The best part about creating an avatar is that a player has free rein to become whatever or whoever she wishes. Want to become a blue-skinned troll or a pink-haired elf? Want a perfect body without setting foot in the gym? You’ve got it! Want to partake in a love story filled with knights and damsels in distress? Go for it! Limited only by her imagination, a player can create an entire persona that may or may not have anything […]
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Let’s Give Puppets a Big Hand
I’ve had puppets on my mind lately since they’re among the 12 toy finalists for the 2011 induction into the National Toy Hall of Fame. Puppets have always played an important role in public entertainment and private fun. And they have been around for ages, so long in fact that no one really knows where they originated. These miniature and moveable figures appeared in many ancient cultures in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Plato and Aristotle wrote of puppets, and […]
A Penny for Your Thoughts: The Golden Age of Postcards
Do you remember getting mail? Not email. Not bills. Not letters from credit card companies enthusiastically informing you that you’ve been “pre-approved!” Actual mail—a letter, a note, or a card. You know, when someone wrote you a message, adhered a stamp to it, and placed it in a mailbox, just to let you know they were thinking of you? Chances are you don’t receive this sort of mail nearly as often as you once did, likely due to the influx […]
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My Son’s Video Game Art and Level Design
Ashton, my five-year-old son, loves playing video games on his Nintendo Wii. His favorites include Disney Epic Mickey, Hot Wheels: Beat That!, and Wii Sports Resort; he plays the New Super Mario Bros. Wii the most. I’m also a huge fan of the game, and we often team up as Mario and Luigi in the game’s multiplayer mode to save Princess Peach from Bowser and company.
Like most children his age, Ashton enjoys diverse activities. He plays cars with his Hot […]
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Video Games for Halloween
Zombies, witches, vampires, monsters, and other blood curdling creatures invaded pop culture centuries ago. While I’m not big on gory thrills, I am a fan of other ghoulish delights. I fill each October calendar day with some Halloween activity. With video game titles like Little Red Riding Hood’s Zombie BBQ and A Vampyre Story, I have plenty of action to fill my free-time.
Count Dracula, a vampire, sorcerer, and Transylvanian nobleman, radiates confidence that even Napoleon would covet. In his 1897 […]
The Wheels on the Bus
Back to school can mean a lot of things. For some of us, the start of school remains inextricably linked to freshly-sharpened yellow Ticonderoga pencils and a new box of Crayola crayons. Even decades after my elementary school days, the aroma of a box of crayons transports me to preparations for returning to class as summer vacation winds down. I can almost recapture the semi-panicky feeling of wondering who my new teacher would be and whether I’d be able to […]
Steve Jobs, Breakout Pioneer
One of my favorite games in ICHEG’s collection is Atari’s 1976 arcade classic Breakout, an elegant, one-player elaboration of Pong. Players move a paddle side-to-side to keep a bouncing ball in play long enough to knock down multicolored layers of bricks. A tone sounds each time a ball strikes a brick. The ball speeds up with each successive layer of bricks, making it harder and harder to hit. Breakout is a seductive game, easy to learn, difficult to master.
Steve Jobs, […]
Are We There Yet?
I’ve spent a lot of time in the car this summer. And for much of that time, my six-year-old son has been my constant companion. When I was a kid, getting ready to travel involved books, crayons, paper, and a snack in a Ziploc bag. Today, we travel with a mobile electronics store. By the end of a trip, the backseat is littered with my iPod and headphones, a mobile video player with an assortment of SpongeBob and Scooby Doo […]
How Long Is a Good Video Game?
With so many video games to choose from, I often have trouble deciding how to get the most bang for my buck.
Sometimes I compare how much I spend on a game to the amount of time I expect to play it. I wonder if other gamers do the same? Games like Kingdom Hearts, Okami, and Dragon Age: Origins may easily take 50 to 60 hours just to beat the initial storyline, to say nothing of any side-quests on which a […]