to chose from, Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox, and PC. But within those choices there are a multitude of options. PS4 pro/PS4 slim PS Vita, Xbox One X, Xbox One S, Xbone original flavor.  Nintendo has like 8 different versions of it handheld and there are a near infinite amount of ways you can put a PC together. My goal will be to break down the options give prices and pro/cons to  guide anyone in their purchasing. I will be speaking on all of the options, but to be clear the systems in the current generation that I own are: A PC I built back in 2013 that has some piecemeal upgrades I've thrown in throughout the years, A Nintendo Switch, A PS4 Slim, and a Nintendo 2DS. I will be breaking down all of the options, but I will be supplementing the sections on systems I do not o...

One of the most common criticisms that I have when playing games, and that I have heard from others, is centered on feelings of frustration when it is unclear how to proceed. There's nothing worse than that feeling of "ok I finished that what now?" Frequently this is because the player is unable to identify or locate the elements needed to proceed. You clear out a room reach a door, and its locked. Ok you think what's the puzzle? What do I need to do? No puzzle nor challenge left in this room. The room is empty and it's time for you to start backtracking to figure out what you missed. Oh what fun. Overcoming a difficult challenging is the most rewarding aspect of playing video games. However, when the challenging is simply finding the different elements of a puzzle I often find challenge is either unrewarding in success or frustrating and arbitrary in failure. Having your progress stopped because there was a hidden switch in some random corner, that you miss...

I think the ultimate goal in world/level design is to have the player be constantly aware of the environment and pushed them to actively interact with the world around them to succeed. By world/level I mean the locations takes the game takes place in, whether that's a large open world or a more linear setting. By the design I am referring to how game developers craft these locations for the players to interact with. I have been suffering from open world fatigue the past few years. It isn't enough to have a large and pretty open world to explore if the world itself is simplistic.  Many open world games, particularly ubisoft titles, give you a large and lovely open world, but have you do the same tasks on repeat in all of the locations. (take over strongholds, kill a target, collect junk). So even though you can explore the world at your own pace and often in a somewhat free manner this choice in direction means very little. Often there is a list of tasks a...

Games having a branching narrative paths is commonplace in modern gaming. Often marketing for a game will speak of player choice in terms narrative progression. Although to varying degrees, I have found that many games I have played claim to offer player choice, but in reality only offer the illusion of choice. Or alternatively the choices that they are presenting are meaningless. The greatest strength of video games as both an art form and a medium of entertainment is its interactivity with the players. When used properly it can create a compelling, complicated story that can actively change as you interact with it. Making decisions that affects who lives and who dies, or who falls in love real time while organically interacting with a game is something that is unobtainable through other traditional mediums. Choice in narrative is a double edged sword, it can elevate a story to the next level or create a dull black and white system of choices that robs a title of organic...

There is a lot of killing in video games. Often its something that you don't even notice or think about, or at least I rarely do. Over the course of a typical first person shooter or third person action game you, through the avatar you are controlling, will likely kill hundreds of virtual people. The absurdity of how casual the extraordinary violence is not something I ever took note of until I played the Tomb Raider 2016. In this rebooted title you play Lara Croft on her first true adventure and a large part of the narrative of the game is Lara going from an ordinary young woman to the titular Tomb Raider. Through the first few hours of the game you are exploring and hunting as well as fleeing the strange cult/paramilitary people on the island. You do not kill anyone. Then in a very powerful and dramatic scene Lara with you controlling her makes her first kill. She is visible ill and shaken by the ramifications and implications of taking another persons life. This w...