Interview – Porpentine

On Pink Zone, Angels, & Justice

FPS

Porpentine is indisputably one of the most important and challenging game designers and writers of recent memory. Her 2012 game, Howling Dogs, won the 2012 XYZZY awards for “best story” and “best writing” and her 2013 game their angelical understanding won a XYZZY award in 2013 for “best writing.” (And this barely scratches the surface of her extensive and varied body of work.) Part of what makes Porpentine’s work so important is her ability to communicate emotion within narrative and ludic structures in ways that respect the player’s emotional intelligence. Continue Reading →

An Uneven Partnership

Representations of Gender in The Last of Us

Lindsey Joyce 13 Comments

It’s no secret that digital games have a problem with gender representations. Research shows that women are vastly underrepresented in the medium and not simply as playable characters (Miller and Summers 735). Research also shows that when women do exist in games they are resigned to specific tropes and stereotypes that limit character development and which “[underscore] their secondary and exiguous status” (Behm-Morawitz and Mastro 809). While there is ample evidence of both the underrepresentation of and stereotyping of females, there has been less success explaining why such representative practices are damaging or why the game industry should address these problems. Continue Reading →

Interview – Merritt Kopas

Part II: Consensual Torture Simulator & Erotic Games

FPS 1 Comment
Interview - Kopas

Merritt Kopas is a multimedia artist and game-designer. Her work includes LIM, HUGPUNX and Consensual Torture Simulator. She also curates free, accessible games at her online project forest ambassador. FPS Essays co-editor Meghan Blythe Adams spoke to her during a break at the 2014 Feminist Porn Conference, at which Kopas was a presenter. Here is Part II of that interview. Continue Reading →

Interview – Merritt Kopas

Part I: Feminist Porn, Games, & Capital

acoadmin
Interview - Kopas

Merritt Kopas is a multimedia artist and game-designer. Her work includes LIM, HUGPUNX and Consensual Torture Simulator. She also curates free, accessible games at her online project forest ambassador. FPS Essays co-editor Meghan Blythe Adams spoke to her during a break at the 2014 Feminist Porn Conference, at which Kopas was a presenter. Continue Reading →

Game Studies

From Colonization to Columbian Exchange

Dominic Arsenault

As a film studies professor holding both an M.A. and Ph.D. in film studies, I spend my days telling people around me that games are not only “not a form of cinema”, but also that cinema is not a viable lens to discuss the visual nature of video games. This is rather strange, considering the department where I work is neatly divided into two relatively independent sections: art history on one side, and film studies on the other. Game studies have been, thanks to my colleague and former mentor Bernard Perron, present at the Department for over ten years now, but resolutely as part of the film studies section. With my colleague Carl Therrien, we now have 3 professors specialized in game studies, around 20 students doing M.A. and Ph.D. work on video games, an undergraduate Minor degree in game studies averaging 50 students a year, an official M.A. option in video game studies, and a game lab dedicated to historical preservation with more than 60 consoles and 2000 games. This suggests that it may only be a matter of time before our dual-headed department turns into a three-headed Gleeok. Continue Reading →

A Working Theory of Game Design

Mechanics, Technology, Dynamics, Aesthetics & Narratives

Dr. Paul Ralph & Dr. Kafui Monu 6 Comments

When considering how to teach fundamental principles of game design, we find ourselves torn between two well-cited frameworks: the Mechanics-Dynamics-Aesthetics Framework (MDA) and the Elemental Tetrad. We want to teach both, because each has its merits, but teaching two separate frameworks is unnecessarily confusing. This essay therefore develops an initial proposal for a working theory of game design by integrating these two existing frameworks. Continue Reading →