Changing the Game
I’ve been thinking about game mods lately. For those not in the know, mods are user developed “add-ons” for video games that change the appearance or the features of a game. They’ve grown increasing popular in the last decade, and for some game like Minecraft, they’re pretty much standard for most players.
The thing I love about mods is they represent a brilliant opportunity in the evolution of gaming. They’re an example of the feedback loop in action. The old development cycle was this:
Developer has an idea -> build game -> tests -> release game -> moves on to next project.
But with the advent of online forums and social media, fans are much more vocal about what they want in a game, and while I’m the first to warn content creators about trying to please ALL of the people all of the time, the fans are not only speaking, they’re now creating.
If we think of mods as the individual’s way of responding to the work(the game), mods are essentially a way to add something that was not there, or missing. To that end, while not every mod needs to be embraced and cherished, really popular mods must represent something the players want or need.
Best Games of 2011
So Tomass rightly suggested that we run an article on our favorite games, video and otherwise. I like this suggestion a lot. Made me think long and hard about games and such, what I play and I what I don’t.
The Brand New Magic:The Gathering Correctness Expansion Set Part Two
Because the first one was so terribly popular. (I just played my Irony card +2/+2 to all snide remarks.) This time however we have included a few surprises…now you can add the members of The Correctness to your deck! Join us for the exclusive sneak preview that has Magic fans everywhere declaring “Who the fuck are the Correctness?”
The Kinect Conundrum
I hate to be the guy to bring this up, I really do, but there is an elephant in the room and it needs to be addressed.
So here goes.
An Open Letter to K1LLR478
Dear K1LLR478:
I’m writing you to express my distaste for how you handled our encounter in Call of Duty 4 this past Tuesday evening. Yes, I admit that you managed to sneak behind me and kill me with a single shot. However, I think it was both inappropriate and disrespectful to grind your avatar’s crotch on my corpse’s face, while calling me a name.
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Legend of Zelda Movie: Don’t Get Your Hopes Up.
(ED: Today’s article is brought to you by guest writer Victoria Banner – no relation.)
Legend of Zelda: The Movie.
So somewhere at one point in time someone said to me “A Legend of Zelda Movie would be awesome” I disagreed with this fact but was too busy not being sober to bring up why I whole heartedly disagreed with this fact.
Well I forgot who brought up the concept, but I remembered why a legend of Zelda movie would be Terrible.