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Recently, I asked the question: “Why do some games, like Grand Theft Auto, Halo, Max Payne and others become such winners in the marketplace?”  Ever since then I have been trying to unlock the secret to developing and selling winning games.  So, the question for today should be pretty obvious.  What makes gamers line up …

Video games are about imagination. They’re about going to places you might not otherwise go and doing things you might not otherwise do; they’re about meeting people and entities you might not otherwise meet and having experiences you might not otherwise have. The medium allows us, essentially, to take a life for a test drive. And the more advanced the technology gets, the less hard imagination work is required to “be” there. I don’t know whether this is good or bad, it’s just the way things are. But one thing’s remained the same since day one: there is always you, on the other end of the mouse or controller, always you separated from the other world by a screen. Video games can be about anything, but they always have you in common.

While I have never been what one might call an “intense” gamer, I have for years been a student of visual and printed forms of media. I have particularly followed the on-going argument related to computer gaming as art. I do this largely because it amuses me to find politicians who can barely spell “computer,” …

The Local and GamePolitics report that Germany has banned paintball and laser tag in response to the recent school shooting in Winnenden that left 15 dead, including the shooter. Germany has a long and storied tradition of opposition to violent entertainment, the result of massive and not entirely misplaced sensitivity over the perception that any …

It is my belief that the term “computer game” is a misnomer. I have no trouble accepting the word computer, since indeed, we experience them on a computer. It is the word “game” that I have problems with. Surely most gamers are sophisticated enough to accept the fact that we have progressed to the point …

Kotaku weekend editor Owen Good has a terrific and thought-provoking article worthy of discussion: he’s currently acting as a live-in caregiver for his 86-year old grandfather, a WWII vet and Harvard MBA who’s been asking him recently about video games in general. Owen asks the Kotaku crowd how best to introduce a man who’s never …

Numbers aren’t happy for Platinum Games’ latest Madworld, the artistically gory black-and-white-and-red-all-over chainsaw brawler for the Wii. NPD reports that U.S. sales for the title hit a pathetic 66,000 for the month of March, and this in a period when we’re not seeing a lot of console blockbusters jockeying for attention. It’s a pity, but …

Sometimes the deepest ideas come from the shallowest places.

Fear is our most primal,‭ ‬basic instincts; encouraging us to flee the unfamiliar or dangerous.‭ ‬In entertainment we call it horror. Fear is an emotion‭; ‬horror is a genre, with clichés,‭ ‬conventions,‭ ‬and innovations.‭

I’ve been meaning to talk about this for a while, but it took some time for me to get my thoughts in order. For those of you who don’t know, an indepedent merchant on Amazon Marketplace recently offered for sale a Japanese game called RapeLay. Reported first by GamePolitics, Amazon quickly pulled the game and …