Popular Culture

Games are a global medium, and to theorists such as Lisa Nakamura at the Games, Learning, and Society Conference 2009, one cannot separate the construction of digital games into particular cultures and practices. Having one national "essense" or sensibility is entirely fictional, Nakamura notes, because...

In his 2009 speech at Dartmouth, Jesper Juul argued that the list of games people choose to play is itself a form of self-expression. His “video game literacy” really does exist. People read, experience and cite games like they do printed text. Yet we don’t consider gamers to be 'well-read' just quite yet. gAMELIBRARY Why we don’t spend more time playing games? Why is experiencing games viewed as less beneficial than spending the same amount of time reading a book? For many reasons. I think that the graphic nature of virtual games, games that hand visualizations directly to the reader, make “reading” a bit easier; players don’t have to imagine anything, and rarely have time to apply what they are visualizing to their real lives. The frantic pace of most digital play leaves little room or time for reflection.

More from therawfeed.com: “US Marines have shared their personal videos, photos and diaries with the Japanese game giant Konami to help that company make its Six Days In Fallujah game more realistic. But some Iraq War veterans in the UK oppose the game, saying it's "crass"...

Originally posted on: Grand Text Auto by Dr. Mary Flanagan Perhaps you have heard reports of the new study funded by Pew and MacArthur on video games. The survey, Teens, Video Games and Civics, was conducted with 1102 young people aged 12-17. Some are saying the results...

PhotobucketThe new iPhone 3G has been announced, and an opinion piece on Gamasutra ponders the possibilities of the iPhone as a viable platform for gaming.
gmc.jpg via: Grassroots Media Coalition The Mainstream Media is a propaganda mind control operation owned by an elite cartel for the benefit of the global oligarchy. I wish that were hyperbole, but it isn’t. Luckily, alternative media, independent media, is going strong and growing every year. The annual Grassroots Media Conference is a chance for media activists to come together, compare notes, and stratagize. It’s always worth attending. This year, Tiltfactor Lab will be facilitating a game design workshop to help participants better understand how to analyze existing games and consciously embed values in their own games.
I found this on Kotaku, and the concept seemed very interesting to me. Basically, it's a vest and helmet that allow video game players to feel all the shocks and bumps within the game. Are game players really in the mood for a little more action in their first-person shooters?
The Nintendo Wii has been out for some months now, so you may have heard about the phenomenon of the Wii and the elderly. Yes, the elderly and the Wii. If you need a refresher, take a look at this article.
Generally, first-person shooter games are considered “masculine.” The weapon of choice is an obvious stand-in for the phallus, and the game usually puts the hero in a “search, kill, conquer” situation. But the game Portal, which was released on PlayStation 3 this past week, seems to be made of something different.