Games

Consider video games, such as the Sly Cooper series, that require a single player to take on the role of multiple characters. What implications do games that force players to utilize different gaming styles and strategies have for encouraging teamwork and collaboration, especially in young players? How do in-game biases towards particular characters, such as Sly, who can do far more than Bentley or Murray, affect the way players think about leaders, followers, and capabilities? It might also be interesting to consider the benefits and detriments to having single players learn this alone, rather than in a multiplayer game that requires more than one real people to collaborate for success.

With the recent release of the acclaimed Civilization VI it would be interesting to look back at long lasting grand strategy series and the value it holds. Each iteration of the series has players building an empire starting at the beginning of human civilization and developing over thousands of years into the Space Age. This allows players to experience concepts such as culture building, technology development, military growth, and handling diplomacy as your empire changes over time. With this article I'd like to explore how the various games handles these concepts and how the choices in game allow the player to learn first hand about history and how our world developed and changed over time. It also would allow insight on how Civ VI handles these themes in particular.

The character creation and storytelling features of video games are often interesting and compelling, but each game — by the very nature of its design and coding — doesn't allow a player always to do exactly what she wants in the game. What is a player to do?

Following the poor sales of Nintendo's Wii U, how will the Nintendo Switch fare in the console gaming war, taking into consideration it is attempting to add portability to the console gaming world much like the Wii U? Will this be another nail in Nintendo's console coffin, or will it bring them back to the forefront of the console wars?

Throughout a growing number of games (one blaring example being Bioware's Mass Effect or Dragon Age series), players have the option to "romance" a character, through completion of side quests, dialogue, gifts, etc. What does this add to the game, if anything? Does it take anything away?

E-sports have been growing in popularity in recent years. Under branches like Major League Gaming (MLG), competitive video game tournaments fill entire arenas and are broadcast complete with play-by-play and color commentary. Its players compete for major prize money. Outlets like ESPN now dedicate reporting coverage to e-sports. Top video game players even have exercise routines and diets to ensure they remain at the top of their game. Many of them consider themselves to be just as much an athlete as any traditional professional athlete in sports such as baseball. However, well-known sports analysts regularly laugh in the face of this kind of thinking. Is competitive video gaming a sport? What qualifications must an activity meet to be considered a sport?

The Gatewatch is a more recent development in the story of the Magic the Gathering Trading Card Game. It is an agreement held between five Planeswalkers, Gideon Jura, Jace Beleren, Chandra Nalaar, Nissa Revane, and Liliana Vess to "Keep Watch" over the menaces of the Multiverse. The grouping up of Magic's "Heroes" seems to be following the trend of many comic book narratives (and adaptations). By its nature, a full story told through occasional shorts and a combination of card art and flavour text is an atypical narrrative, but it might bring something new or refreshing to the game. What is the Magic universe doing – if anything – to set the Gatewatch apart from other Super-Groups and does it have to?

In the first Bioshock game, a large number of characters have Jewish names (Dr. Steinman, Sander Cohen), are outright identified as Jewish (Andrew Ryan, Brigid Tenenbaum), or come from fields/careers with a strong Jewish population (Broadway, medicine). The creator of the Bioshock series, Ken Levine, is himself Jewish, and the game takes place only a few short years after World War 2. This causes me to wonder: for Levine, was this game, in part, an examination of post-WWII Jewish identity? Does it point out hardships or condemn/commend personal choices? The game's overarching theme, if nothing else, is that choices matter and are our ultimate freedom ("A man chooses, a slave obeys"). How is this theme connected with the strong Jewish characters throughout the game?