Games

Hyper Light Drifter's game experience is inspired by the developer's heart disease and his fear of meeting death at any moment. Death is constantly looming throughout the game as the protagonist continues to cough up blood. Players empathize with the fragile hero and the creator effectively shares his struggle

How effective is this channeling of personal fear in Hyper Light Drifter, and what other examples are in other games?

In The Legend of Zelda, the player character of Link can take a lot of damage. Being frozen solid, burning in fire or lava, surviving numerous types of melee weapons. The only armor he bears is a cloth tunic, with a chain-mail suit underneath and some pieces leather armor. If Link were in another game, how long would his green tunic last before he had to upgrade his armor?

Do all fun games necessarily have to be good ones? Likewise does a good game have to be enjoyable? I think there is a lot of oportunity for discourse on the nature of fun and enjoyment in the space of games. Games like Mount and Blade come to mind when I think of games that are objectively bad, like in no world would I rate the game anything higher than 5/10, but anyone who's played it will tell you that there is something undeniably fun.

Many games use various moral choice mechanics to allow players to role play and influence the story and outcomes of a game. Unfortunately in most games this usually boils down to the story having a "good" or "bad" ending as the player makes various red or blue choices (Mass Effect, Infamous, etc) and there is rarely any point in trying to do a mix of each as these games don't have option for playing the middle. (in some cases gameplay abilities and content will be behind 'you must be this good/evil to ride this ride' sorts of walls.)

My thoughts for an article would be in exploring ways that moral choice has been used effectively and innovatively as an aid to storytelling and not become secondary to gameplay mechanics. Games like Iji and Undertale (non obvious moral choice and consequences), Bioshock 2(which has a great example of a developed middlepath), Telltales Walking Dead (no right answer choices).

If you have any other ideas for games you think handle choice well leave them in the notes.

A classic mechanic in many games, namely shooters, is the weapon mechanic of a simple two-weapon slot system where the player has a primary and a secondary weapon. There is, however, a considerable amount of games that allow you to use a variety of weapons that are selected commonly using a weapons wheel or something of the sort. These guns, swords, wrenches and otherwise are found, bought, or looted (depending on the game) within the world, and more are found as the player progresses through the story.

Now, imagine that you are playing through a game such as DOOM or Fallout, and you gather weapon after weapon from story, enemies, and the occasional chest/treasure trove. You gather more and more to your arsenal, and you subconsciously feel yourself getting heavier (is it lag or…?). Eventually, a small but irritatingly itchy question comes up: How could having all of these weapons on me be physically possible?!

Of course, some games balance the system out and even add logic to this philosophical dilemma, such as Borderlands's backpack storage and Fallout's weight system, and because we are talking about the dimension of videogame physics, reasoning can be thrown out the window. This does not, however, mean that there is anything wrong with the system. Gamers everywhere can tell you that they enjoy walking around looking innocent while having a rocket launcher in their pocket (along with an assault rifle, carbine, grappling hook, sniper rifle, smg, samurai blade, mini-gun, baseball bat, bloodscythe, broken whiskey bottle, and a small tactical warhead slingshot). This is just how gamers work.

What do you think about having an infinite (or finite) number of weapons at your disposal? How does this affect the way a game plays and how you play it?

There you are in the front row at a concert for your favorite band. The guitars pierce the air. The drums pound through your chest. You can almost touch the lead singers guitar. And then your door bell rings, shaking you out of the intimate show. Virtual Reality is quite possibly on the verge of becoming the new video game phenomenon. The possibilities with VR are endless. One of the topics being discussed are concert experiences held in VR. There is sure to be many who watch a concert on their VR in the comfort of their own house. But to many, that isn't a concert experience. Will this trend take off with music fans? Will artists agree to stream live shows on a VR?

From legendary classics like Final Fantasy and DragonQuest, to fresh new experiences like Undertale and Indivisible, these worlds are all unique in their own ways, but are all bound by a common trait in their blood; they are all RPG's. This style of gameplay has been around for a long time and is still going on and seeing numerous titles with this kind of gameplay in mind. But what makes these types of games so fascinating an immensely popular? What do you find so intriguing about RPG's and do you have a favorite and if so, why? But to go even beyond, why do RPG's seem to have the most diverse and complex stories, and what about them draws you in?

Discuss the friction between players of Pokemon Go and organizations that ostensibly work to preserve public spaces within cities. How did the two groups mitigate these frictions?